The Best/Worst Year for Hip Hop

[Guest Still Fly]

The Best: 1994

Many people would say that 1988 was the best year but since i barely remember 1988 I'll go with 1994. Why? Well I think that in 1994 that both the East Coast Style and West Coast Style were equal. On the West Coast we had Snoop Doggy Dogg with Doggystyle and Warren G with Regulate. Hell, the whole Death Row camp was at its peak. 1994 also the comeback of the East Coast. NAS came out with Illmatic, the Wu-Tang Clan, Biggy Smalls came out with Ready to Die just to name a few. To me the music in 1994 was real, hard nad not full of the fluffy crap that plagues rap music today.

 

The worst-1997/2002

These to me were the worst years in rap music. 1997 was bad because of the deaths 2Pac and Biggy Smalls and rap kinda lost direction in the fallout of the East/West fued. There was some good music but most of it was forgettable.

2002 was pretty bad in the beginning but picked up steam with 50 Cent NAS and Jay-Z (ugh). The Neptunes were pretty hot last year but they really need to limit themselves and need to stop producing for everybody under the sun. The year was really dominated by Eminem and his new accpetance in white america. But again you have acts like Smilez and Southstar and other crap which make year bad. To me 2002 was the year of pop rap.

 

what do you think?

[Guest ant_7000]

The Best years for me: 1988 thru 1990 and 1994

 

In the late 80's rap was getting away from battling and pop friendly that mainstream didn't know how to market it, and turned into rap with reality messages Groups like NWA, Public Enemy, and Geto Boys subject matter were about social awareness in the Urban areas. In 1994, it was like every new or 2nd/3rd year rapper was hot. Around this time Jay-Z, Nas,Outkast, Biggie, Snoop, Bone Thugs, Wu Tang Clan, 2Pac was just starting getting more exposure, but they all came out at basically at the same time. I just about have every album from the 1994 era.

 

Worst years: 1997 and 2001/early 2002

 

In 1997, was a hard year for me was that stupid and so called "East Coast Vs West Coast" beef when Pac and Biggie was going at it, but really it was just 2pac was dissing Big, but Big didn't really diss 2Pac out right. The media was buying that shit up and Death row was just milking it for what it was worth, especially when the Dogg Pound did "New York, New York" song/video. But after Big and Pac died it was like rap lost its direction. In 2001, it was like pop rap started revive itself from the mid/late 80's and early 90's but back then it had more substance than it does now. The Neptunes/N.E.R.D is all over place with their production and beats from rappers to pop stars and now they want to work with country music stars.

 

Some Rappers usually untalented ones are just str8 biting other rappers style and lyrics just hurting the game. Everyone have to go "pop" or "Radio Friendly" to just get exposure and money. Early 2002, was Garbage with Nelly, Smiles and Southstar, Ja Rule, and Fat Joe albums were Garbage, at the end of the year it started really picking up in IMO.

[Guest NoCalMike]

The only really quality rap/hip hop to come out in the post-gangsta era is on the underground/college circuit.

[Guest converge241]

I cant really gauge a worst but i can easily agree with 1994

 

That was the golden age of rap

[Guest Espalda]

Personally, I find it hard to pick one particular year as the absolute best for hip-hop, but there are clearly two great eras for the genre.

 

1987-1989:

It's called the golden age for a reason. Just look at the list of classics that dropped in such a short span of time: "Paid In Full," "Criminal Minded," "Critical Beatdown," "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back," "Follow The Leader," "By All Means Necessary," "The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick," "Long Live The Kane," "Lyte As A Rock," "Strictly Business," "In Full Gear," "Straight Out The Jungle," "Three Feet High And Rising," "Paul's Boutique," "No One Can Do It Better," "Straight Outta Compton," "Road To Riches," and "Done By The Forces Of Nature."

 

You had monster collectives like the Native Tongues and The Juice Crew; the consciousness and political activism of Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy; the live instrumentation of Stetsasonic; the storytelling of Slick Rick; the boundary-pushing of the Beastie Boys, De La Soul, the Ultramagnetic MCs; the emergence of the Left Coast with N.W.A., Ice-T, and The D.O.C.; powerful female emcees like MC Lyte and Queen Latifah; great feuds on wax; great production from Eric B., Dr. Dre, Prince Paul, the Dust Brothers, Marley Marl, and the Bomb Squad; and the introduction of the most innovative flow in the history of the genre with the release of "Paid In Full." To this day, no one has had a larger impact on style than Rakim.

 

1992-1994:

The great rebirth of innovative East Coast hip-hop. While Still Fly seems to indicate that the East and the West were equal in stature by 1994, he couldn't be farther from the truth. While this era did produce great records from groups like Tha Alkaholiks, The Pharcyde, the Freestyle Fellowship, and the Souls of Mischief, as well as, great solo releases from Dr. Dre and Del The Funky Homosapien, the West Coast was largely a creative cesspool. While the West may have had some better records sales during this time period, the lyrical component was severely lacking. The gansta mentality was appealing to a lot of new suburban fans who had their first taste of hip-hop with the rebellious Death Row Inmates, but albums like "Doggystyle" and "Regulate" were not considered classics by critics at the time nor should they be looked upon that way now. The Death Row style is what ultimately led to the current sad state of hip-hop.

 

On the positive side, the early 90's era saw the release of true classics like: "Mecca And The Soul Brother," "Runaway Slave," "Stunts, Blunts, & Hip-Hop," "Daily Operation," "Business Never Personal," "Whut? Thee Album," "Midnight Marauders," "Enta Da Stage," "The Four Horsemen," "Return Of The Boom-Bap," "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)," "The Main Ingredient," "Illmatic," "Ready To Die," "Hard To Earn," "The Sun Rises In The East," "Resurrection," "Word...Life," "Stress: The Extinction Agenda," and "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik."

 

You had the debut full-length releases from the three most hyped emcees in history when Biggie, Jeru, and Nas dropped their records in 1994; the expansion of the national hip-hop territory into the South with OutKast and into the Midwest with Common Sense; great crews like Diggin' In The Crates, the Hit Squad, the Boot Camp Clik, and the Wu-Tang Clan; the powerful comebacks of Rakim and KRS-One; and great production from Dr. Dre, Pete Rock, Diamond D., DJ Premier, the RZA, Large Professor, the Beatnuts, Erick Sermon, and the Beatminerz to name a few. In the 90's Renaissance it was very easy to learn about hot acts if you lived outside of New York because late-night mix shows, magazines like The Source, and video shows like BET's "Rap City" actually supported cutting-edge artists like Black Moon and Organized Konfusion.

 

As far as the worst time period, we may be living in it currently. Very little is happening on the creative front, the beats and lyrics have become very repetitive, and outlets like The Source and "Rap City" now showcase record sales over talent. Indie labels like Def Jux consistently release quality albums from underground artists that get little exposure outside of college campuses. The only bright spot in my mind has been Nasir Jones' return to making quality music. Nas was the pinnacle of the second golden age and I'm glad to see him return to form after three disappointing albums.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Worst year -- '96 (?) when 2Pac and Biggie got killed.

 

Gotta go with Esp's '87-89 era as being the best -- damn, I have 99% of those albums you mentioned. (Although I have always liked Fear of a Black Planet more than Nation of Millions.)

 

BTW: Esp's, you mentioned EPMD. I'm wondering, who do you think had the better solo material right after their break up? Back when it happened I liked Sermon's two albums better, but now I tend to listen to Smith's work more nowadays, especially his first solo effort...

[Guest Espalda]

"Fear Of A Black Planet" was indeed a great record. It dropped in 1990, so I didn't list it among the highlights from '87-'89.

 

As for EPMD, I think Smith was by far the better lyricist in the group. I really liked his solo debut, but, unfortunately, it never really caught on with the masses. There really wasn't a single to drive the record. "I Saw It Cummin'" and "Swing Your Own Thing" never really had hit potential.

 

I think Sermon got more airplay because the production style was very similar to EPMD's (and very similar to the funky West Coast style that was popular at the time) and Sermon took the most popular Hit Squad member, Redman, with him following the break-up. Plus, he had the first single out of gate with "Hittin' Switches" off of the "Who's The Man?" soundtrack. And he just continues to build upon that formula by releasing "Stay Real" and "Safe Sex."

 

Smith, on the other hand, had Das EFX in his camp, but by the time "Shade Business" was released the diggity-diggity style was definitely played out. Groups like the Lords Of The Underground and Trends Of Culture had pretty much beaten that dead horse into the ground. Without a great single or a popular crew backing him, Smith was almost destined to fail.

 

Anyhow, at the time, I preferred Sermon slightly, but, like you, I think Smith's release has stood the test of time much better. Sermon's lispy flow was always distinctive, but his lyrics and beats are very repetitive. It really shows if you listen to "No Pressure" from start to finish.

 

Personally, I think each emcee needed the other to balance out their own weaknesses. In my opinion that's why Sermon relied so heavily on Redman and Keith Murray in his post-EPMD days.

[Guest godthedog]

my close friend who knows a fuckton about rap says 94 was the best year, so i'll go with that out of ignorance.

 

i personally think 94 was the peak year for rock music also. and it had some great movies. 1994 was the high water mark for pop culture. this needs to be studied more.

[Guest Banky]

Right now we are on the brink of some very eclectic, new, and revolutionary hip hop. We have people like the Roots, Common, Blackalicious, and others who are putting out some real wild stuff. While its not enough to consider now the golden years, it isn't the worst stuff. Definitly the past few years has been the home to worst of mainstream hip hop. Snoop has fallen off bigtime, Dre has turned into Em's lapdog, Jay Z is busting out hip hop ballads with his lady, and Ja Rule has ripped off the late great 2Pac and turned to musical compositions with Ashanti. Always underneath all the corporate music company bullshit, there are diamonds in the rough. 1994 transcended all bullshit, and put the best in hip hop for everyone to see. Now, we have to work much harder to find it - but its still around.