When was the first time....

"Cause it's the real shit, shit to make em feel shit (hip-hop[echoes])
Lump em in the club shit, have you wildin out when you bump this
Drugs to your eardrum, the raw uncut
Have a nigga OD cause it's never enough" Mobb Deep-Quiet Storm featuring Lil Kim 1999 Murda Muzik

If you ever saw the movie Brown Sugar with Sanaa Lathan and Taye Diggs you are really familiar with this line, "When did you first fall in love with hip hop?" I have always been in love with hip hop, the culture, the essence, and the history. Sugar Hill Gang to MC Lyte, to P.E. on down to todays heavy hitters Jay Z, T.I. and Young Jeezy. But lookin back over my love affair there were 2 segments that defined and redefined the genre (musically, style wise, and otherwise). Ladies and Gentlemen, the Great Debate, which year was the best in hip hop? Your choices are 1994 and 2004. I know there are different years and there is a valid argument for any of them, but this is my blog and I wrote the rules...Rule number 1: Its my opinion and yours only matters in the replies and rule number 2: Its my opinion and yours only matters in the replies...ala Fight Club. So here it is...

My top 10 albums of 1994 (that was the year that I moved to Atlanta also so this list was my soundtrack for the year): in no particular order
Nas - Illmatic
Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
Common - Ressurection
Tical - Method Man
Southernplayerlisticadillacmusic - Outkast
The Diary - Scarface
The Main Ingrediant - Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth
Hard to Earn - Gangstarr
The Most Beautifullest Thing in the World - Keith Murray
Blunted on Reality - The Fugees

These albums would get you open on the highway, in the house, in the club...this was when cats put out albums that were all substance and very little filler. The beats were on point especially when you had bangers produced by the likes of DJ Premire, Pete Rock, N.O. Joe, The RZA, No iD, DJ Clark Kent, and upstart producers Organized Noize. Songs like New York State of Mind, Juicy, Youre All I Need, T.R.O.Y. and I Used to Love H.E.R., raised the lyrical bar where cats had to get on their game, not just to get on, but if they were already on, to stay on.

Biggie was absolutely the crown jewel of hip hop in 94 with lines like, "I let my tape rock, til my tape pop" made you think, not only was this Brooklyn Kid a rapper, but a real person cause you know you did the same thing... Hooks like "Fuck the world, dont ask me for shit" from the Ready to Die cd featured Method Man and was a very slept on track, but the hook was very noticable.

1994 also was a year where regional diversity became prominent. Not everyone was rockin the "New York" image, especially Outkast. They were some down south brothers that were comfortable with anything from a Braves jersey and a ball cap to flip flops and socks. They brought back that old school back and forth like how Run DMC used to do, but had that flow that made you wanna run to the Big Chicken out on Windy Hill and sit in the drive thru waitin on a 3 piece with coleslaw and a sweet tea. Good times!

Movin' forward 2004 changed the landscape, style, and the footprint of hip hop, and a shift in power. This was a part of the G-Unit era, where 50 Cent was building an army that was not to be fucked with...and the round set to be fired out the chamber in 2004 was Cashville's own Young Buck. Now who would have thought of Tennessee being a hot bed for hip hop, when for decades they were known as the Country Music capital of the world.

Here are 2004's list of head nodders:
T.I. - Urban Legend
Nas - Street's Disciple
Talib Kweli - The Beautiful Struggle
Kanye West - College Dropout
Mobb Deep - Amerikaz Nightmare
8 Ball and MJG - Livin' Legends
Mos Def - The New Danger
Ludacris - Red Light District
The Roots - The Tipping Point
Youngbuck - Straight Outta Cashville

In 2004 there was a real struggle to win over audience to just one core following when there was even more diversity in the music. You had backpackers real into Mos, Talib, The Roots, you had those "Original" heads that were noddin to Nas, Mobb Deep, Jay Z, and them Down South Hustlers were really on 8Ball and MJG, The Cash Money family, and T.I. Yet there was a star on the horizon that was about to hit Supernova status... The College Dropout himself Mr. Kanye West who gained notority as a producers of some really big hits, H.O.V.A. by Jay Z which was the springboard to his success. The native Chicagoan did his own beats, wrote his own lyrics, and stroked his own ego. Along with his brilliance on wax, his outburst of arrogance and his total disgust with critics that praised his music but wouldnt recognize him as the top dog and contraversy behind his single "Jesus Walks" and a Rolling Stone cover that depicted him as Jesus' cruxifiction (crown of thornes and all)

With all the blaze and glory of Rebellious Abandonment the South rose again,via the A.T.L.. behind former radio on-air personality Ludacris, the self proclaimed King of the South T.I., and the re-emergance of Outkast that dropped a double yet solo cd Speakerboxx / The Love Below in 2003 (we gonna give em a lil slack though). The sound transitioned from the normal 808 drops and varying beat patterns to actual musicality.

Nas was still relevant to hip hop with the release of the double cd Street's Disciple. The Queensbridge rapper did a couple of songs with his father, Jazz musician Olu Dara (Bridging the Gap), and his future wife Kelis (American Way), my personal favorite on this cd was Coon's Picnic (These are our Heroes) where he decides to rip into African American "icons" and point out their irresponsibilities from O.J. Simpson, Kobe Bryant, and Tiger Woods. I loved it... Many pugnents were disappointed say that Nas was far too smart to be talkin about African Americans like that, but that like this blog is a matter of opinion.

Either way it goes, I just keep fallin in love with hip hop, over and over

Posted from the mind of an Insomniaq rockin to the beat