30 years ago

[Tactical Genius]

Inspired by the comments of Lang Spoon,

Was probably the greatest year of Rap in history.

Public Enemy released their second album, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back"
BDP released their Second Albumn
Big Daddy Kane released his first album
Eric B and Rakim released follow the leader.

I know Jason Voorhees has my back.

[hobbes]

Run DMC Tougher than Leather and the first Jungle Brothers album too.

[jwdd27]

Straight Outta Compton also.

[Benjm]

Mantronix were going slightly off the boil with In Full Effect.

[blameless]

Big Daddy Kane released his first album

Preach. Ain't No Half Steppin' especially is absolute fucking genius, although I've always had a soft spot for Set It Off too.

[Tactical Genius]

Straight Outta Compton also.

As much as I liked the album, that was the beginning of the end of conscience RAP as the other man got his hooks into the Genre and unless you were singing about bitches and Ho's, doing ratchet shit and engaging in conspicuous consumption you were not getting the push.

First they tried to foist mediocre White rappers like Marky Mark and Vanilla Ice. Eminem didn't really play ball as he had too much love and respect for the Genre so fast forward to today and the biggest names are a bunch of effeminate Mexicans who throw around the N-Word with abandon, wear multicoloured hair and are covered head to toe in tattoos whilst chatting shit on the mic.
Like Blues and Rock and roll before it, the culture vultures moved in, took over, redifined the genre and excluded the founders.

[Lang Spoon]

Follow the Leader is one of the greatest things ever made. Rakim you magnificent bastard.

[Tactical Genius]

Mantronix??!!!

Blameless, Set it off, Raw and Wrath of Kane were my favourites of Kane at the time. some of his one liners were classic.

Rappers were different in those days as most came up as battle rappers and as beats were pretty basic at the time, they had to carry the song with their lyrics.

[anton pulisov]

You know how things that travel at very high speed for a long time travel through time? I'm convinced that I played the Nation of Millions CD so much that it must have travelled through time, and that's why I can't find it.

Ooh and don't forget De La Soul. The single for Me, Myself and I was also released in '88.

[Tactical Genius]

Ooh and don't forget De La Soul. The single for Me, Myself and I was also released in '88.

Sorry, forgot DeLASoul and would rather not be reminded of it if that's fine with you.

[danielmak]

I would say that 1990-1992 was an exciting time for the kind of rap that I dig: A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, KMD, Gang Starr.

And then a decade later Defnitive Jux released some dope albums. But I tend to drift in and out of listening to rap so I have a much harder time pinning down time periods other than the early 90s when I paid more attention to what was coming out.

[Jah Womble]

I would say that 1990-1992 was an exciting time for the kind of rap that I dig: A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, KMD, Gang Starr.

This.

[Benjm]

Mantronix??!!!

That's what they said at the time! Purists, huh.

[hobbes]

Pretty much my favourite album of that 1990 - 1992 era was Hard Knocks School of Hard Knocks.

[WOM]

Never heard of it. Does it hold up?

[hobbes]

It's fan-fucking-tastic. The guy's flow is great and it's got a real jazzy sound and heavy bass carrying it along.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

I really wanted to go (for Dire Straits and Tracy Chapman mainly) but went interrailing on the Continent instead.

[Gangster Octopus]

Eric Clapton AND Dire Straits! Christ, what a fucking shitfest...

[Pérou Flaquettes]

The line-up was a bit of a curate's egg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson...s_and_speakers) but that was really secondary.

The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute was a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at Wembley Stadium, London, and broadcast to 67 countries and an audience of 600 million. Marking the forthcoming 70th birthday (18 July 1988) of the imprisoned anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela, the concert was also referred to as Freedomfest, Free Nelson Mandela Concert and Mandela Day. In the United States, the Fox television network heavily censored the political aspects of the concert.[1][2][3] The concert is considered a notable example of anti-apartheid music.[4]

[Tactical Genius]

I would say 88-92 was probably the golden age. in the late 80's there was alot of conscience rap, talking about (and not glorifying) inner city life, drugs, violence, police brutality. The biggest rappers and groups had affiliations to black empowerment groups like the nation of Islam, the 5% ers and were turning a new generation of youth (black and white) to the teachings of Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammed, Khalid Muhammed and Minister Farrakhan which had been suppressed over the preceding decade and a half.

The dominant society took over Hip Hop and started to give the worst aspects of it maximum exposure (conspicuous consumption, drug taking, misogyny and senseless violence). This had always existed but wasn't talked about constantly.
A good case in point would be Tupac.

[Satchmo Distel]

All Hail The Queen (1989):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcNv...2-p9Qo&index=4

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qimg_q7LbQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlJE...WCFl02dB2-p9Qo