captainballs
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2004
- Messages
- 9,954
I'm probably one of the few here who will admit to classifying more than one era of hip hop as a golden age. I think it continues to ebb and flow, producing golden ages of different flavors.
First, for me, was the period of 1993-1996, during which the Wu Tang Clan created an atmosphere that was so layered and full of characters akin to comic book lore that still maintained a dirty edge that was well-connected to the admitted commercialism and prevalence of violence and crime. Characters like Chef Raekwon, Method Man, and Ghostface Killah were as heavy to me as any classic superheroes, with just as much material hidden in their lyrics. The production by the RZA opened up doors that were connected to something both new and timeless at the same time, which is probably why it resonated so well with someone whose parents were psychedelic-eating counter-culture hippies. There was something in the RZA's orchestrations that touched the unexplored regions of the brain in a revolutionary way, and he was surrounded by rappers who knew how to float along that wave and make it rise even higher with their almost mythological rhymes.
There was a lull between 1996 and 2001 during which it seemed like the amount of people willing to really put something out there in the hip hop community was dwindling. Even rappers who had deep thoughts were resigned to only giving us a hint of what was inside, mostly because the game had turned into a rough sport full of well-funded and talented armies, the goal of which seemed to take care of themselves financially over anything else.
During this time, you had rappers like Jay Z who can be seen actively hiding his deeper rhymes and thoughts due to commercial pressures, although the one or two lines per album which transcended space and time basically made him worth the entire price of every CD he put out at the time. Jay Z's era, which I really define as between the years of 1996 and 2001, was a sort of compromise for hip hop fans like myself. I realized that things could never be the same again, but there were one or two people like Jay Z who would try to make the best of it for us while conforming to commercial pressures. There was more of a focus on bounce and less focus on introspection, but these years undeniably belonged to him and he almost carried the game on his back during this time, reaching a peak in 2001 with Blueprint - an album on which Jay Z apparently found himself comfortable enough financially to produce the sounds and lyrics that would resonate forever.
2002 began the golden age of the Mixtape, with informal albums being pushed by the likes of the Diplomats and eventually becoming the chief form of pushing music over the last years as far as releases went. 50 Cent perfected the art and really created the market we see today, something he is probably miffed at never having the possibility of getting credit for since he's probably not as concerned with money as much as relevance at this point. And that's a shame. The most entertaining music of 2003-2011 have basically been the yearly new releases of 50 Cent's mixtape material, which just get better and better every single year. His albums died a long time ago, but what he releases on the mixtape circuit will unjustifiably go unnoticed on purpose by hip hop heads due to the obnoxious nature of the persona he presented to the larger record buying community in order to gain his life back after being basically a common criminal with a high probability of becoming a statistic.
I have said for years now on Bluelight that 50 Cent represents a golden age in himself, but he is overlooked by people who refuse to delve into his true gems, which can only be found on his mixtapes. This is partly his fault for maintaining an obnoxious persona that is akin to the base behavior you see in WWE promotional stints, and partly due to his insistence on continuing to release albums (a dated commodity, commercialized and watered down to the core) despite his prediction and active role in creating the massive mixtape utopia you see today.
Thoughts?
First, for me, was the period of 1993-1996, during which the Wu Tang Clan created an atmosphere that was so layered and full of characters akin to comic book lore that still maintained a dirty edge that was well-connected to the admitted commercialism and prevalence of violence and crime. Characters like Chef Raekwon, Method Man, and Ghostface Killah were as heavy to me as any classic superheroes, with just as much material hidden in their lyrics. The production by the RZA opened up doors that were connected to something both new and timeless at the same time, which is probably why it resonated so well with someone whose parents were psychedelic-eating counter-culture hippies. There was something in the RZA's orchestrations that touched the unexplored regions of the brain in a revolutionary way, and he was surrounded by rappers who knew how to float along that wave and make it rise even higher with their almost mythological rhymes.
There was a lull between 1996 and 2001 during which it seemed like the amount of people willing to really put something out there in the hip hop community was dwindling. Even rappers who had deep thoughts were resigned to only giving us a hint of what was inside, mostly because the game had turned into a rough sport full of well-funded and talented armies, the goal of which seemed to take care of themselves financially over anything else.
During this time, you had rappers like Jay Z who can be seen actively hiding his deeper rhymes and thoughts due to commercial pressures, although the one or two lines per album which transcended space and time basically made him worth the entire price of every CD he put out at the time. Jay Z's era, which I really define as between the years of 1996 and 2001, was a sort of compromise for hip hop fans like myself. I realized that things could never be the same again, but there were one or two people like Jay Z who would try to make the best of it for us while conforming to commercial pressures. There was more of a focus on bounce and less focus on introspection, but these years undeniably belonged to him and he almost carried the game on his back during this time, reaching a peak in 2001 with Blueprint - an album on which Jay Z apparently found himself comfortable enough financially to produce the sounds and lyrics that would resonate forever.
2002 began the golden age of the Mixtape, with informal albums being pushed by the likes of the Diplomats and eventually becoming the chief form of pushing music over the last years as far as releases went. 50 Cent perfected the art and really created the market we see today, something he is probably miffed at never having the possibility of getting credit for since he's probably not as concerned with money as much as relevance at this point. And that's a shame. The most entertaining music of 2003-2011 have basically been the yearly new releases of 50 Cent's mixtape material, which just get better and better every single year. His albums died a long time ago, but what he releases on the mixtape circuit will unjustifiably go unnoticed on purpose by hip hop heads due to the obnoxious nature of the persona he presented to the larger record buying community in order to gain his life back after being basically a common criminal with a high probability of becoming a statistic.
I have said for years now on Bluelight that 50 Cent represents a golden age in himself, but he is overlooked by people who refuse to delve into his true gems, which can only be found on his mixtapes. This is partly his fault for maintaining an obnoxious persona that is akin to the base behavior you see in WWE promotional stints, and partly due to his insistence on continuing to release albums (a dated commodity, commercialized and watered down to the core) despite his prediction and active role in creating the massive mixtape utopia you see today.
Thoughts?
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