Before you read the rest of this article, please read part one first. That article can be found here.
Considered by many as one of Hip Hop's "realest" tracks.
Any seasoned head will know you can’t have a proper discussion about “real” Hip Hop without bringing up the classic hit by Common: “I used to love H.E.R.” For those unaware, the song was an “ode” to Hip Hop; Its uniqueness however, lied in its metaphor of using the love of a woman in the context of Hip Hop culture. The song gives the initial impression it’s a love song, nearing the end though, Common reveals he’s talking about his love of Hip Hop and disapproval of what’s happening to it. The song brought up many questions and controversy in the eyes of many Hip Hop circles. The main idea of the song was about Commons love for the culture, but now Hip Hop’s direction - and fan base - was straying away from its conscious aspects and moving towards the rising popularity of “G-Funk”.
So this poses another question inside an already laboring one: Is “real” Hip Hop that of “conscious hip hop”? Conscious Hip Hop being more “socially aware” Hip Hop. I know that many heads, more-so backpackers would agree with this notion, seeing as this is mostly what Hip Hop came from. For those who have delved into the history of the art, you’ll know of the classic by: “Grand Master Flash And The Furious Five”, “The Message”. This classic piece in Hip Hop addresses the problems - in detail - that are happening in the groups neighborhood and homes. It’s what I consider - and many others - to be one of the first truly “conscious” pieces of Hip Hop.
"The real... Hip-hop!" "MCing, and DJing.. from your own mind, ya know?"
I’ve listened to hundreds of Hip-Hop albums, of course encountering my fair share of great albums and to a similar degree, some god-awful ones. There are albums that I constantly come back to, generally because their lyrics - and to a lesser sense - production are top notch. While this piece is more opinionated then my prior articles, I’m treating this as a “personal” listing and not an “end all be all” list, and using it as a chance to recommend some classic albums for people who haven’t already encountered them.
LostMoniker.Com now has a Facebook group! Of course the general purpose is to spread the word of this website, but it can also be a sort of “hub” where I’ll post up links to the articles I consider “must-reads”. If you haven’t already, please join the Facebook group for this site, and invite all your friends!!.
“93 ’til Infinity” is the single by Oakland group “Souls Of Mischief”, off of the album of the same name. This song became a hit amongst Hip Hop fans in the 90’s, however despite it’s success the album only had moderate sales and failed to garner as much praise as it deserved. The group was noted for their production and unique rhyme styles; making their debut album shine during the early nineties.
"DJ Premier", considered by Hip Hop heads everywhere as one of the "realest" artists in the culture
You’re probably viewing the aforementioned with the notion that you do in fact already know what “real hip hop” is. Yet when asked to truly define that statement, and juggle this with the abundance of hip hop tracks being pushed out in terms of mainstream and underground, your opinion becomes stagnant. Before I delve into the subject at hand, I’d like to say that I’ve listened to countless albums and have been studying the Hip Hop art for quite some time (I’m sure some of the people reading this article have as well), and only to a degree can I describe what “real” hip hop is.
For those who may be newer to Hip Hop, I’d like to go over some slang quickly. A “Purist” (in Hip Hop terms) is generally a Hip Hop head who listens to majority of the classic Hip Hop and quite a bit of modern underground, they feel strongly about what they think “opposes” the initial visions of the culture. A “Backpacker” is generally someone who enjoys participating in the “hardcore” aspects of Hip Hop, generally listening to alternative or underground Hip Hop. This term can be considered derogatory depending on who you ask, however in context of this article I’m using it to describe a subculture. Nothing less, nothing more.
Keep in mind, while I may or may not address the comments posted, I will be reading them all and take suggestions into consideration. Also, I will have a sort of “comment of the week” section highlighting unique responses or intelligent discussion, however only once I see that I have a steady amount of readers (which it seems like I’m currently building up) and decent amount of comments.
I also want to say thanks for the current viewers and people commenting, I highly encourage the posting and appreciate the suggestions and compliments made by everyone!
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"It's Rhyme Asylum, those twisted cats spittin' raps and committin' vicious acts of mindless violence."
State Of Lunacy is the debut album by UK underground artists “Rhyme Asylum”. Rhyme Asylum for those of you who don’t know, consists of rappers: “Possessed”, “Skirmish” and “Pliskone”; The production is done (for the most part) by new-comer “Leatherface”. The album has been described as: “…what happens if you suffocate the Wu-Tang Clan’s collective vision with a straight-jacket.”, and thats an understatement to their brutal style.
This album is by no means for the faint of heart. Covering everything from brutal battle raps to being locked up in an insane asylum, this group doesn’t shy away from shock factor. The Instrumentals portray these topics perfectly, giving the blueprints for vicious war themes and in some cases, even sounding very dream like. There was not one beat on this album (with the exception of Multiplicity’s remix) that sounded lacking in any way; complimenting this is the groups incredible grasp of language and flawless use of multiple-syllable rhymes. Everyone in Rhyme Asylum holds their own (only ever slipping up a few times), with each member contributing their own unique style to the mix, dropping a ton of quotables that I’m sure many underground heads will be repeating for ages to come.
“Soul On Ice” by Ras Kass is a classic; while this song is on his debut album (bearing the same name), it’s not the far-superior remixed version. This album failed to garner very much mainstream attention, but it became highly popular amongst underground rap fans at the time. He was noted for his battle lyrics and strong messages, however with such messages came controversy. His song “Nature of the Threat” while incredibly intelligent and fact based, it was considered racist due to the Afrocentric context it was presented in.
Hip Hop has always been playing in my household, even in my youngest days I remember the classic ‘93 Till Infinity’ playing through-out my living room, or the classic ‘New York State of Mind’ track from Nas. However, I only thoroughly delved into Hip Hop (and its history) around 2004 (I’m still a youngin’). After I heard about KRS-One and the confrontation between him and Nelly I recall seeing mention of his ‘beef’ with Marley Marl and the Juice Crew; at this point I had no idea who the Juice Crew were, so I headed over to Google and searched with those tags in mind. Eventually, I came across a video in which KRS explained the ordeal and I slowly became fascinated with Hip Hop’s history. Essentially, from that point on I have been “studying” Hip Hop’s history and delving into classics that I either never heard as a child, or wanted to listen to for nostalgia sake; As it stands, I consider myself a “new-school” listener as I never grew up with the earliest Hip Hop music, but I felt that I owed it to this Art that I’ve fallen in love with, to understand it’s history. This is something that I feel a lot of new-school listeners disregard, and due to mainstreams ‘hot 100′ approach even more listeners have a lack of respect for it’s roots.
Before I get someone saying: “We don’t all have to know EVERY component to Hip Hop’s history like you do”, I want to concur. While I do not expect everyone to have a thorough knowledge base of its roots, I feel there should be some generalized regard towards them. There are several new-school listeners I know who have the mentality that “If it’s not on the billboards anymore, then it’s on my playlist’. Something I find to be completely ridiculous. I’ve also came across people who’ve had a more ‘hip-hop’ based sense of the culture, yet disregard the key figures (Tupac and Biggie only count to a degree).
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At the moment the layout is quite lacking, and I apologize; so that means you’ll have to succumb to reading my posts - and dare I say it - in a bland atmosphere. However we are currently working at creating a GENIUS design, so keep looking back. For now though, you’ll just have to enjoy the content for what it is :).
