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Which is the best decade for hip hop?
- Thread starter Deleted member 42221
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For real. People have to deliberately put blinders on and ignore everything that isn't a top 10 hit to make an argument that 2010's hip hop isn't amazingly diverse. Listen to Kids See Ghosts, To Pimp a Butterfly, Big Fish Theory and Flower Boy back to back and tell me with a straight face that the 90's is more diverse in production and lyrical subject matter.
90s by an enormous margin. Absolute golden age of hip-hop.
I'm struggling to recall a single album from this decade that I love.
I'm struggling to recall a single album from this decade that I love.
Let's not pretend 90's mainstream rap ain't the same shit lmao. That's how mainstream music works.
Also even with mumble rap there's a real real difference between a young thug to a future to a lil uzi vert.
Even on the 2nd tier you get shit like tyler the creator, frank ocean, asap rocky, kendrick lamar, etc etc.
Even Jay-Z released his best album in years.
What I really loved about the 90s is the songs that dominated the charts/airwaves/cultural landscape were songs that were actually the "good" songs of the genre. Sure every now and then there was a garbage track that became popular but for the most part, what was hot and classic was the same thing. You didn't have to go digging for obscure shit nobody has heard of or plays in the club or at BBQs to find great shit.
Just look at the highest charting singles of 1995. Almost all of them are classics or fondly remembered songs that boost up why we love that era of hip hop.
(And the next single on the list was Raekwon's "Ice Cream")
And speaking of diversity, Feel Me Flow, Dear Mama, Ice Cream, I got 5 On It, Gangsters Paradise, 1st of the Month, and All I Need To Get By are all really different songs with their own styles, production, flows, and subject matter.
Like seriously, Sugar Hill by AZ and Doin It by LL were both top 25 charting songs in 1995. That's dope. And super diverse.
I just looked up the top charting songs for 2015, since it was a year someone said was one of the best of this decade, and I doubt the people that loved 2015's output would point to the list below as representative about what they enjoyed about that year.
The 90's had a tremendous underground scene but it really was just the cherry on top to the artistic and commercially accessible mainstream scene.
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2010's all the way. The sheer variety and high level of output from indie to mainstream is crazy. That fact that a dude like Lorde Fredd33 can put out a quality album and only have like 3,000 views on YouTube is crazy. Then you got guys like Denzel coming up and getting recognition in a big way. Rap is in a great spot and to say otherwise is delusional.
The problem is there wasn't one homogeneous sound that dominated hip hop in the 90's due to the segregated nature of regional radio and clubs. Top Hip hip songs had not only a diversity of sounds musically due to cities/regions wanting their own identity but also style wise as a rapper being that biting was still looked down upon by the Hip Hop community/fans and you couldn't rhyme or sound like anybody else
My bigger issue is that the people acting like modern hip-hop is complete trash are also actively throwing the majority of 90's legends under the bus considering those that are still alive are largely still having productive careers. Like look at 4:44, Sir Lucious Left Foot, Thank You 4 Your Service, Key to the Kuffs, all of Ghostface's output, all of E-40s output, Compton, etc, etc. These guys are all still around putting out good shit on top of all the releases from newcomers.
The only correct answers are the 90's and 10's. The 1990s are remembered as the golden age for a reason, but it's amazing how much the genre has exploded since then. The amount of talent floating around out there in the last 8 years is really something to behold. The mainstream is as good as it's ever been, indie producers from the 00s becoming the new mainstream, internet distribution, etc. The 2010s are just so eclectic, there's so much out there.
What I love about this decade is that they're sampling so much more outside of hip hop staples of soul/jazz/whatever.
You even got people wrapping around and taking influence from nu-metal like how nu-metal took influence from rap.
Of course, it helped create diverse mainstream music due to competitiveness and how it became a profitable genre of music. Plus peak of east vs west (plus noice from the south) beef.
Dont get me wrong i love 90's, i just find alot of arguements to dismiss 2010's as trash music super flawed, dismissive, and cynical.
I gotta go with now tbh
the internet has led to a golden age of rap and discovery. I'm sure the breadth of music existed back in the day too the thing is that the smaller guys were probably just selling tapes/cds locally whereas now I can hear everybody's stuff on streaming platforms like soundcloud and bandcamp. also with the internet it's easier to just make your music and deliver it directly to the people consuming it so people in certain lanes don't have to compromise their sound whatsoever leading to a wide variety in the kind of rap you can find. you can essentially double down on the sub genre you're a part of which leads to some crazy shit. I love it.
the internet has led to a golden age of rap and discovery. I'm sure the breadth of music existed back in the day too the thing is that the smaller guys were probably just selling tapes/cds locally whereas now I can hear everybody's stuff on streaming platforms like soundcloud and bandcamp. also with the internet it's easier to just make your music and deliver it directly to the people consuming it so people in certain lanes don't have to compromise their sound whatsoever leading to a wide variety in the kind of rap you can find. you can essentially double down on the sub genre you're a part of which leads to some crazy shit. I love it.
any answer other than 90's or 10's is pretty suspect, frankly. I'd probably give the edge to 10's, more of a personal taste thing for me, of what I like in terms of production, in the diversity of thematic content, in how experimental so much of it is stylistically from the mainstream to the underground, and i have more of a depth of favourites from the last 8 or 9 years, but the classics from both are undeniable.
No doubt, there's still a lot of excellent hip hop being made it's just way too many wack ones that have legit careers now and are the faces of hip hop. In the 90's, a wack rapper may've had a huge hit but their careers wouldn't last, and they were overshadowed by the sheer amount of talented rappers. Also let's use Trap Music and Migo's Triplet flow/mumble rap as an example, if that came out in the 90's; it may've influenced other regions and rappers but you wouldn't outright have a bunch of New York, Cali, Midwest, etc... rappers merely imitating the sound and style of Atlanta because rappers in their own cities/regions preferred having their own identity and repping that. I think that's the biggest difference to back then to today. Biting is no longer looked down upon and the sound of mainstream hip hop has gotten more homogeneous than in the past.
Hip Hop as a consumable form of media didn't start until 1979 so it didn't have a chance as a decade.
What specific rappers do you think are biting? The only notable example I can think is is Desiigner vs Future.
True. Artists in all genres find it hard to make money nowadays, and if you try something new and it ends up being wack ? Well your whole career down the toilet. For some its safer to just stick to trends and keep there heads down.
But i dont really think those rappers become the face of hip hop. Alot of them are more disposable then people think. Fetty wap was the face of mainstream rap in 2014 ( with bangers admittedly), now look at him. He's almost nonexistant.
Such an odd choice. You have sugar hill gang, and some like spoken word stuff. Hardly any chance for discussion aha
True, the cream still rises to the top as we've all witnessed Kendrick's ascendance to the throne.
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In terms of combining quality with visibility, it's the 90's. But there's so much great stuff from every decade (well, less so in the case of the 70's).
Each decade has been great, but only the 90's is truly king.
So much that to this day rappers are still chasing the ghosts of 2pac and Biggie Smalls.
So much that to this day rappers are still chasing the ghosts of 2pac and Biggie Smalls.
1994 - 2004 to be very specific.
from Illmatic to College Dropout
The Greatest Rap Song Of All Time is from 1987
from Illmatic to College Dropout
The Greatest Rap Song Of All Time is from 1987
Completely agree, so many great albums with tons of variety in style. My vote is definitely '10s.
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My big surprise with this is how few votes there are for the 2000's. That was the era of Old kanye, Stankonia, Madvillainy.
I feel like the 00s are a tad underrated. Personally alot of my favourite albums are from that era: Madvillany, MM Food, Cold Vein, Below The Heavens, Tipping Point, Game Theory, Labour Days, None Shall Pass, The Grind Date, Hells Winter, The Undisputed Truth, The Renaissance, When Life Gives you Lemons etc.
But I think it has to do alot with when you got into rap, and your age at the time.
The 90s are of course amazing as well.
But I think it has to do alot with when you got into rap, and your age at the time.
The 90s are of course amazing as well.
Anyone who says anything but the 90's is either delusional, a hater, stupid, an asshole, or a mix of all four.
Unsurprisingly the people who only think hip hop is good in the 90s are coming across as the most insufferable.
