stillmatic wrote:We're referring the to sound that the masses hear, and that's not just the big radio stations, I'm talking the hip hop stations. Not just radio either.
I hate to play one big false dichotomy, but you're either mainstream or not, there's no shades of gray. And all those responsible for giving The South a bad image are the ones that are given radio play.
But if you actually search, you'd see there's tons of great Southern Hip Hop, Cunninlynguists for example. But you're better off asking Killahbee as he's much more well versed in Southern Hip Hop than myself.
AZ was a bad example, but The Firm got a lot of attention.
Differing opinion I guess, but The Firm was terrible and was also helped plummet Nas and Az's career further to the grave.
I have two points here, firstly that the good artists still got a lot of attention and it wasn't just about the Puff's or Hov's dominating,
In My Lifetime Vol 1 was a good album despite being Jiggy esque.
artists like Nas,
He was a shadow of his former self during this time and struggled hard to remain relevant.
Mobb Deep,
Anyone who isn't a fan of Mobb Deep would realize that their relevance was over post HOE, maybe Murda Muzik, but they strayed from their usual habitat of making gritty noir music, and tried putting in club tracks.
LOX,
They're garbage.
DMX got fuck loads of attention.
He's the exception, not the rule.
But I was mostly thinking of 97, which was the worst year in rap ever, as P Diddy just started gaining power, and the deaths of two you know whos occured.
Honestly Pun was the last true blue veteran of NY who can rhyme his ass off, and still be somewhat commercial.
My second point here is, even if I agree with you that the likes of Nas tried to follow Puff's style in making music (which I don't agree with it anyway), he wasn't allowed to get away with it. That's the big difference. Nas was lambasted at the time for his mainstream music.
Because Nas is a good rapper and has a reputation to uphold.
Whereas all these Southern rappers, they try to copy one another and it's fair game and it's nothing. I don't listen to Wayne, but I've read you say plenty that he was great before Carter 3 and then he changed and went toward the more mainstream direction - guess what, he got away with it.
I never thought Wayne was great, decent at best and made a few enjoyable mixtapes, but nowhere near the same tier as Nas. Oh and tons of his former fans decry his newer music.
i.e. Freespeech
Just because 50 is real doesn't mean he makes good music, I never said that. What I'm saying is that his version of gangsta rap was no gimmick, it was genuine. Whether it was good is a matter of preference, but my point here is that he had his own genuine style that applied perfectly to him. He represented gangsta rap well, especially during a time when he was practically a lone figure. Still is a lone figure.
Well I was mostly bashing 50 cent because he turned Gangsta rap, as nothing but bargain bin pop rap with no substantial quality, he was just an subpar rapper in general, and didn't say anything profound in his music or have any different shades to him.
No his persona outside his music, where he disses other creatively doesn't count.
