Reminiscing about hip-hop\'s golden era

Tag : magnum boot

Purportedly the most dangerous bulletproof vest-wearing rapper, 50Cent, recently joined the auto-tune vocal enhancement club.
T-Pain started the trend, and Gorilla Zoe, Kanye West and Lil Waynehave followed. But 50 Cent’s vocal display on G-Unit’snew album, “T.O.S.,” made me roll my eyes.
It also made me think about the good ol’ days when rapperswere fresh. A time when MCs were verbally dexterous, with topicalranges beyond the corner, the crack house and the holding cell.
Those days are gone, but not forgotten.
Non Stop Hip Hop Live’s Saturday night show at New BrooklandTavern, “The Chronic: A Tribute to the Golden Era of HipHop,” will celebrate hip-hop’s two lyricallyenlightened periods: 1985-88 and 1993-96.
The show, hosted by Hot 103.9’s Shekeese tha Beast, willfeature DJ ETC, Chris Wenner and DJ Kingpin spinning throwbackjams.
Looking back is popular these days, so I asked a few local hip-hopheads this question: When you think about the golden era ofhip-hop, what comes to mind?
DJ Shekeese: I think about a time when hip-hop meant something. Not thisMatthew Santos, Daft Punk, vocoder-singing fusion. Just twoturntables and a microphone, and folks having a good time.
DJ Kingpin, the Villain of Vinyl: A Golden Era simply put is a time of greatness. Will the music youmake impact a single person other than yourself? Will the music youmake create new language and conversation? Will the music you makeremind someone of the ills and joys of this wide world, or will itremind them that it’s easier to be selfish?
Dan Johns, former Non Stop freestyle champ who runs Magnum OpusRecords: There were more artists willing to take risks when it came tosubject matter and delivery. Look at groups like Das EFX or Leadersof the New School and how they put down fresh rhymes with differentconcepts and ways to deliver them. Also, production was a lot moresample-driven due in part to loosely enforced sample clearance backthen. So people like Ali Shaheed Muhammad or DJ Premier could use alot more loops.
Cajwell, former Non Stop freestyle champion: One word comes to mind, and that is “forgotten.” A lotof so-called backpack rappers criticize the new and upcomingrappers as being commercial and not being creative enough. But whatthese guys don’t realize is that this culture we call hip-hopis about having fun and lifting people up — dance music,crunk music or gangsta music. These backpackers need to go dig inthe crates and listen to what the earlier rappers were talkingabout, guys like Doug E. Fresh, who was a dancer and a rapper.
DJ Riggles, who DJs weekly at blue. and Kelly’s: I think about the early Tribe (A Tribe Called Quest), OutKast,Wu-Tang, Common, Boot Camp Clik — Black Moon, Smif N Wessun,Heltah Skeltah — stuff. That’s the stuff I’d havememorized three days after buying it. Maybe it was the point in mylife or my age or whatever, but hip-hop nowadays doesn’t hitme like stuff from 10 to 15 years ago.
Able 1 of Villanova: It just takes me back to a time that’s really special to me.In my opinion, from ’94 to ’97, (it was) Wu-Tang andNas. And even Biggie. He was kind of at the end of that era. If youwere there and were feeling hip-hop at that time, you know what itis. Those dudes didn’t care; they weren’t trying to beTop 40 radio.
Justin Smith of Justin Smith and the Folk Hop Band: I’m 26 years old, so I didn’t really get into hip-hopuntil the early ’90s. For me, I would have to say that GoodieMob’s “Soul Food” and OutKast’s“ATLiens” represent the golden era of hip-hop because Icould relate to the music and that’s the era that inspired methe most as far as the music I make now.
Reach Taylor at (803) 771-8362.