The Golden Age of Hip Hop

All forms of modern music: Country, Punk, Soul, R&B and Pop, have had their different eras, highs and lows, narrow and diverse periods. Country, for example seems to hit this boom every 10 years and then fade until the next one. Hip Hop, while younger, is no different.
Now, I understand ... maybe we all love best the music we remember, but it's hard to argue that any era of Hip Hop had more diversity, more potential for the genre than the few short years of the early 90s. 92-94, to be specific.

By 1992, Rap had shed many of the wannabes. No more Vanilla Ice on the airwaves, no pop superstar had yet stepped into Mc Hammer's glossy shoes. And yet, hip hop was making a bigger impact than ever. And, like never before, (or since) it could be anything it wanted to.

Tribe, De La Soul and Digable Planets on the rap side and US3 and Lucas (with the lid off) on the dance side were fusing hip hop with jazz. Digable planets made a hit just doing straight ol' beebop, and it worked! It was almost too much cool for one song. (Had they spread out the cool, maybe they could have had another hit, I guess)

Setting the stage for the Fugees and the Roots, Arrested Development was unapologetically afrocentric and still loved by all. Seriously. Girls named Dawn, Ashley and Becky were tossing up a fist, singing "Revolution." Maybe they didn't know why, but that was OK. It was too good not to. Who doesn't sing along to "People Everyday?"

Other alternative hip hop groups: Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy & Me Phi Me brought the straight peaceful message, while the Geto Boys gave us nightmares about Halloween, necrophilia (and later, fax machines).

Some experiments were more um... experimental than others. "Hey let's fuze skate rock and rap!" (Urban Dance Squad), "Hey let's put some bagpipes in it!," "Hey, how about Tammy Wynette!," "Hey, let's all do the Bartman!"

Lighter Shade of Brown and N2Deep were still keeping the latino rap candle lit before it blew out for 12 years. Nice.

New Jack Swing was king. Hail Tony!, Toni!, and Tone'!. Long live SWV, TLC, BBD and the rising queen, Mary J.

C&C Music Factory & their wannabees gave us more hip-hop dance songs than we knew what to do with. And they'll play at weddings for the next 100 years.

Kid & Play had left us, but Heavy D was still around. Rap was party: This is How We Do It, Summertime, Ditty. Rap was soul: This DJ, Back in the Day. It was was Shaking Rumps and Tootsie Rolls. Whoomp! and Whoot! There it was. "I got a man." "I'm not tryin to hear that, see!"

Will Sm-Ahem! The Fresh Prince was its jester. Public Enemy was its conscience.

Before Limp Bizkit nearly killed it and before Linkin Park perfected it, the Judgement Night soundtrack gave Rap-Rock one good solid try. And it wasn't too bad.

Tupac Shakur was just beginning what would become his opus. And the former NWA were beginning to take over Hip Hop as single artists and producers. And then, there was this Snoop Dog guy ...

Dre., Snoop, an every angrier 2Pac. They were a blessing and a curse. Because before gangsta rap took over. Before it became a parody of itself. before hip hop all sounded the same; it sounded completely different! For three, maybe four good years. And then poof!

There was still great stuff. Outkast, Missy, Wu Tang ... but the variety ... the chance for Hip Hop to be anything it wanted ... left the building. For a decade. Maybe more.

Around 2004, producers like Pharrel and the Neptunes, Cee-lo, and Kanye, came back to remind us what Rap had the potential to be before hip hop once again decended into the shallow end of the pool. Back to random thugged out 20 years olds and one-note booty jams.