Wayback - let's talk 93?
You both should know how this works by now, I been at it all week... For the uninitiated, I did this with 1998, 1996, 1997, 1999 and 1991 so far. Yes, those are links for you to acclimate yourself if you so choose...
I am, hoping that both of you are smart enough to see what year in hip hop we will be discussing today. If not, please look to your top bar of your browser or the beginning of this post, then continue from here.
Yes, the year is 1993, I am in a constant state of fucked up haircuts and an incredibly shrinking sense of popularity. I am an 13 year old 8th grader band nerd the first half of the year and a 9th grader TINY fish in a HUGE pond, then a 14 year old 9th grader at the wrong high school the second half... It goes without saying that I will NEED my music for this shit to work without me smoking someone.
January gives us "Blue Funk" from Heavy D & The Boyz, and Snow's "12 Inches of Snow," so we will score it that only Heavy D gave us any hip hop this month. I am best with pretending Snow never existed until he was arrested for assault.
February (and that R still ain't silent) comes our first classic album of the year, "In God We Trust" from Brand Nubian, and 2Pac would later release "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z." and Naughty By Nature's "19 Naughty III," and Kam's "Neva Again" making for a month in which I own/have owned all the hip hop albums released albeit that last one was downloaded only last year (word to Simon Stone).
March gives only "Bacdafucup" from Onyx and I am now ashamed to say that I actually shaved my head over this fucking album, which was not so good in the first place, now that I look back at it, though still worth owning. The utterly hilarious "CB4" soundtrack happened this month as well. Geto Boys released "We Can't Be Stopped," an album made a classic on the strength of ONE single that people still play at cookouts and shit.
April... Take a nap, nothing happened here.
May Funkdoobiest "Which Doobie Do U B?" then Run DMC's "Down With The King" and Masta Ace Inc. with "Slaughtahouse" all dropped on the same day. The only one I got AT THE TIME was the Run DMC one, later on I would have the Masta Ace. Also worth the mention was the "Menace II Society" soundtrack. The Roots -- who I LOVE -- also self-released "Organix" -- which I did not but own in spite of -- this month.
June brings us LL Cool J with "14 Shots to the Dome," a generally bad album with only 2 good songs, both of which about sins of the flesh. Buju Banton would see the re-release of "Mr Mention" in his new deal with Polygram. Tragedy Khadafi (hiding under 'The Intelligent Hoodlum' moniker) gave us "Tragedy: Saga of a Hoodlum."
July gives us Cypress Hill with "Black Sunday," a classic album -- or as classic as weed rap can be -- in my opinion. I got this one free from the radio station and still have that copy... Another classic from down south was 8Ball & MJG with "Comin Out Hard," Fat Joe also released "Represent" this month, and it was almost as if Jimmy had cracked corn.
August brought us Scarface's "The World is Yours," Buju Banton's "Voice of Jamaica" (fuck you, I will include a Buju album in EVERY one of these), Tha Alkoholiks with "21 and Over" and Kris Kross with "Da Bomb," which I would assume was a metaphoric title for the alarm signaling the end of their 15 minutes. I own every one of them, not released by Kris Kross.
September delivered KRS-One with "Return of the Boom Bap" and Souls of Mischief with their classic "93 'til Infinity" and Spice 1 continued his every-damned-year assault on the industry with "187 He Wrote." We were also introduced to the eclectic collectives Digable Planets with "Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time And Space)" and Us3 with "Hand on the Torch." De La Soul also presented "Buhloone Mindstate" and Lords of the Underground dropped "Here Come The Lords," which I still love to this day.
October saw Black Moon giving us "Enta Da Stage," kicking off the Boot Camp Clik/Duck Down movement. Salt N Pepa also released "Very Necessary," which churned out a couple of VERY sexy videos for the record... No, I'm saying, if Pepa in that bubble bath didn't give you a bit of a chubby, then you just might be a bit zesty.
Digital Underground also gave us "The Body Hat Syndrome." Too $hort continued to make us all want to pimp with "Get In Where You Fit In"
November will be a month that goes down in history... A Tribe Called Quest released "Midnight Marauders" and Wu Tang Clan was introduced with "Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers)" ON THE SAME FUCKING DAY!!! Later on, we would get "Shock of the Hour" from MC Ren, still reaching for NWA popularity long lost, Queen Latifah with "Black Reign" before she started singing, Das Efx with "Straight Up Sewaside," which was kinda cool and Snoop Doggy Dogg and his classic debut "Doggystyle," making this a month for the release of 3 classic albums. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien gave us "No Need For Alarm,"
December Ice Cube and Domino closed us out with "Lethal Injection" and "Domino," respectively...
Okay, I have held you long enough, let's score this thing...
44 releases, 31 owned, 70.4%.
Notice, as I mentioned, the amount of traction that singles had back in this time. You can think of songs RIGHT off the top of your head when you look in on these albums. Notice how many classic albums came in one year when the amount of releases is not so fucking ridiculous. Notice the number of -- even if not 'classic' -- albums you can still pop in and ride to now, 16 years later.
I really don't have much to add to this one beyond what was said in the presentation. While this was the year that gave us albums from Wu, Snoop, Tribe, and several other albums that we may NEVER forget as heads of the genre, several artists who have "Stans" of their own, it is somehow odd that 1993 never pops up in any of the "huge fucking hip hop years" discussions before now.
Go off into the world now, have a conversation with all your black friends, discuss circles around them in an arena that they feel they're some kinda fuckin' subject matter expert in. I will catch up with you folks next time around.
I am, hoping that both of you are smart enough to see what year in hip hop we will be discussing today. If not, please look to your top bar of your browser or the beginning of this post, then continue from here.
Yes, the year is 1993, I am in a constant state of fucked up haircuts and an incredibly shrinking sense of popularity. I am an 13 year old 8th grader band nerd the first half of the year and a 9th grader TINY fish in a HUGE pond, then a 14 year old 9th grader at the wrong high school the second half... It goes without saying that I will NEED my music for this shit to work without me smoking someone.
January gives us "Blue Funk" from Heavy D & The Boyz, and Snow's "12 Inches of Snow," so we will score it that only Heavy D gave us any hip hop this month. I am best with pretending Snow never existed until he was arrested for assault.
February (and that R still ain't silent) comes our first classic album of the year, "In God We Trust" from Brand Nubian, and 2Pac would later release "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z." and Naughty By Nature's "19 Naughty III," and Kam's "Neva Again" making for a month in which I own/have owned all the hip hop albums released albeit that last one was downloaded only last year (word to Simon Stone).
March gives only "Bacdafucup" from Onyx and I am now ashamed to say that I actually shaved my head over this fucking album, which was not so good in the first place, now that I look back at it, though still worth owning. The utterly hilarious "CB4" soundtrack happened this month as well. Geto Boys released "We Can't Be Stopped," an album made a classic on the strength of ONE single that people still play at cookouts and shit.
April... Take a nap, nothing happened here.
May Funkdoobiest "Which Doobie Do U B?" then Run DMC's "Down With The King" and Masta Ace Inc. with "Slaughtahouse" all dropped on the same day. The only one I got AT THE TIME was the Run DMC one, later on I would have the Masta Ace. Also worth the mention was the "Menace II Society" soundtrack. The Roots -- who I LOVE -- also self-released "Organix" -- which I did not but own in spite of -- this month.
June brings us LL Cool J with "14 Shots to the Dome," a generally bad album with only 2 good songs, both of which about sins of the flesh. Buju Banton would see the re-release of "Mr Mention" in his new deal with Polygram. Tragedy Khadafi (hiding under 'The Intelligent Hoodlum' moniker) gave us "Tragedy: Saga of a Hoodlum."
July gives us Cypress Hill with "Black Sunday," a classic album -- or as classic as weed rap can be -- in my opinion. I got this one free from the radio station and still have that copy... Another classic from down south was 8Ball & MJG with "Comin Out Hard," Fat Joe also released "Represent" this month, and it was almost as if Jimmy had cracked corn.
August brought us Scarface's "The World is Yours," Buju Banton's "Voice of Jamaica" (fuck you, I will include a Buju album in EVERY one of these), Tha Alkoholiks with "21 and Over" and Kris Kross with "Da Bomb," which I would assume was a metaphoric title for the alarm signaling the end of their 15 minutes. I own every one of them, not released by Kris Kross.
September delivered KRS-One with "Return of the Boom Bap" and Souls of Mischief with their classic "93 'til Infinity" and Spice 1 continued his every-damned-year assault on the industry with "187 He Wrote." We were also introduced to the eclectic collectives Digable Planets with "Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time And Space)" and Us3 with "Hand on the Torch." De La Soul also presented "Buhloone Mindstate" and Lords of the Underground dropped "Here Come The Lords," which I still love to this day.
October saw Black Moon giving us "Enta Da Stage," kicking off the Boot Camp Clik/Duck Down movement. Salt N Pepa also released "Very Necessary," which churned out a couple of VERY sexy videos for the record... No, I'm saying, if Pepa in that bubble bath didn't give you a bit of a chubby, then you just might be a bit zesty.
Digital Underground also gave us "The Body Hat Syndrome." Too $hort continued to make us all want to pimp with "Get In Where You Fit In"
November will be a month that goes down in history... A Tribe Called Quest released "Midnight Marauders" and Wu Tang Clan was introduced with "Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers)" ON THE SAME FUCKING DAY!!! Later on, we would get "Shock of the Hour" from MC Ren, still reaching for NWA popularity long lost, Queen Latifah with "Black Reign" before she started singing, Das Efx with "Straight Up Sewaside," which was kinda cool and Snoop Doggy Dogg and his classic debut "Doggystyle," making this a month for the release of 3 classic albums. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien gave us "No Need For Alarm,"
December Ice Cube and Domino closed us out with "Lethal Injection" and "Domino," respectively...
Okay, I have held you long enough, let's score this thing...
44 releases, 31 owned, 70.4%.
Notice, as I mentioned, the amount of traction that singles had back in this time. You can think of songs RIGHT off the top of your head when you look in on these albums. Notice how many classic albums came in one year when the amount of releases is not so fucking ridiculous. Notice the number of -- even if not 'classic' -- albums you can still pop in and ride to now, 16 years later.
I really don't have much to add to this one beyond what was said in the presentation. While this was the year that gave us albums from Wu, Snoop, Tribe, and several other albums that we may NEVER forget as heads of the genre, several artists who have "Stans" of their own, it is somehow odd that 1993 never pops up in any of the "huge fucking hip hop years" discussions before now.
Go off into the world now, have a conversation with all your black friends, discuss circles around them in an arena that they feel they're some kinda fuckin' subject matter expert in. I will catch up with you folks next time around.
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Comments
This drop is my favorite of the series. Good shit.
But yeah, since I couldn't afford money to buy a bunch of CDs, my brother would usually buy them and I would make my own mix tapes off of his stuff.