Back when I was much younger, I was quite a fan of rap, but as the years passed, I just quit listening (I'm pretty sure it was around the time Tupac was killed).

I recently found my old rap CDs and gave them a listen and still found them just as good as they were back in the day. I sampled some of the rap from the past 5-7 years and it was nauseating shit; you couldn't pay me to listen to it.

Is there any rap that remains true to the stuff from the 80s-early/mid 90s era, or is it all just the same generic sound and uninspired lyrics.

For any old rap fans who feel the same way as I do, when did the genre take a nosedive for you?

What happened to rap music is that old rich white guys got their hands on it.

It took a nosedive in the late 90's. There have been a few good CDs since ('The Marshall Mathers LP', '2001', a couple of Jay-Z CDs, 'The Documentary', Kanye West, and a few others)...but it's been pretty bad for the past 8-10 years.

no rap will ever beat the rap from the late 80's/early 90's era. jay z and busta rhymes still put out some good sh!t (but mostly their earlier stuff), but thats about it.

basically, there is a complete lack of cohesion in rap. almost no one sits down as a group/team, decides on a concept and sound they want to achieve and then create a fully cohesive and consistent album all by the same producer/dj/rapper anymore.

there are no more djs for rappers/groups, just lame trendy producers.

there's no more scratching sounds!!

all these lame producers create (and stockpile) lifeless throw-away tracks and then farm them out to whoever pays the most for it.

there's endless amounts of stupid "featuring" guests on song after song when all i want to hear is the actual rapper whose name is on the album.

usually the guests are not even in the same studio as everyone else. all this "featuring" crap is done by mail now, not together in the studio in real-time.

lots of weak synthetic and electronic sounds and no more thumping bass, repetitive breakbeats and scratching.

retail albums all focus on choruses and hooks now. mixtapes are often vastly superior to an artists "real" album because they just focus on freeform raps that lack a dumb chorus/hook.

r&b singers on rap songs! wtf!!

sampling laws. that is the most crippling thing ever to rap in my opinion. now you have to be rich and well-funded and even then you still might not get permission to use something. before these laws the sky was the limit.

oh, an example a modern cohesive rap album? dj muggs vs gza.

A friend of mine summed it up nicely when he said, "The South killed hip-hop." The sound seems the most prevalent today and, despite my being from the region, I HATE it.

There's still good stuff out there if you dig around. Just don't turn on the radio.

I agree with everything you said. Another cohesive album is Murs 3:16 The 9th Edition by Murs and 9th Wonder (I haven't heard their follow-up Murray's Revenge yet.

...happened to rap.

You should try listening to hip hop instead..

...or try visiting a local record shop and picking up some independent music.

Last year's "discovered" Top Shelf 8/8/88 compilation is a great throwback to the earlier style of of hip-hop, despite the somewhat questionable history of the recordings.

I don't know of many rappers who still consistently work in that particularly old school-style production some of you are looking for, but if the lyrical content of mainstream hip-hop is what you dislike, there are a host of extremely intelligent artists (usually, though not exclusively, in the backpack/indie hip-hop scene) who are worlds away from the usual guns/bitches/bling triumvirate.

Which, really, is as it should be. As much as I really love the early stuff by the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, who used LOTS and LOTS of samples, artists should have complete & total control over their songs being sampled, without exception. I've been a musician for over 30 years, and if someone wanted to use one of my songs (or a bit of one) in a rap song [or hip hop, or whatever you want to call it...it's all the same], I'd probably price it WAAAAYYY out of their ability to do so, unless I was a fan of theirs, or if I really liked their material.

Dorky white chicks from Long Island started rapping and everyone realized the genre is completely played out.

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What happened to rap music is that old rich white guys got their hands on it.

I'm not a fan of rap, but I agree with this statement. Everything that comes along these day's that is new and popular get's destroyed by record producers and rich white guys who try and make a buck off everything. This holds true from everything in the music to the sports world. Nobody can leave anything alone these days because they want their piece of the pie, even if they have to destroy everything in the process.

Which is definitley a trait that only rich white men have.

While not entirely classifiable as hip-hop, some of Steinski & Double Dee's long-unavailable material from the past 20 years has recently been reissued in a 2-disc set called Steinski: What Does It All Mean? This would definitely hit the "sweet spot" for those of you looking for some truly classic work.

The last decade of rap = hair metal bands of the 80's. All flash with no substance.

There is only one rapper that is still the dam good and that is GANG STARR!

1993 and beyond happened.

I've been saying this for years.

...and who's fault would that be? It could never have anything to do with selling out could it? It's all the white man's fault.

I was never a huge fan of rap but did enjoy an album here and there up until the early 90s.

Of course there is still good hip hop music out there. You just have to look a little harder now.

= J

I was talking to an indie record store owner last week and he cited the biggest problem with rap music is that they put out good singles, but shitty albums. So, people will download the one good song but not buy the album.

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up, you will not be disappointed.



Ugly Duckling- Bang for the Buck

Best album out right now.

9th Wonder is one of my favorite producers. I never much cared for Buckshot though. They also have an album together called Chemistry that's pretty solid.

If you like 9th Wonder, check out any of Little Brother's albums. Out of North Carolina, they're probably one of my favorite outfits now. 9th Wonder is no longer producing for them though. Check out The Minstrel Show - a classic album.

Also, Nicoley is an amazing producer. From the Netherlands. Check out The Foreign Exchange - Connected.

Black Milk - Popular Demand. Producer/MC, awesome beats and great flow.

For something different, check out the Cunninlynguists. Southern rappers get a bad rep, but their album, A Piece of Strange is a classic, classic album.

Sure, there's not a lot of the edgier, boom-bap Wu-Tang or Illmatic style stuff coming out these days, but if you look in the right places, there's a ton of awesome producers and MCs out there.

Any rap/hip hop I listen to anymore is from 87-93. I occasionally pick up something new, but very rarely. I think the last disc I bough was Aesop Rock's None Shall Pass which is an incredibly solid album. It almost gives me hope for the genre.