June 15, 2023 • 43 mins
Illustrated by its cultural influence and originality the 1980s to the early 90’s is known as the "Golden Era" of hip-hop that ushered many new sounds! Episode guests include Fat Joe. DJ Envy. Ed Lover. Charlamagne Tha God. Ice T. Kwame. Masta Ace. LL Cool J. Dan Charnas. Sir Mix-A-Lot. Hakim Green. Shaheem Reid. Dan Charnas. Ralph McDaniels.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
From iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I Am five five Freddy and this it's fifty years
of hip hop podcast series. It's now time to get
into hip hop's most beloved, embrace, cherished, and remembered period
known as the Golden Era. So this is loosely, let's say,
from the mid late eighties into the mid late nineties.
(00:28):
Many greats are gonna come on in a minute and
share their interpretation, their version, those artists that did it
for them, and all these significant things that made the
Golden Era what it is. This was an incredible growth
period for hip hop culture. The seeds, the roots, if
you've been plugged into this podcast, these previous episodes, those roots,
(00:52):
those things that went down in New York City, particularly
in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Those roots went deep.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, they got to go really deep in the ground,
and then they begin to bear fruit. And this Golden
Era some of the best fruit, the molds were created.
Some of the most impactful artists solo and group, hit
the scene and exploded all over this entire planet. A
real fruitful period once again, the Golden Era, and I'm
(01:22):
talking about the producers and the visuals that went along
with these records. A very important point that I had
a heavy hand then. So I'm gonna chime in throughout
and drop little info about that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know, the music videos was real important, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But right now, let's take it back like an eight
track and let's get into the golden era.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Error.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Dan sharnis author and educator.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Let me tell you what a golden age is, all right,
here is the equation. It is the era of the
firsts that last, the golden era. Any golden age is
when we see the firsts that actually last.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So what do I mean by that?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Sugar Hill was the first record label to essentially make
its business based on hip hop, but they did not last.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Death Jam was the first hip hop.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Label by hip hop fans for hip hop fans, and
it lasted because it was that right, So when we
think about a golden era, look.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
For the firsts that last.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
The Source wasn't the very first hip hop magazine, but
it was the first that lasted. Run DMC weren't the
first hip hop stars really, but they were the first
that actually lasted on and on and on. Right, if
you want to talk about it, Tutionins, that's what I
look for. Golden era of hip hop to me thusly
(03:06):
begins around maybe eighty five, eighty six, eighty seven. For me,
it's more eighty seven because that is when hip hop
comes into its own as a musical form. Because before
then it sounded a lot like funk and R and B,
you know, especially if you listen to the early sugar
(03:26):
Hill records. But once Marley and Rick started making records
with pieces of other records, hip hop began not only
becoming its own, it began influencing other genres.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
When did the Golden era end? Well, it ended when.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Sort of more people got access to this and it
became well moneyed. Right, So I think the end of
the Golden era for me probably is around the mid nineties.
I mean, you might even want to say, like the
depths of Tupac and Biggie probably, you know, are the
end of that first era, of that golden era of
(04:09):
hip hop. But then the Golden era yields to the
Platinum era, right then we have new criteria. The criteria
of the golden era also is not solely commercial. The
criteria of a golden era is just as much creative
(04:30):
based as it is commercially based. It's not about who's
hot it's also about who's doing some new who's blowing
people's wigs back, And I think that became less important
at least in mainstream hip hop to the late nineties.
(04:50):
Not saying that there weren't new things. I think also
that's when the center shifted. The South started to do
some really incredible stuff towards the end of the nineties
early two thousand.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I'm going to disagree with my friend Dan charn It's
just a bit on his description right here.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Sugar Hill Records.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
They were more about rap. It really wasn't hip hop
culture just yet. They was really just trying to get
a buck. They played an important role, but this really
wasn't hip hop, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
They were a rap.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Label, and the ideas that became hip hop were still
being formed at that point in time, but it was
soon going to hit and hit hard.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Also, Dan good point about the platinum error.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Ralph McDaniels, co creator of New York's pioneering show Video
Music Box and currently the hip hop coordinator for the
Queen's Public Library.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
There was definitely a shift from the eighties to the
nineties and hip hop because I think that the environment
was different or the environment was affecting what was happening.
You know, when you have pract at all these different
in the government, you know, Reagan, Reaganomics and all this
type of stuff happening, it changes, you know, how people react.
(06:03):
Kids are getting locked up for crazy numbers, you know,
in the eighties, and you know it's just a fight.
It's a war going on outside with the police and
the community. You know, you're gonna be like, your perspective
on things is a lot different, you know, and your
way you where you talk about it on music or
talk about it in general, in the corner or in
the barbershop.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
You got a different feeling about.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
You got a little edge on your shoulder by the
time the nineties come because you got your ass beat.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Quite too often, kid capri because in the eighties it
was more conscious. You had trib court, quest care rest,
one rock Chimp, Big Daddy King. Due to speaker conscious rap.
When the nineties came, it became two things. It became
dressed up rap and it became gangst the rap one
made more money than the other because sex, violence and drugs.
(06:54):
Self right, I'm.
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Telling you conscious and you're a kid from the other you.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Shut up here because you ain't see no other way out.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
You go about what you live through and what you
live through your conscious conscious talk that you're saying, is
it conducive to what you're living? So you don't want
to hear that, even though it's the right thing to
listen to. You don't want to hear that. You want
to hear what's conducive to you. The Gangster Fat Joe is.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
When Nasty Nas was born. You know, Nasty Nas came out.
It's like sneaking Uzzi on the island in my only jacket,
lining with it, you know, NAS, just like that defining
moment where I tell you where DMC shifted the sound.
NAS shifted the sound and made it so that you
(07:43):
had to really be lyrical if you wanted to survive
in that era.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
It was no more playing games.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I remember I was terrified because I was out before
NAS and nine Flow Joe. It's crazy because every time
I hang out with Nas Nas, I'm.
Speaker 8 (07:57):
Not y'all slow Joe to them was dope.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
But if you listen to my lyrics, I was saying,
like boss it, check it, watch how I wreck it?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
Like my lyrics was trash man.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And it's like when NAS came out, it was like, Wow,
it shifted the whole game. But at the same time,
it maybe step my game up. You know, I had
to study him and everybody was dropping lyrics.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
Cougie Rap, all of them. To step my lyrics up.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Otherwise I knew I wouldn't survive that era of hip hop.
Speaker 8 (08:36):
And so that's when that shift came.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
When Nas came out, that was the shift that changed
the sound. And then we got like intelligent hustlers like
a Jay Z talking.
Speaker 8 (08:48):
That reasonable doubt. So that's when I think the shift came.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, fat Joe, but I want you to know, baby
Flow Joe was my joint. You came hard, you came strong,
and even though you whether it wasn't crazy lyricool with it,
you had an incredible image at the time that was
much needed in hip hop, and that was important.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
DJ MV radio personality and host of the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 9 (09:11):
And I never want to dis anybody from any eraror
but it was I don't want to say it was
easier because I'm not a rapp up, but I would
say lyrically the nineties in two thousands, especially nineties and
two thousands, they challenged themselves a lot more. I would
think that's from leaders like NAS, leaders like whole leaders,
like you know, gangsta leaders like you know, Biggie you
(09:36):
know who challenged that that wordplay.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Shahimrie music journalists.
Speaker 9 (09:41):
It was a shift in the culture, you know, like
in the early in the late eighties and early nineties,
it was a lot more afrocentric. You know, you will
see people with the African mid dyings and you had
to get your African mid dying from from jenega Ave
or bull t Street and Win twin Ish Dreaming the Harbum.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Even inn W eight they had.
Speaker 9 (10:03):
A record called Express Yourself and Prime Time Public Enemy,
Prime Time Here Arrest want Boogie Down production. Even though
Boogie Down production, they would spend that gangster and stuff too.
But you know, when the Chronic came out, definitely that
gangst the music started getting popular. I don't think ice
(10:24):
Cube gets enough.
Speaker 7 (10:24):
Credit for what he did.
Speaker 9 (10:26):
I think people sleeping on what Q did with America's
Most Wanted Death Certificate, two of the greatest albums ever made.
But for somebody to come back to back with those
and kill out will as well. You know, Q was
on the fourfront him. It was just the hardest shift
to the stream slight when the nineties start coming. Like
(10:47):
you had hard stuff in the eighties though, but it
it was just more prevalent in the nineties, man, And
I think that is because the Tylerson was gone through,
you know, practice some bubbling in the eighties, and look
what happened like in the nineties and turning the nineties
you had knew Jack City, like it got really serious.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Without a doubt following my man Shahim. It's really important.
Aspect of the Golden Era was the diversity.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I mean, so many groups, so many artists coming from
different places, different parts of the country, you know what
I'm saying, bringing different flavors, different styles. I'm talking gangster, conscious,
somewhat humorous, you know, with a sense of humor. We
had that jazzy flavor. And once again, that conscious flavor
was real important, real strong at a time like we
(11:38):
really needed to kind of see and hear what my
man kars Won had to say with my philosophy a video.
I was proud to direct his debut, you know, ex clan,
you know what I'm saying. And of course like public enemy,
fighting the power so necessary. And then once again I
just want to you know, toot my own horn, because
a key part of all this once again kicking off
(12:00):
in nineteen eighty eight, as this golden era is really
really raging, Yo, MTV raps, you know, play the key
part because radio still was not on hip hop at
the time, and so we felt out mission that your
MTV rap, realizing that we were the largest window into
the culture, was to represent to the fullest and show
(12:20):
what was really happening in a diverse and an interesting way,
because it couldn't just.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Be us showing what was going on in New York.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
So we were looking and aggressively given given light to
those flavors that were.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Coming from different states around the country.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Sir mixed a lot rapper songwriting record producer.
Speaker 10 (12:41):
LL was probably for a long time like my face.
I used to try to mimic them.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
You know, you get in the you get in the mirror.
Speaker 10 (12:47):
And be like, you can rearrange, but you don't have
the brains to arrange grass paddle fulls.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
You try to mimic them, a kid, I'm like, nah,
I can't.
Speaker 10 (12:54):
His delivery was sinister, and the way they rolled all
the bottomn out out of his voice, so it sounded
like menacing character in a movie.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
Yeah. So I'm gonna say the late eighties, early nineties
that was to me.
Speaker 10 (13:06):
And I know, I'm shooting myself in the foot, Like,
well wait a minute, you peeked out after that. I'm like, yeah,
but I I'm sorry. I'm a hip hop fan first,
and and I toured with them.
Speaker 6 (13:16):
Guys. Man, it's it's I'm looking up. I'm out on
the road with Chuck d Ice, T E. P. M. D.
Eric being Rock Kim. I'm like, well, actually, Eric B
what not with us?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
It was just rock him.
Speaker 10 (13:26):
But especially when I met rock Kim man, he actually
asked me a question about publishing.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
I'm like, rock Kim just asked me.
Speaker 10 (13:35):
I'm like, wow, he does, Rock Kim, you know what
I mean. So I gave him what he needed. I
gave him a phone number, and I hope he got
his paper because that's the goat man.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Hakeem Green rapper and cannabis enthusiasts.
Speaker 11 (13:47):
My golden erab hip hop would be eighty six to
nineteen ninety, No tricks in eighty six time, nineteen eighty
eighties great, the greatest year in hip hop.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You gotta slick Rick Krris one get our productions. You're
publican and me.
Speaker 11 (14:02):
You got x clan, you got just got so much,
got so much, Got Big Daddy Kane, who was my
favorite rapper in nineteen eighty eight eighty eight, the greatest
year of hip hop. Kane was my favorite rapper in
nineteen eighty eight. You had so much awareness and consciousness
in it. It was still so pure in the approach
(14:23):
of it and the integrity of it. We were having
fun with it, we were learning from it. That was
just it was everything I would say prior to that,
like the foundation of it, Like it's set. The model
is set, the mode you never want to take away
from anything before that or anything after. But for me
(14:44):
nineteen eighty six to nineteen ninety and plus eighty seven,
I went to college. So you know, when you're growing
up as a as a man, you know in New
York City, you know, it's like that's the soundtrack crossing
over into manhood. So that's why those MC especially me
so much to me. Chris Chuck a rock him, I'm
(15:05):
gonna throw ll in there, Cuji rap Slick rick Man
brother Jay who doesn't get enough credit.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Kawhime rapper and record producer.
Speaker 12 (15:16):
Golden eras from nineteen eighty six to nineteen ninety two.
And I firm on that because from eighty six to
ninety two it was DNA making. The things that were
made in eighty six to ninety two is the current
DNA of hip hop. It was the time we started
seeing the jewelry. It was the time we started putting
(15:37):
fashion forward. It was the time we started incorporating samples.
It was a time where lyrics got out of message
wraps and party raps and started getting extremely lyrical, like
the precursors to the extremely lyrical people they keep on.
You know, they want to give it to like Rock Him,
and I understand that, but you cannot forget and Tela Rock.
(16:02):
They were the precursors. They were the spark that lit
the cool g rap in, the Rock Him flame that
spawned modern rap. Rap never was the same after nineteen
eighty six, ra be for President my melody. It never
was the same, and all rappers followed them O D.
(16:25):
Tela Rock Blueprint and nobody want to ever mention it.
That's the funny thing. But like you listen to even
LL being super lyrical. If you listen to LL style
on my radio and Rock the Bell which ushers in
the Golden Era as well, especially Rock the bells ushers
in the Golden era. His whole flow is on Tila Rock.
(16:49):
It's yours, It's it's one hundred percent. You could flow
for flow. It's the same thing and that lyrical thing
even up to and so I say I stop at
maybe early ninety three because the mission statement was always
the same from eighty six to ninety three. Be yourself,
(17:13):
be different, but at the same time stick to your
core vibe, but be able to be as diverse as
possible on a record, like be able to rap about love,
be able to tell a story, be able to make
(17:35):
up you know, some people made pop records. Be able
to do a pop record, be able to do a
message record. Every album from eighty six to ninety two
had those elements in the album that showed that the
rapper was a diverse writer and showed diverse experiences. After
(17:56):
ninety two, it was just about the genre that you
present gangster pop, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
What I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
It just became the box most definitely kwalme Haha, Komo
d and Tela Rock. Those are two important artists to mention,
particularly because CuMo D and Tela Rock they were part
of a group called the Treacherous Three with another member,
La Sunshine. They go back to the first wave of
hip hop coming out of the Bronx and then CuMo D.
(18:26):
He was able to make that transition into the second wave.
You know what I'm saying with you know with Go
See the Doctor and Wow Wow West and those were
some of the early videos. Once again we got to
play on Yo MTV Rap, so once again you got
to see it and hear big part of the Golden Era,
and once again Teyla Rock with his record It's Yours
(18:49):
produced by Rick Rubin. We're gonna get into this on
the next episode, y'all, but Tela Rock It's Yours. That
song is the beginning of Deaf Jam Records, the Eights
Rapper record producer.
Speaker 13 (19:03):
The Golden Era for me, Okay, I'm gonna go seven
years eighty eight to ninety five because I can't lead
ninety five out eighty eight to ninety five, because that's
when we had the most variety of types of artists,
sounds of music, and everybody was still.
Speaker 9 (19:25):
Doing their own thing and not necessarily conforming to what
the labels would try to make them do. So there
was still a lot of creative freedom in that time period.
It wasn't until kind of like post ninety five or
write in the middle of ninety five where there had
to be a formula. If you wanted to be on
the radio, it had to be this, It had to
(19:45):
sound like this, it had to have this in it,
this element. You started to see that shift and so
a lot of us sell victim to that because we
didn't want to be left out in the call where
everybody wanted to kick their record. So it's like, well,
they was telling me, if I don't have a joint,
you know, with some singing on it, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Gonna get on the radio. And if I don't get
on the radio, I'm not gonna have a deal. So
you saw a lot of artists trying to trying to
conform to that eighty to ninety five. I'm gonna take
a seven year span, you know. My man master age
right here and once again another music video I got
to direct was one for him, his song music Man.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Check it out on YouTube.
Speaker 14 (20:26):
By the way, Fat Joe, My true golden era of
hip hop is LL Cool, J, Salt and Pepper heavy
d you know, that's the slip where you know.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
They was doing they were superstar for one. It wasn't
a lot of rappers at that time. It was just
a handful, like right now, with no disrespect. Every night
I watched the news, the regular news Channel five news
out with this news is like all an inspiring rapper did, Like,
(20:59):
you know, we don't even know who they are what
they're rappers.
Speaker 8 (21:03):
Right at that time, he only had a handful that
was killing the public.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Enemies, the the Slick Ricks, the you know, the l
cool J's, that all of them, the NWA.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
That was that error to me.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You know, I watched Slick Rick do a show one time,
sitting on a throne. He never got up and everybody
in the crowd sung every word, was dancing and moving
and he was like once upon a time not long ago,
when people were never even got up with a crown.
(21:43):
I remember being at the Apollo and Big Daddy King
came down from the sky on a swing and he
had two girls, one on the left and the right,
and they had like togas on like he was Caesar.
They were the first marketers, and that era was the
first real marketing and branding. And I remember that night
(22:06):
when I came outside, he was standing in front of
the Pilo and five hundred bens with a five fider
kit with the big neph for.
Speaker 8 (22:15):
Titty on his flight.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
NZ Marquis slid down a nose because he used to
add picking boogets. You know what I'm saying, Like lokoj
was coming out of a boombox, Madison Square card in
the Giant.
Speaker 8 (22:32):
I need my radio, like these guys.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
They said it off now, I tell you Happy Detoy,
Biggy had a dress, Haunter had a dress, Ross had
a dress.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Fat Joe had a dress. It all came from this error.
Speaker 10 (22:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
TWU Live Crew came in that era too. It was
a little bit after there was them boys was doing
the lot.
Speaker 8 (22:56):
Down there in Miami. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And so to me, that's to me Fat Joe as
a fan, that's the Golden Era.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yes, indeed, Fat Joe, you captured a lot the way
you broke that down.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
All the incredible groups Baby, one of so many reasons
why the Golden Era was so special. I'm gonna keep
on reminding y'all we not only got to hear it,
but we got to say it. So you know, if
you listen, you'll notice that many of these songs still
stand the test of time.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
That's right, these.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Songs, it's twenty I was thirty years old. They still
sound good to this day. And now try to imagine
hearing some of these songs, or remember what it was
like when you first heard these songs, like with Your
Walk Man, you know, on a cassette or maybe the vinyl. Yes,
once again, truly revolutionary in the history of all music.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Period. What went down with hip hop and the Golden era.
Speaker 9 (23:58):
DJ Envy nineties nineties A couple of reasons. The nineties
was the era when I was outside.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And although I lived through the.
Speaker 9 (24:09):
Eighties and all that, the nineties was just different. They
took hip hop to another level with lyrics, with production,
with tours, with merge, with style, with everything. The nineties
is the level where I think we also crossed over
to mainstream. You know, I was in college at that time,
(24:30):
so I can't take back those long rides listening to
a fool Gie's album, a Whole's album, on NAS album
or Nori's album. You know, we played with it a
little more, you know, we made it was a storytelling.
You know Biggie talking about I got a story to tell,
can go left, can go right, but also can make
dance music. It was a time where we all stood together,
(24:53):
where we went to HBCU homecomings, We went to Hampton's
home coming, and went to Howard's home coming. Nor he
could do Body in the trunk. Him and the greats
were going back and forth. There was nothing like the
nineties era.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Of hip hop.
Speaker 9 (25:05):
Eighties were great and the eighties were cool, but I
think the nineties made more money, more control. The art
was a lot better, It sounded better and bigger, and
I just didn't feel like, to this day, I don't
feel like there was anything better than that era.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
R and B as well, when you talked about Mary J.
Speaker 9 (25:26):
Blige, you know, even the beginning of Ussher at that time,
are you talking about diddio A, You're talking about nas
and all that. Like those are things that to this
day you still play and it doesn't sound old.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Shahim reed music journalists.
Speaker 9 (25:41):
That late eighties that Slick Rick, that rock Can, that KRS,
that cool g rap, that Big Daddy Can changed rap.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
You know what I'm saying, totally changed the game and
took it up so many different levels, you know what
I'm saying, So that that was sort of like kind
of set.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
In the stage.
Speaker 9 (26:03):
But then I always look at the year nineteen ninety four,
which remember Snoop and Wu Tang came out at the
end of ninety three.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I think Mary J.
Speaker 9 (26:15):
Blige is is at ninety three. R Kelly is around
that time, so you're getting hip hop at R and
B together at the same time. Ninety four Ninas came out,
ninety four Biggie came out, ninety four, Tupac is circulating
moving around. So that to me that ninety three, ninety four,
(26:36):
ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven proably the biggest most
influential years in hip hop. And you gotta say ninety
eight two because that's when DMX came out. That's when
jay Z took over the Crown and hip hop with
Hard Knocked Life and Miseducation. Lawrence Hill got the Foojis
in that era, that's when not only did we see
(26:59):
the Crown go to New Heights, but then it started selling.
Then it started being on TV shows like nine O, two,
one oh. Then we started getting in our own record labels.
Then we started getting our own fashion brands. Then we
started really breaking the dawn and doing all of these
Hollywood movies and TV shows Martin Lawrence, Bad Boys, you know,
(27:23):
Living Single, ll COOLJ. You know it was That's that's
when it That's when we took over. If you want
to say the late eightieses the golden era, you gotta
say the men nineties is the platinum era.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Incredible time for real. Shot here weed man, that's exactly
when we took over. Baby, we did.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
And keep in mind, we took over the whole planet
because it went global, man, people in every other language
around the world, from Russia to China, all over Europe.
France the second biggest market for hip hop since forever.
We definitely took over and we're still rocking on Rockenstrom
Charlamagne the God, co host of The Breakfast Club, founder
(28:05):
of the Black Effect podcast network and media mode.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
For me, it would be nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 15 (28:13):
In nineteen ninety eight, ninety four, I'm like, what eighty eight,
I'm like sixteen years old. In ninety four, I'm outside
a little bit. You know, you saw the rise of
West Coast music. You saw Death Row, Doctor Dre Snoop, everything,
that they were doing. Then it went to the East
(28:33):
coast and it's Wu Tang and Nas and bad Boy
and Biggie and then you know, Jay came around in
ninety six, and then you saw the South start to
come up in nineteen ninety eight. Actually a little bit
before that because you have master p and No Limit.
But then like ninety eight was like the cash Money
era and you had everything that was coming out of
(28:54):
Atlanta outcast, the Goodie Moob you know, that turned into
the man It's so many airs like oh man, my,
I'm gonna tell you my favorite My favorite eras was
ninety four, ninety eight and the early two thousands with
Crump music. That second Golden era of New York with
(29:16):
Wu Tang, Nas, Bingie Jay, Black Moons like that was phenomenal.
And then ninety eight when cash Money and everybody started
to come up with the early two thousands when Crump
music came in. Man, Crump music is an era that
we take for granted. When Crump Music was out, I
was outside outside, That's when I was in. I was.
(29:36):
I started radio in ninety eight, so by two thousand
and two thousand and one, we I'm in Colombia me
and my man DJ Frosty were doing all the clubs.
You know, this is little John get Low, this is
you know, prime mob neck. If you fall, this is
bone Crush're never scared, you know. Then the trap music
era came. G Z Trapp would die Ti urban legend,
(30:01):
you know. Trap music like that was an unbelievable era.
I'm being now that I think about it.
Speaker 6 (30:07):
That was my favorite era.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yes, indeed, Charlamagne really good point raised that crunk era.
The influence from the South as it was raging on
at this point, so important, so much fun on the
dance floor.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Wow Crunk for show Ice Tea at the Rappa West
Coast hip hop pioneer.
Speaker 9 (30:28):
The golden era has to be with I just brought
the Jones and the Oh's and the music. No, I mean,
I can't really tell you. I think that there was
a point I say. The golden era to me has
to be before the internet, when you still had to
buy records, when you still had to go to the store.
(30:48):
When a million records sold meant one million people got
out of their cars and went into the store and
purchased your record amongst so many other records in that store,
or what they bought your record.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It wasn't them hitting a click button. It wasn't then
buying one song out of the record. They bought that album.
There was a time where you almost could buy damn
near every rap record out. You know, I think you
know when master p and them started coming out and
dropping hundreds of records. That was the beginning, not the
(31:24):
bad part, but it was the beginning. It was welcoming
the Internet era. And when the Internet came, anybody could
put out a record. There was no an R and
it just got flooded. And now it's really difficult to
even know all the rappers or know what's good.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
It's just flooded.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Now, I'm not hating on it. I mean, Quincy Jones
taught me, if you want to lose a fight, fight
the future. The future is what it is. So but
I'm proud to be part of that era when the
album covers meant something, the liner notes, the special thing.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You would look and see where the record would be recorded.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
You try to get that same engineer, you wanted to
get the same in person to master the record. It
was all that kind of That was an era of
hip hop where you know, I thrived, I feel like
I was third generation, so first generation to be unrecorded
(32:28):
hip hop, ending with the Sugarhill Gang. Second generations run
ll BC Boys, Fat Boys, Curtis Blow, third generation myself
Public Enemy Rock Kim that you know EPMD came.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
That's where I fell in that link. By now we're
probably a twelfth generation.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yes, Indeed, another really important factor, I see you're soul
right pre internet and Internet you know, I'm saying that
transition happened in the nineties. You know, I got on
Aol dot com and got my first laptop in the
early nineties, and I was trying to get everybody to
get on this new crazy thing called the Internet. I
(33:14):
remember whening the opportunity to download a song came money.
You had to wait all day for one of them songs,
you know, to download, but it was so exciting.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
The ability to do this. Now, that's how we do
it right.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
The playlist a real important part of how we get
our music these days right. And another thing that we
have to hope they get right is the algorithm. You
know what I mean, the rhythm in the algorithm. It's
so important to how we get our music these days.
Ed Love Them Rapper, Actor Radio personality and former MTVVJ.
Speaker 16 (33:49):
You would say that the golden era of hip hop
would be from eighty nine to eighty eight to two thousand.
I think some people say that's the golden era hip
hop or eighty nine, eighty nine to two thousand, is
that golden era? Yeah, you saw, I'd say, because you
really started seeing the growth of hip hop. You saw
that the different styles come out during that time period, right.
(34:12):
You saw it become more of a.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
National and international music.
Speaker 16 (34:19):
Like we had Nana Cherry with you know, the Buffalo stance,
and you had different people coming in with different music.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
It's so worldwide now. You know, we kind of like help.
Speaker 16 (34:29):
Explode reggae music too, because we took your on TV
raps to Jamaica for the you know, Sunsplash for a
few years. So you really saw Shaba come out and
Ninja come out and all of these guys become worldwide phenomenas,
along with the NASA's, the jay Z's, the Mob Deep,
the you know, the Big eas, the you know everybody.
(34:51):
It just it was that's when it to me, it
became super creative and you had all of these amazing,
amazing produce. It was starting to come through. That was
that era, you know, and really, you know, Nads has
a huge responsibility in that because before you know, Ella
would go in the studio with Marley and Mally would
(35:13):
do the entire album. Nads did his first album. There
was five six different producers on there, you know, the
Peate Rocks and cl Smooths and all of that. Going
into the nineties, Man, that was it. You know, the
tribe called Quests and day Lot Soul. Like, nobody sounded
like day Last Soul. Nobody sounded like you know, Public
(35:34):
Enemy Nobody.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
It was just that was it.
Speaker 16 (35:37):
Man. Everybody was so super super creative and it was
room for everybody. Nobody sounded like too short, Nobody sounded
like n WA. Nobody sounded like ice cube. Nobody sounded
like ice tea. Nobody sounded like school Deep, Nobody sounded
like three times dope nobody. You know what I mean.
It was such a creative time period, even Jazzy Jeff
(36:00):
in the Fresh Prince. You know, it was so creative.
That's why I call it the Golden Era. It was
so damn creative. You know, look at the transition from
Phobob being part of the Master of the ceremony to
brand Nubid. You know that was dumb creative. So that's
(36:22):
why I say that's the Golden are. It's the most
creative time, way more creative than now.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Daddy Oh rapper, producer, deep thinker and founding member of
Classic Brooklyn rap group statsisnic. I think there's more than
one golden there.
Speaker 9 (36:40):
I do believe in what people say, so I will
give that Golden era first Golden Era to us and
Public Enemy and Dougie Fresh and mc light. Ricky's in there,
but he's with Dougie Fresh, can plays in that group,
So Pepper's in that group a few us and I
(37:01):
will give it to that. I think part of that
is nobody talks about GRUNDIUMC two. Part of that kuj.
Part of that is sonics, right like like like honestly,
they've never matched us. Nothing is still better than the
(37:23):
message or I need to beat nothing, no future, no,
none of them. They can't beat it, like you know
what I'm saying. And them damn sugar Hill records were
so dope and loud it was crazy, man. So so
I think part of it is sonics. Part of us
(37:43):
is us just getting in the studio and getting our
feet wet, and part of it is us finally after
Frankie Krot, I hate it on us finally getting on
the radio.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
But then, what do you call Wanne? Did the era
of Little Wanne and them Fireman taps?
Speaker 6 (38:05):
Right?
Speaker 9 (38:06):
I mean, what do you call NOAs and Biggie and Puff?
So it's difficult for me. This is just me, difficult
for me to lay into one golden era.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Daddy Yo, good point. How could I leave out Little
Wang and.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Important MC dope lyrics, incredible skills over a long period
of time. Yes, indeed, big up Little Wang a part
of the onslaught from the South, stand up and be
recognized ll cool Jack, actor, rapper, entrepreneur, considered one of
the best to ever do it.
Speaker 17 (38:41):
Then this whole kit is gold we fifty years in.
You know, I'm going on Tall, sold out, Tall, God willing.
Everybody's rocking, people are into it. I have my day
ones waiting for my new record. I mean everything, it's
all golden. I understand like people want this year that year.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Man.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Listen, there's always something great happening. There's always something great
happening in art. Yes, there are inflection points, Yes, there
are watershed movements. That's true. You can't deny that. However,
you can't be grateful for the whole ride.
Speaker 17 (39:14):
Because we're still riding the credits they roll on the
movie yet, so we don't know what chapter, you know,
we don't know what the next you know, I mean,
the next act is gonna be, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
So I'm not getting caught up in like what it
used to be. I'm looking at the future.
Speaker 17 (39:31):
I'm thinking about like, Okay, how can we level this
up and how can we, you know, take what we
doing to another level?
Speaker 1 (39:37):
You know what I'm saying, you know, show people what's possible.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, So the Golden Era definitely.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Was so important to so many people, and for sure
it went from gold into platinum. But that Golden Era
was so important for so many reasons that you heard
on this episode. So let me share my goal era
without question for me, that begins in nineteen eighty eight,
(40:06):
when me hosting Yo MTV raps begins. You just go
back and look at some of the records that came
out in nineteen eighty eight and you'll see what I mean.
For me, the ending of the Golden Era happened in
horror and it's a photo once again, hit Google and
(40:26):
search a great day in hip hop.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
This was a photo that was done to be a cover.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
It was a three page fold out cover of Double
XL magazine and they had the brilliant idea to get
one of my inspirations on the creative renaissance, tip the
amazing photographer, filmmaker and everything.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Else creative justin Pouse, Gordon Parks.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
They got Gordon Parks, who was in his eighties at
the time, to recreate a famous photo done in Harlem
at the same location back in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
They got about fifty jazz legends showed.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Up in front of this brownstone in Harlem and took
this incredible photo. Art Kane was the photographer day at
the idea to do a hip hop version. They got
Gordon Parks and nearly two hundred hip hop pioneers from
Cool Heark, people from Atlanta, Jamaine Dupree, people from Cali,
(41:35):
people from Texas. It was an incredible representation of hip
hop at that moment.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
The date was September twenty ninth, nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
And when you pull up that photo one line and
take a good close look at everybody was there.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
That to me was the end of the Golden Era, because.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
That was the beginning now of people from different places
around the country, from the South, Atlanta, Texas, Florida, all
these different states stepped up, made hits and got their
piece of the hip hop rock. So the energy once
again born, bred, college green fed in these streets in
New York City. It was time for it to break out,
(42:16):
leave home and go across the country and around the world.
And when I looked at that phono, I realized this
would never happen again. And this for sure was the
ending of the Golden Era. And then for sure we
moved into platinum and wherever we are now the Golden Era.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
This is a fun episode, so many great records after this.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I'm switching over and I'm getting ready to pull up
a bunch of these songs that we're mention and I'm
about to take it back like an eight track.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
And that's it, Baby, I'll see y'all on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Next episode the fifty Years of Hip Hop podcast series, Man,
We're gonna explore the extraordinary story of the world's most
influential hip hop label and its creators. Rick Rubin Russell
Simmons the story of Deaf Jam Records. This episode has
been executive produced by Dolly s. Bishop, hosted and produced
(43:09):
by Your Boy Fab five Freddie. Produced by Aaron A.
King Howard. Edit, mixed sound by Dwayne Crawford, music scoring
by Trey Jones, Talent booking by Nicole Spence
From iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I Am five five Freddy and this it's fifty years
of hip hop podcast series. It's now time to get
into hip hop's most beloved, embrace, cherished, and remembered period
known as the Golden Era. So this is loosely, let's say,
from the mid late eighties into the mid late nineties.
(00:28):
Many greats are gonna come on in a minute and
share their interpretation, their version, those artists that did it
for them, and all these significant things that made the
Golden Era what it is. This was an incredible growth
period for hip hop culture. The seeds, the roots, if
you've been plugged into this podcast, these previous episodes, those roots,
(00:52):
those things that went down in New York City, particularly
in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Those roots went deep.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, they got to go really deep in the ground,
and then they begin to bear fruit. And this Golden
Era some of the best fruit, the molds were created.
Some of the most impactful artists solo and group, hit
the scene and exploded all over this entire planet. A
real fruitful period once again, the Golden Era, and I'm
(01:22):
talking about the producers and the visuals that went along
with these records. A very important point that I had
a heavy hand then. So I'm gonna chime in throughout
and drop little info about that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know, the music videos was real important, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But right now, let's take it back like an eight
track and let's get into the golden era.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Error.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Dan sharnis author and educator.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Let me tell you what a golden age is, all right,
here is the equation. It is the era of the
firsts that last, the golden era. Any golden age is
when we see the firsts that actually last.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So what do I mean by that?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Sugar Hill was the first record label to essentially make
its business based on hip hop, but they did not last.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Death Jam was the first hip hop.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Label by hip hop fans for hip hop fans, and
it lasted because it was that right, So when we
think about a golden era, look.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
For the firsts that last.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
The Source wasn't the very first hip hop magazine, but
it was the first that lasted. Run DMC weren't the
first hip hop stars really, but they were the first
that actually lasted on and on and on. Right, if
you want to talk about it, Tutionins, that's what I
look for. Golden era of hip hop to me thusly
(03:06):
begins around maybe eighty five, eighty six, eighty seven. For me,
it's more eighty seven because that is when hip hop
comes into its own as a musical form. Because before
then it sounded a lot like funk and R and B,
you know, especially if you listen to the early sugar
(03:26):
Hill records. But once Marley and Rick started making records
with pieces of other records, hip hop began not only
becoming its own, it began influencing other genres.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
When did the Golden era end? Well, it ended when.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Sort of more people got access to this and it
became well moneyed. Right, So I think the end of
the Golden era for me probably is around the mid nineties.
I mean, you might even want to say, like the
depths of Tupac and Biggie probably, you know, are the
end of that first era, of that golden era of
(04:09):
hip hop. But then the Golden era yields to the
Platinum era, right then we have new criteria. The criteria
of the golden era also is not solely commercial. The
criteria of a golden era is just as much creative
(04:30):
based as it is commercially based. It's not about who's
hot it's also about who's doing some new who's blowing
people's wigs back, And I think that became less important
at least in mainstream hip hop to the late nineties.
(04:50):
Not saying that there weren't new things. I think also
that's when the center shifted. The South started to do
some really incredible stuff towards the end of the nineties
early two thousand.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I'm going to disagree with my friend Dan charn It's
just a bit on his description right here.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Sugar Hill Records.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
They were more about rap. It really wasn't hip hop
culture just yet. They was really just trying to get
a buck. They played an important role, but this really
wasn't hip hop, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
They were a rap.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Label, and the ideas that became hip hop were still
being formed at that point in time, but it was
soon going to hit and hit hard.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Also, Dan good point about the platinum error.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Ralph McDaniels, co creator of New York's pioneering show Video
Music Box and currently the hip hop coordinator for the
Queen's Public Library.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
There was definitely a shift from the eighties to the
nineties and hip hop because I think that the environment
was different or the environment was affecting what was happening.
You know, when you have pract at all these different
in the government, you know, Reagan, Reaganomics and all this
type of stuff happening, it changes, you know, how people react.
(06:03):
Kids are getting locked up for crazy numbers, you know,
in the eighties, and you know it's just a fight.
It's a war going on outside with the police and
the community. You know, you're gonna be like, your perspective
on things is a lot different, you know, and your
way you where you talk about it on music or
talk about it in general, in the corner or in
the barbershop.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
You got a different feeling about.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
You got a little edge on your shoulder by the
time the nineties come because you got your ass beat.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Quite too often, kid capri because in the eighties it
was more conscious. You had trib court, quest care rest,
one rock Chimp, Big Daddy King. Due to speaker conscious rap.
When the nineties came, it became two things. It became
dressed up rap and it became gangst the rap one
made more money than the other because sex, violence and drugs.
(06:54):
Self right, I'm.
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Telling you conscious and you're a kid from the other you.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Shut up here because you ain't see no other way out.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
You go about what you live through and what you
live through your conscious conscious talk that you're saying, is
it conducive to what you're living? So you don't want
to hear that, even though it's the right thing to
listen to. You don't want to hear that. You want
to hear what's conducive to you. The Gangster Fat Joe is.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
When Nasty Nas was born. You know, Nasty Nas came out.
It's like sneaking Uzzi on the island in my only jacket,
lining with it, you know, NAS, just like that defining
moment where I tell you where DMC shifted the sound.
NAS shifted the sound and made it so that you
(07:43):
had to really be lyrical if you wanted to survive
in that era.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
It was no more playing games.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I remember I was terrified because I was out before
NAS and nine Flow Joe. It's crazy because every time
I hang out with Nas Nas, I'm.
Speaker 8 (07:57):
Not y'all slow Joe to them was dope.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
But if you listen to my lyrics, I was saying,
like boss it, check it, watch how I wreck it?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
Like my lyrics was trash man.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And it's like when NAS came out, it was like, Wow,
it shifted the whole game. But at the same time,
it maybe step my game up. You know, I had
to study him and everybody was dropping lyrics.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
Cougie Rap, all of them. To step my lyrics up.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Otherwise I knew I wouldn't survive that era of hip hop.
Speaker 8 (08:36):
And so that's when that shift came.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
When Nas came out, that was the shift that changed
the sound. And then we got like intelligent hustlers like
a Jay Z talking.
Speaker 8 (08:48):
That reasonable doubt. So that's when I think the shift came.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, fat Joe, but I want you to know, baby
Flow Joe was my joint. You came hard, you came strong,
and even though you whether it wasn't crazy lyricool with it,
you had an incredible image at the time that was
much needed in hip hop, and that was important.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
DJ MV radio personality and host of the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 9 (09:11):
And I never want to dis anybody from any eraror
but it was I don't want to say it was
easier because I'm not a rapp up, but I would
say lyrically the nineties in two thousands, especially nineties and
two thousands, they challenged themselves a lot more. I would
think that's from leaders like NAS, leaders like whole leaders,
like you know, gangsta leaders like you know, Biggie you
(09:36):
know who challenged that that wordplay.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Shahimrie music journalists.
Speaker 9 (09:41):
It was a shift in the culture, you know, like
in the early in the late eighties and early nineties,
it was a lot more afrocentric. You know, you will
see people with the African mid dyings and you had
to get your African mid dying from from jenega Ave
or bull t Street and Win twin Ish Dreaming the Harbum.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Even inn W eight they had.
Speaker 9 (10:03):
A record called Express Yourself and Prime Time Public Enemy,
Prime Time Here Arrest want Boogie Down production. Even though
Boogie Down production, they would spend that gangster and stuff too.
But you know, when the Chronic came out, definitely that
gangst the music started getting popular. I don't think ice
(10:24):
Cube gets enough.
Speaker 7 (10:24):
Credit for what he did.
Speaker 9 (10:26):
I think people sleeping on what Q did with America's
Most Wanted Death Certificate, two of the greatest albums ever made.
But for somebody to come back to back with those
and kill out will as well. You know, Q was
on the fourfront him. It was just the hardest shift
to the stream slight when the nineties start coming. Like
(10:47):
you had hard stuff in the eighties though, but it
it was just more prevalent in the nineties, man, And
I think that is because the Tylerson was gone through,
you know, practice some bubbling in the eighties, and look
what happened like in the nineties and turning the nineties
you had knew Jack City, like it got really serious.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Without a doubt following my man Shahim. It's really important.
Aspect of the Golden Era was the diversity.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I mean, so many groups, so many artists coming from
different places, different parts of the country, you know what
I'm saying, bringing different flavors, different styles. I'm talking gangster, conscious,
somewhat humorous, you know, with a sense of humor. We
had that jazzy flavor. And once again, that conscious flavor
was real important, real strong at a time like we
(11:38):
really needed to kind of see and hear what my
man kars Won had to say with my philosophy a video.
I was proud to direct his debut, you know, ex clan,
you know what I'm saying. And of course like public enemy,
fighting the power so necessary. And then once again I
just want to you know, toot my own horn, because
a key part of all this once again kicking off
(12:00):
in nineteen eighty eight, as this golden era is really
really raging, Yo, MTV raps, you know, play the key
part because radio still was not on hip hop at
the time, and so we felt out mission that your
MTV rap, realizing that we were the largest window into
the culture, was to represent to the fullest and show
(12:20):
what was really happening in a diverse and an interesting way,
because it couldn't just.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Be us showing what was going on in New York.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
So we were looking and aggressively given given light to
those flavors that were.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Coming from different states around the country.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Sir mixed a lot rapper songwriting record producer.
Speaker 10 (12:41):
LL was probably for a long time like my face.
I used to try to mimic them.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
You know, you get in the you get in the mirror.
Speaker 10 (12:47):
And be like, you can rearrange, but you don't have
the brains to arrange grass paddle fulls.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
You try to mimic them, a kid, I'm like, nah,
I can't.
Speaker 10 (12:54):
His delivery was sinister, and the way they rolled all
the bottomn out out of his voice, so it sounded
like menacing character in a movie.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
Yeah. So I'm gonna say the late eighties, early nineties
that was to me.
Speaker 10 (13:06):
And I know, I'm shooting myself in the foot, Like,
well wait a minute, you peeked out after that. I'm like, yeah,
but I I'm sorry. I'm a hip hop fan first,
and and I toured with them.
Speaker 6 (13:16):
Guys. Man, it's it's I'm looking up. I'm out on
the road with Chuck d Ice, T E. P. M. D.
Eric being Rock Kim. I'm like, well, actually, Eric B
what not with us?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
It was just rock him.
Speaker 10 (13:26):
But especially when I met rock Kim man, he actually
asked me a question about publishing.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
I'm like, rock Kim just asked me.
Speaker 10 (13:35):
I'm like, wow, he does, Rock Kim, you know what
I mean. So I gave him what he needed. I
gave him a phone number, and I hope he got
his paper because that's the goat man.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Hakeem Green rapper and cannabis enthusiasts.
Speaker 11 (13:47):
My golden erab hip hop would be eighty six to
nineteen ninety, No tricks in eighty six time, nineteen eighty
eighties great, the greatest year in hip hop.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You gotta slick Rick Krris one get our productions. You're
publican and me.
Speaker 11 (14:02):
You got x clan, you got just got so much,
got so much, Got Big Daddy Kane, who was my
favorite rapper in nineteen eighty eight eighty eight, the greatest
year of hip hop. Kane was my favorite rapper in
nineteen eighty eight. You had so much awareness and consciousness
in it. It was still so pure in the approach
(14:23):
of it and the integrity of it. We were having
fun with it, we were learning from it. That was
just it was everything I would say prior to that,
like the foundation of it, Like it's set. The model
is set, the mode you never want to take away
from anything before that or anything after. But for me
(14:44):
nineteen eighty six to nineteen ninety and plus eighty seven,
I went to college. So you know, when you're growing
up as a as a man, you know in New
York City, you know, it's like that's the soundtrack crossing
over into manhood. So that's why those MC especially me
so much to me. Chris Chuck a rock him, I'm
(15:05):
gonna throw ll in there, Cuji rap Slick rick Man
brother Jay who doesn't get enough credit.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Kawhime rapper and record producer.
Speaker 12 (15:16):
Golden eras from nineteen eighty six to nineteen ninety two.
And I firm on that because from eighty six to
ninety two it was DNA making. The things that were
made in eighty six to ninety two is the current
DNA of hip hop. It was the time we started
seeing the jewelry. It was the time we started putting
(15:37):
fashion forward. It was the time we started incorporating samples.
It was a time where lyrics got out of message
wraps and party raps and started getting extremely lyrical, like
the precursors to the extremely lyrical people they keep on.
You know, they want to give it to like Rock Him,
and I understand that, but you cannot forget and Tela Rock.
(16:02):
They were the precursors. They were the spark that lit
the cool g rap in, the Rock Him flame that
spawned modern rap. Rap never was the same after nineteen
eighty six, ra be for President my melody. It never
was the same, and all rappers followed them O D.
(16:25):
Tela Rock Blueprint and nobody want to ever mention it.
That's the funny thing. But like you listen to even
LL being super lyrical. If you listen to LL style
on my radio and Rock the Bell which ushers in
the Golden Era as well, especially Rock the bells ushers
in the Golden era. His whole flow is on Tila Rock.
(16:49):
It's yours, It's it's one hundred percent. You could flow
for flow. It's the same thing and that lyrical thing
even up to and so I say I stop at
maybe early ninety three because the mission statement was always
the same from eighty six to ninety three. Be yourself,
(17:13):
be different, but at the same time stick to your
core vibe, but be able to be as diverse as
possible on a record, like be able to rap about love,
be able to tell a story, be able to make
(17:35):
up you know, some people made pop records. Be able
to do a pop record, be able to do a
message record. Every album from eighty six to ninety two
had those elements in the album that showed that the
rapper was a diverse writer and showed diverse experiences. After
(17:56):
ninety two, it was just about the genre that you
present gangster pop, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
What I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
It just became the box most definitely kwalme Haha, Komo
d and Tela Rock. Those are two important artists to mention,
particularly because CuMo D and Tela Rock they were part
of a group called the Treacherous Three with another member,
La Sunshine. They go back to the first wave of
hip hop coming out of the Bronx and then CuMo D.
(18:26):
He was able to make that transition into the second wave.
You know what I'm saying with you know with Go
See the Doctor and Wow Wow West and those were
some of the early videos. Once again we got to
play on Yo MTV Rap, so once again you got
to see it and hear big part of the Golden Era,
and once again Teyla Rock with his record It's Yours
(18:49):
produced by Rick Rubin. We're gonna get into this on
the next episode, y'all, but Tela Rock It's Yours. That
song is the beginning of Deaf Jam Records, the Eights
Rapper record producer.
Speaker 13 (19:03):
The Golden Era for me, Okay, I'm gonna go seven
years eighty eight to ninety five because I can't lead
ninety five out eighty eight to ninety five, because that's
when we had the most variety of types of artists,
sounds of music, and everybody was still.
Speaker 9 (19:25):
Doing their own thing and not necessarily conforming to what
the labels would try to make them do. So there
was still a lot of creative freedom in that time period.
It wasn't until kind of like post ninety five or
write in the middle of ninety five where there had
to be a formula. If you wanted to be on
the radio, it had to be this, It had to
(19:45):
sound like this, it had to have this in it,
this element. You started to see that shift and so
a lot of us sell victim to that because we
didn't want to be left out in the call where
everybody wanted to kick their record. So it's like, well,
they was telling me, if I don't have a joint,
you know, with some singing on it, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Gonna get on the radio. And if I don't get
on the radio, I'm not gonna have a deal. So
you saw a lot of artists trying to trying to
conform to that eighty to ninety five. I'm gonna take
a seven year span, you know. My man master age
right here and once again another music video I got
to direct was one for him, his song music Man.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Check it out on YouTube.
Speaker 14 (20:26):
By the way, Fat Joe, My true golden era of
hip hop is LL Cool, J, Salt and Pepper heavy
d you know, that's the slip where you know.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
They was doing they were superstar for one. It wasn't
a lot of rappers at that time. It was just
a handful, like right now, with no disrespect. Every night
I watched the news, the regular news Channel five news
out with this news is like all an inspiring rapper did, Like,
(20:59):
you know, we don't even know who they are what
they're rappers.
Speaker 8 (21:03):
Right at that time, he only had a handful that
was killing the public.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Enemies, the the Slick Ricks, the you know, the l
cool J's, that all of them, the NWA.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
That was that error to me.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You know, I watched Slick Rick do a show one time,
sitting on a throne. He never got up and everybody
in the crowd sung every word, was dancing and moving
and he was like once upon a time not long ago,
when people were never even got up with a crown.
(21:43):
I remember being at the Apollo and Big Daddy King
came down from the sky on a swing and he
had two girls, one on the left and the right,
and they had like togas on like he was Caesar.
They were the first marketers, and that era was the
first real marketing and branding. And I remember that night
(22:06):
when I came outside, he was standing in front of
the Pilo and five hundred bens with a five fider
kit with the big neph for.
Speaker 8 (22:15):
Titty on his flight.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
NZ Marquis slid down a nose because he used to
add picking boogets. You know what I'm saying, Like lokoj
was coming out of a boombox, Madison Square card in
the Giant.
Speaker 8 (22:32):
I need my radio, like these guys.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
They said it off now, I tell you Happy Detoy,
Biggy had a dress, Haunter had a dress, Ross had
a dress.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Fat Joe had a dress. It all came from this error.
Speaker 10 (22:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
TWU Live Crew came in that era too. It was
a little bit after there was them boys was doing
the lot.
Speaker 8 (22:56):
Down there in Miami. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And so to me, that's to me Fat Joe as
a fan, that's the Golden Era.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yes, indeed, Fat Joe, you captured a lot the way
you broke that down.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
All the incredible groups Baby, one of so many reasons
why the Golden Era was so special. I'm gonna keep
on reminding y'all we not only got to hear it,
but we got to say it. So you know, if
you listen, you'll notice that many of these songs still
stand the test of time.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
That's right, these.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Songs, it's twenty I was thirty years old. They still
sound good to this day. And now try to imagine
hearing some of these songs, or remember what it was
like when you first heard these songs, like with Your
Walk Man, you know, on a cassette or maybe the vinyl. Yes,
once again, truly revolutionary in the history of all music.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Period. What went down with hip hop and the Golden era.
Speaker 9 (23:58):
DJ Envy nineties nineties A couple of reasons. The nineties
was the era when I was outside.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And although I lived through the.
Speaker 9 (24:09):
Eighties and all that, the nineties was just different. They
took hip hop to another level with lyrics, with production,
with tours, with merge, with style, with everything. The nineties
is the level where I think we also crossed over
to mainstream. You know, I was in college at that time,
(24:30):
so I can't take back those long rides listening to
a fool Gie's album, a Whole's album, on NAS album
or Nori's album. You know, we played with it a
little more, you know, we made it was a storytelling.
You know Biggie talking about I got a story to tell,
can go left, can go right, but also can make
dance music. It was a time where we all stood together,
(24:53):
where we went to HBCU homecomings, We went to Hampton's
home coming, and went to Howard's home coming. Nor he
could do Body in the trunk. Him and the greats
were going back and forth. There was nothing like the
nineties era.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Of hip hop.
Speaker 9 (25:05):
Eighties were great and the eighties were cool, but I
think the nineties made more money, more control. The art
was a lot better, It sounded better and bigger, and
I just didn't feel like, to this day, I don't
feel like there was anything better than that era.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
R and B as well, when you talked about Mary J.
Speaker 9 (25:26):
Blige, you know, even the beginning of Ussher at that time,
are you talking about diddio A, You're talking about nas
and all that. Like those are things that to this
day you still play and it doesn't sound old.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Shahim reed music journalists.
Speaker 9 (25:41):
That late eighties that Slick Rick, that rock Can, that KRS,
that cool g rap, that Big Daddy Can changed rap.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
You know what I'm saying, totally changed the game and
took it up so many different levels, you know what
I'm saying, So that that was sort of like kind
of set.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
In the stage.
Speaker 9 (26:03):
But then I always look at the year nineteen ninety four,
which remember Snoop and Wu Tang came out at the
end of ninety three.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I think Mary J.
Speaker 9 (26:15):
Blige is is at ninety three. R Kelly is around
that time, so you're getting hip hop at R and
B together at the same time. Ninety four Ninas came out,
ninety four Biggie came out, ninety four, Tupac is circulating
moving around. So that to me that ninety three, ninety four,
(26:36):
ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven proably the biggest most
influential years in hip hop. And you gotta say ninety
eight two because that's when DMX came out. That's when
jay Z took over the Crown and hip hop with
Hard Knocked Life and Miseducation. Lawrence Hill got the Foojis
in that era, that's when not only did we see
(26:59):
the Crown go to New Heights, but then it started selling.
Then it started being on TV shows like nine O, two,
one oh. Then we started getting in our own record labels.
Then we started getting our own fashion brands. Then we
started really breaking the dawn and doing all of these
Hollywood movies and TV shows Martin Lawrence, Bad Boys, you know,
(27:23):
Living Single, ll COOLJ. You know it was That's that's
when it That's when we took over. If you want
to say the late eightieses the golden era, you gotta
say the men nineties is the platinum era.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Incredible time for real. Shot here weed man, that's exactly
when we took over. Baby, we did.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
And keep in mind, we took over the whole planet
because it went global, man, people in every other language
around the world, from Russia to China, all over Europe.
France the second biggest market for hip hop since forever.
We definitely took over and we're still rocking on Rockenstrom
Charlamagne the God, co host of The Breakfast Club, founder
(28:05):
of the Black Effect podcast network and media mode.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
For me, it would be nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 15 (28:13):
In nineteen ninety eight, ninety four, I'm like, what eighty eight,
I'm like sixteen years old. In ninety four, I'm outside
a little bit. You know, you saw the rise of
West Coast music. You saw Death Row, Doctor Dre Snoop, everything,
that they were doing. Then it went to the East
(28:33):
coast and it's Wu Tang and Nas and bad Boy
and Biggie and then you know, Jay came around in
ninety six, and then you saw the South start to
come up in nineteen ninety eight. Actually a little bit
before that because you have master p and No Limit.
But then like ninety eight was like the cash Money
era and you had everything that was coming out of
(28:54):
Atlanta outcast, the Goodie Moob you know, that turned into
the man It's so many airs like oh man, my,
I'm gonna tell you my favorite My favorite eras was
ninety four, ninety eight and the early two thousands with
Crump music. That second Golden era of New York with
(29:16):
Wu Tang, Nas, Bingie Jay, Black Moons like that was phenomenal.
And then ninety eight when cash Money and everybody started
to come up with the early two thousands when Crump
music came in. Man, Crump music is an era that
we take for granted. When Crump Music was out, I
was outside outside, That's when I was in. I was.
(29:36):
I started radio in ninety eight, so by two thousand
and two thousand and one, we I'm in Colombia me
and my man DJ Frosty were doing all the clubs.
You know, this is little John get Low, this is
you know, prime mob neck. If you fall, this is
bone Crush're never scared, you know. Then the trap music
era came. G Z Trapp would die Ti urban legend,
(30:01):
you know. Trap music like that was an unbelievable era.
I'm being now that I think about it.
Speaker 6 (30:07):
That was my favorite era.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yes, indeed, Charlamagne really good point raised that crunk era.
The influence from the South as it was raging on
at this point, so important, so much fun on the
dance floor.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Wow Crunk for show Ice Tea at the Rappa West
Coast hip hop pioneer.
Speaker 9 (30:28):
The golden era has to be with I just brought
the Jones and the Oh's and the music. No, I mean,
I can't really tell you. I think that there was
a point I say. The golden era to me has
to be before the internet, when you still had to
buy records, when you still had to go to the store.
(30:48):
When a million records sold meant one million people got
out of their cars and went into the store and
purchased your record amongst so many other records in that store,
or what they bought your record.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It wasn't them hitting a click button. It wasn't then
buying one song out of the record. They bought that album.
There was a time where you almost could buy damn
near every rap record out. You know, I think you
know when master p and them started coming out and
dropping hundreds of records. That was the beginning, not the
(31:24):
bad part, but it was the beginning. It was welcoming
the Internet era. And when the Internet came, anybody could
put out a record. There was no an R and
it just got flooded. And now it's really difficult to
even know all the rappers or know what's good.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
It's just flooded.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Now, I'm not hating on it. I mean, Quincy Jones
taught me, if you want to lose a fight, fight
the future. The future is what it is. So but
I'm proud to be part of that era when the
album covers meant something, the liner notes, the special thing.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You would look and see where the record would be recorded.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
You try to get that same engineer, you wanted to
get the same in person to master the record. It
was all that kind of That was an era of
hip hop where you know, I thrived, I feel like
I was third generation, so first generation to be unrecorded
(32:28):
hip hop, ending with the Sugarhill Gang. Second generations run
ll BC Boys, Fat Boys, Curtis Blow, third generation myself
Public Enemy Rock Kim that you know EPMD came.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
That's where I fell in that link. By now we're
probably a twelfth generation.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yes, Indeed, another really important factor, I see you're soul
right pre internet and Internet you know, I'm saying that
transition happened in the nineties. You know, I got on
Aol dot com and got my first laptop in the
early nineties, and I was trying to get everybody to
get on this new crazy thing called the Internet. I
(33:14):
remember whening the opportunity to download a song came money.
You had to wait all day for one of them songs,
you know, to download, but it was so exciting.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
The ability to do this. Now, that's how we do
it right.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
The playlist a real important part of how we get
our music these days right. And another thing that we
have to hope they get right is the algorithm. You
know what I mean, the rhythm in the algorithm. It's
so important to how we get our music these days.
Ed Love Them Rapper, Actor Radio personality and former MTVVJ.
Speaker 16 (33:49):
You would say that the golden era of hip hop
would be from eighty nine to eighty eight to two thousand.
I think some people say that's the golden era hip
hop or eighty nine, eighty nine to two thousand, is
that golden era? Yeah, you saw, I'd say, because you
really started seeing the growth of hip hop. You saw
that the different styles come out during that time period, right.
(34:12):
You saw it become more of a.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
National and international music.
Speaker 16 (34:19):
Like we had Nana Cherry with you know, the Buffalo stance,
and you had different people coming in with different music.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
It's so worldwide now. You know, we kind of like help.
Speaker 16 (34:29):
Explode reggae music too, because we took your on TV
raps to Jamaica for the you know, Sunsplash for a
few years. So you really saw Shaba come out and
Ninja come out and all of these guys become worldwide phenomenas,
along with the NASA's, the jay Z's, the Mob Deep,
the you know, the Big eas, the you know everybody.
(34:51):
It just it was that's when it to me, it
became super creative and you had all of these amazing,
amazing produce. It was starting to come through. That was
that era, you know, and really, you know, Nads has
a huge responsibility in that because before you know, Ella
would go in the studio with Marley and Mally would
(35:13):
do the entire album. Nads did his first album. There
was five six different producers on there, you know, the
Peate Rocks and cl Smooths and all of that. Going
into the nineties, Man, that was it. You know, the
tribe called Quests and day Lot Soul. Like, nobody sounded
like day Last Soul. Nobody sounded like you know, Public
(35:34):
Enemy Nobody.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
It was just that was it.
Speaker 16 (35:37):
Man. Everybody was so super super creative and it was
room for everybody. Nobody sounded like too short, Nobody sounded
like n WA. Nobody sounded like ice cube. Nobody sounded
like ice tea. Nobody sounded like school Deep, Nobody sounded
like three times dope nobody. You know what I mean.
It was such a creative time period, even Jazzy Jeff
(36:00):
in the Fresh Prince. You know, it was so creative.
That's why I call it the Golden Era. It was
so damn creative. You know, look at the transition from
Phobob being part of the Master of the ceremony to
brand Nubid. You know that was dumb creative. So that's
(36:22):
why I say that's the Golden are. It's the most
creative time, way more creative than now.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Daddy Oh rapper, producer, deep thinker and founding member of
Classic Brooklyn rap group statsisnic. I think there's more than
one golden there.
Speaker 9 (36:40):
I do believe in what people say, so I will
give that Golden era first Golden Era to us and
Public Enemy and Dougie Fresh and mc light. Ricky's in there,
but he's with Dougie Fresh, can plays in that group,
So Pepper's in that group a few us and I
(37:01):
will give it to that. I think part of that
is nobody talks about GRUNDIUMC two. Part of that kuj.
Part of that is sonics, right like like like honestly,
they've never matched us. Nothing is still better than the
(37:23):
message or I need to beat nothing, no future, no,
none of them. They can't beat it, like you know
what I'm saying. And them damn sugar Hill records were
so dope and loud it was crazy, man. So so
I think part of it is sonics. Part of us
(37:43):
is us just getting in the studio and getting our
feet wet, and part of it is us finally after
Frankie Krot, I hate it on us finally getting on
the radio.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
But then, what do you call Wanne? Did the era
of Little Wanne and them Fireman taps?
Speaker 6 (38:05):
Right?
Speaker 9 (38:06):
I mean, what do you call NOAs and Biggie and Puff?
So it's difficult for me. This is just me, difficult
for me to lay into one golden era.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Daddy Yo, good point. How could I leave out Little
Wang and.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Important MC dope lyrics, incredible skills over a long period
of time. Yes, indeed, big up Little Wang a part
of the onslaught from the South, stand up and be
recognized ll cool Jack, actor, rapper, entrepreneur, considered one of
the best to ever do it.
Speaker 17 (38:41):
Then this whole kit is gold we fifty years in.
You know, I'm going on Tall, sold out, Tall, God willing.
Everybody's rocking, people are into it. I have my day
ones waiting for my new record. I mean everything, it's
all golden. I understand like people want this year that year.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Man.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Listen, there's always something great happening. There's always something great
happening in art. Yes, there are inflection points, Yes, there
are watershed movements. That's true. You can't deny that. However,
you can't be grateful for the whole ride.
Speaker 17 (39:14):
Because we're still riding the credits they roll on the
movie yet, so we don't know what chapter, you know,
we don't know what the next you know, I mean,
the next act is gonna be, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
So I'm not getting caught up in like what it
used to be. I'm looking at the future.
Speaker 17 (39:31):
I'm thinking about like, Okay, how can we level this
up and how can we, you know, take what we
doing to another level?
Speaker 1 (39:37):
You know what I'm saying, you know, show people what's possible.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, So the Golden Era definitely.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Was so important to so many people, and for sure
it went from gold into platinum. But that Golden Era
was so important for so many reasons that you heard
on this episode. So let me share my goal era
without question for me, that begins in nineteen eighty eight,
(40:06):
when me hosting Yo MTV raps begins. You just go
back and look at some of the records that came
out in nineteen eighty eight and you'll see what I mean.
For me, the ending of the Golden Era happened in
horror and it's a photo once again, hit Google and
(40:26):
search a great day in hip hop.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
This was a photo that was done to be a cover.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
It was a three page fold out cover of Double
XL magazine and they had the brilliant idea to get
one of my inspirations on the creative renaissance, tip the
amazing photographer, filmmaker and everything.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Else creative justin Pouse, Gordon Parks.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
They got Gordon Parks, who was in his eighties at
the time, to recreate a famous photo done in Harlem
at the same location back in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
They got about fifty jazz legends showed.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Up in front of this brownstone in Harlem and took
this incredible photo. Art Kane was the photographer day at
the idea to do a hip hop version. They got
Gordon Parks and nearly two hundred hip hop pioneers from
Cool Heark, people from Atlanta, Jamaine Dupree, people from Cali,
(41:35):
people from Texas. It was an incredible representation of hip
hop at that moment.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
The date was September twenty ninth, nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
And when you pull up that photo one line and
take a good close look at everybody was there.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
That to me was the end of the Golden Era, because.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
That was the beginning now of people from different places
around the country, from the South, Atlanta, Texas, Florida, all
these different states stepped up, made hits and got their
piece of the hip hop rock. So the energy once
again born, bred, college green fed in these streets in
New York City. It was time for it to break out,
(42:16):
leave home and go across the country and around the world.
And when I looked at that phono, I realized this
would never happen again. And this for sure was the
ending of the Golden Era. And then for sure we
moved into platinum and wherever we are now the Golden Era.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
This is a fun episode, so many great records after this.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I'm switching over and I'm getting ready to pull up
a bunch of these songs that we're mention and I'm
about to take it back like an eight track.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
And that's it, Baby, I'll see y'all on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Next episode the fifty Years of Hip Hop podcast series, Man,
We're gonna explore the extraordinary story of the world's most
influential hip hop label and its creators. Rick Rubin Russell
Simmons the story of Deaf Jam Records. This episode has
been executive produced by Dolly s. Bishop, hosted and produced
(43:09):
by Your Boy Fab five Freddie. Produced by Aaron A.
King Howard. Edit, mixed sound by Dwayne Crawford, music scoring
by Trey Jones, Talent booking by Nicole Spence
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