Of all the conversations and debates surrounding the best of the best in hip-hop — MC’s, groups, producers, labels — perhaps the most difficult to ascertain is what is the greatest year in hip-hop history. Let’s answer it with a 16-slot bracket tournament.
I have a confession to make: I didn’t love Enter the Wu-Tang [36 Chambers] the first time I heard it. Actually, I kinda sorta didn’t even like it. I know that’s like the Pope saying he didn’t dig the Bible the first time he read it, but it’s true.
He was the soul of G-Funk.
Of all the things one can say about 2Pac, both positive and negative, something that no one can deny is that he was probably the most prolific mainstream rap star in history.
Tha Dogg Pound are hip-hop legends.
Let us all bow our heads and take a moment to remember the hip-hop soundtrack.
In 1999, as the world was prepping for Y2K, another, less heralded innovation in the world of computers was about to change the music business: “Napster launched in 1999, and over the next three years tens of millions of music fans eagerly (and by today’s standards, incredibly slowly) downloaded oft-mistagged, low-bitrate mp3 versions of new music to their hard drives, and shared what they’d ripped themselves with software like the WinAmp player.”
The industry would never be the same.
Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time.
By December of 1996, the once formidable Death Row Records was crumbling. Over the course of just a few months, Dr. Dre had defected, 2Pac had been killed, Suge Knight was sent to prison, and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s highly anticipated second album was a major disappointment.
This is the first entry of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I will examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time. I’ve done this sort of thing before – regarding The Firm album back in 2012 as well as a book defending a few artists and projects that I feel were overlooked, but these projects will all be new territory for me.
It’s clear that Dr. Dre saw what was coming. He left Death Row Records, the label he co-founded, with no equipment, no masters, no artists, nothing. That was the price he paid to be allowed to leave his own company. And he did it willingly.
Among the people he left behind was his star protégé, Snoop Doggy Dogg, who had just been acquitted of murder and was prepping his long-awaited and highly-anticipated second album.
The Passion of Christopher Pierznik 