As an accompanying article to today’s Freestyle Friday, I’d like to discuss Hip Hop’s Golden Age and what period that is for you. As I mentioned before, there has been much debate concerning the actual timeline of the Golden Age of Hip Hop. Dates vary from the 80s to the 90s and everything in between. I’d like to see what the consensus is here on the site.
The specific time period that the Golden Age covers varies slightly from different sources. Some place it square in the ’80s – Rolling Stone refers to “rap’s ’86-’89 golden age” , and MSNBC states, “the Golden Age of hip-hop music: The ’80s”.
Several others place it in the late 80s to early 90s – the New York Times describes it as “hip-hop’s golden age – the late 1980′s and early 90′s” , Allmusic writes, “Hip-hop’s golden age is bookended by the commercial breakthrough of Run-D.M.C. in 1986 and the explosion of gangsta rap with 1992′s The Chronic by Dr. Dre” , and in the book Contemporary Youth Culture, the “golden age era” is described as being “from 1987-1993″, coming after “the old school era: from 1979 to 1987″ . Ed Simmons of The Chemical Brothers says, “there was that golden age of hip-hop in the early 90s when the Jungle Brothers made Straight Out the Jungle and De La Soul made Three Feet High and Rising” (though these records were in fact made in 1988 and 1989 respectively).
Music critic Tony Green, in the book Classic Material, refers to the two year period 1993-1994 as “a second Golden Age” that saw influential, high quality albums using elements of past classicism – E-mu SP-1200 drum sounds, turntable scratches, references to old school hip hop hits, and “tongue-twisting triplet verbalisms” – while making clear that new directions were being taken. Green lists as examples the Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Nas’ Illmatic, De La Soul’s Buhloone Mindstate, Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Doggystyle, A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders and the Outkast debut Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.
As you can see, different sources actually list different years. It can be said that hip hop heads 35 and older consider the 80s to be our Golden Age, where as the younger generation chose the 90s. I’d like to hear what YOU consider to be YOUR Golden Age. Let’s talk below… and for argument’s sake, state your age when you comment.
Related posts:
- Freestyle Friday: 80s vs. 90s
- DJ Haylow: Golden Era Remixes [A Dedication to 90s Hip Hop Remixes]
- A This Is Hip Hop Christmas
- This Is Hip Hop Remix Contest Part II: Week 5
- This Is Hip Hop Remix Contest Part II: Week 10 Entries
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