Mmhmmm.

We had some TSSkeptics at the beginning of our official 1998 Week, so The Crew worked overtime to show just how much the year was smashing on smashing.

We covered a lot this week…

– The importance of the family; with posse cuts, Lyricist Lounge, Flipmode, Def and Terror Squads, and No Limit.

– The best day ever; September 29, 1998. So agree-eth XXL (when magazines were still dope.)

– The days when music videos were actually on TV; with Aaliyah, Tupac, A Tribe Called Quest, Redman, Xzibit and Warren Beatty. Read the rest of this entry »

What better way for The Source to ring in ’98 with their 100^th issue? With LL on the cover holding five golden Mics, the house that Mays & Benzino built was living the life as the industry standard when it came to magazines. Looking back on their 9-plus years covering the music we all enjoy, they provided top 100 lists for the best singles, albums, covers, athletes, etc as they not only celebrated their existence but the culture as well. This was evident in all of the congratulations from labels and artists in the advertising. Not satisfied to just recollect on the past, The Source also looked to the future technology would play in regards to the music and how its influences were making the music a global phenomenon. Read the rest of this entry »

…and don’t let it go to ya head.

Brand Nubian took the old “listen to your elders” adage to realistic proportions with one of their highest charting single to date, “Don’t Let It Go To Your Head.” But if you think the youngn’s listened to these wisemen ten years ago, your name must be Canibus.

Brand Nubian – Don’t Let It Go To Your Head

Bonus – Don’t Let It Go To Your Head (Neptunes Remix)

It’s hard to believe today that there was ever a question of whether Busta Rhymes could achieve commercial success without selling out. But back in ’98, that’s just the position he was in. As the underground and mainstream scenes began to move apart like tectonic plates, Busta slowly but surely began to distance his self from the music he put out while affiliated with the Native Tongue Movement.

So while everybody else was living it up ’98, Busta looked to the upcoming millennium and uncertainty that surrounded it. With another year winding down and suspicions of the world coming to an end, he played on these themes throughout his album. If Prince provided a soundtrack for partying in ’99; then Busta provided the soundtrack for the riots, looters, chaos and destruction that everybody secretly prepared for. The first six songs (intro included) are straight fire. Nottz laced Busta with 3 straight bangers in the forms of “Everybody Rise,” “Where We Are About To Take It,” & “Extinction Level Event (Song Of Salvation.)” A fresh Swizz Beatz makes another banger with the Casio keys on “Tear Da Roof Off,” while he assembles the entire Flipmode Squad together for a space odyssey on “Against All Odds.” Read the rest of this entry »

Words By Trackstar The DJ

I love well-done parodies.

Especially well-done, hilarious parodies of my favorite movies. Redman’s “I’ll Bee Dat” video goes in on every scene, including great mockings of The Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World (two of the greatest comedic productions to hit the big screen), and for 1998 week, I watched it with my Queen.

Some thoughts: Read the rest of this entry »

“Your style is unoffic’

Niggaz like you stay on my wanted list

Pun and Prince, we walkin’ on kings, like a son of a bitch

Fuckin’ with this is hazardous to amateur battlers

Average niggas get lost in the course of embarrassment

Of course you don’t have a chance, I’m the boss in your eminence

Get tossed in the ambulance with the force of an avalanche Read the rest of this entry »

This original EP portion has been out of print for a while now.

“Drop It Heavy” – One of the best Big Pun verses you’ve probably never heard.

Show & A.G. – Full Scale EP

But I did 5 mil, I ain’t been rhyming like Common since…

In all fairness, Shawn Carter has never resembled Rashid Lynn on the mic. True, both MCs are very adept in the art of mic wizardry, but when the Chicagoan was comfortable kicking rhymes about orange pineapple juice, Jay-Z was detailing his accounts of the drug game on records. One of the original D-Boys, as far as lyrics are concerned.

But in 1998, he be damned if he didn’t take his career to greater heights with his third album Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life. Hip-Hop had barely recovered from the tragedy that befell Pac and B.I.G. and Jay-Z set himself up to be the premier attraction by default. Say what you will about the album, but this is the project that made “Jay-Z” as you know him today. The deal with Live Nation and marriage relationship with Beyoncé were all spawned because of this album. With Reasonable Doubt and In My Lifetime under his belt, the question wasn’t whether or not he had skills to allow his career to blossom, but if the music he made would allow his career to do so. Eventually, Vol. 2 became a landmark for albums that looked to incorporate a popular sound without going Pop. Read the rest of this entry »

If you thought ’98 Week was over, think again.

’98 Shots

Goodie Mob – Still Standing

Def Squad РEl Ni̱o

Gang_Starr_Ft._M.O.P.-1-2_And_1-2-VLS-1998

Sylk-E-Fyne – Raw Sylk (1998)

D.I.T.C.-Put_it_in_Your_System-VLS-1998

D.I.T.C.-Day_One__Show_Remix_-VLS-1998

Noreaga-Superthug-_Full_VLS_-1998

Trick Daddy – www.thug.com

Tragedy_Khadafi-Too_Bent_and_Too_High VLS

Sadat_X_C_Low_Severe_K_Terrible_and_Diamond_D-Feel_It

Killah_Priest_-_If_You_Dont_Know_Bw_Blessed_Are_Those

The_Roots-Adrenaline VLS

2Pac & Notorious B.I.G. – Runnin’ Promo CDS

2Pac – God Bless The Dead VLS 1998

2Pac – Happy Home Promo CDS 1998

The Lox – Money, Power, Respect

Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz – Make It Reign (1998)

DJ Tony Touch & DJ Khaled – Terrorist Activity (1998)

DJ Clue РCluni̱o 98

DJ Clue: Clue For President Pt. 3 (New Acuzations) (1998)

Doo Wop & Tony Touch starring as The Diaz Brothers (1998)

Tony Touch – Tape 58

Thug Immortal – The Tupac Shakur Story (1998)

Mobb_Deep-Perfect_Plot_(Unreleased)-1998

Do Or Die – Headz Or Tailz

Playa – Cheers 2 U (1998)

Busta_Rhymes-1998-Turn_it_up__Remix_-Fire_it_up__Maxi_CD

Beenie_Man-Who_Am_I__Maxi_CD

Mobb_Deep_Ft_Onyx-QB_Meets_South_Suicide-Whitelabel-1998

Queen Latifah – Order In The Court

Big_Pun-Still_Not_A_Player-Full_CDM-1998

2pac-Changes-CDS-1998

Brand_Nubian-Take_It_To_The_Head-_Promo_CDS_-1998

Shaquille_O_Neal-Respect-1998

Timbaland-Jay-Z-Lobster_and_Scrimp-Promo_VLS-1998

Mc_Lyte_Feat_Marc_Dorsey-I_Can’t_Make_A_Mistake-CDS-199

Noreaga-Superthug-_Full_VLS_-1998

Hot Boys – Get It How U Live

Z-Ro – Look What You Did To Me (1998)

Lil Will – Better Days – 1998

’98 Shots

Deviation. The path less traveled. The mastery of one’s own art, not of another’s.

Aquemini.

Though ATLiens pushed unruly boundaries and set the tempo for Big Boi and Andre, Aquemini created a moment where everyone was excited about potential; of Outkast, of Hip-Hop and of music in general. Could they go farther/bigger/bolder?

Yes. They could. And did.

Anticipation reached a fever pitch with this album’s release as heads got giddy like kids hearing that ice cream truck coming down the street… Run for your dollars! And that’s precisely what makes Aquemini so lasting – it’s grown folks music that lets you be young again. Not with immature frivolity, but with an innocent sensibility that opens the brain/heart/beat to ‘Kast’s rupturing stories of love and life lost and gained on the pavement.

We’re talking the definition of Outkast.

Out. Kast.

Other-worldly stratosphere status.

You gotta come provocative… so let’s rap track by track, Crew Love style. Hold On, Be Strong… Read the rest of this entry »

On Sept. 29th 1998 thanks to the efforts of XXL, 200 old and new school Hip-Hop artists assembled on 17 E. 126th Street in Harlem to show solidaridarity as they recreated the photo of Jazz musicians taken by legendary photographer Art Kane back in 1958 at the same address. The East, West, Midwest, and South were all represented the group got together to reflect on how far culture had come as well as what direction it would take in the years to come. Read the rest of this entry »

Words By Landon A.

There are only a few albums in anyone’s collection that can be played from start to finish — interludes, skits and instrumental tracks included. And few of these albums can be played any day of the year — from Christmas (or Kwanzaa or Hanukkah) to the fourth of July.

Soul Survivor is one of those rare albums that strikes a certain nostalgic mood no matter when or where it’s played. To me, it embodies everything summer: cookouts, the pool, the front porch with your crew, hot days, that P.Y.T. you met at the house party… everything. Not many other albums I own could a paint a picture of the perfect summer day as Soul Survivor can, showing that it was ahead of its time and still fresh 10 years later.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SOUL SURVIVOR… Read the rest of this entry »

…but lost the war.

How does this type of shit happen? After ten years, the question still causes widespread puzzlement across the Hip-Hop community. 

Dude had it. 

The flow, the gruff, battle-tested vocals.  The skills to “eat a nigga’s ass…” (his words, not mine).  As far as rookies go in ’98, he was 2nd only to Pun in the art of lyrical massacre, only to take that “two” and use it to become the next Sam Bowie.

Even LL had to acknowledge the predicament ‘Bus had put him in: You came up with that bullshit/some heads sucked it up/then dropped that garbage album/and totally fucked up… he spit on the 2000′s “Back Where I Belong.”  For the uniformed it basically happened liked this: LL asked Canibus to be on “4,3,2,1″ but took an line about borrowing his tattoo as disrespect and changed his verse to a subliminal diss. Canibus change the line but LL kept his jab on the record and from then it was on… Read the rest of this entry »

Not only is this arguably the best video of 1998, it also holds rank of being one of the most stimulating clips that ever graced Hip-Hop.

Yes kiddies. Before he was pimpin’ Honda Civics or being co-signed from the Aftermath crew, Mr. X to tha Z was still a force on the microphone. Peep as the name drops come to life as X survives another day in Killer Cali. Read the rest of this entry »

“Sometimes I wish I could
Stop the world from spinning and step out of it…”
-Diaz Brothers feat. Matrix and A-Butta, “Keep Pourin”

I’d like to think I’m a special, unique snowflake, like my mom tells me…but I know I’m not. I’d bet a handful of you reading this had a similar development arc in your love for Hip-Hop. Mine went something like this:

…The “dumb deaf and blind interest in the pop rap fed to me by top 40 radio” phase
(He’s The DJ, I’m the Rapper; 2 Legit 2 Quit)

…The “who’s this guy with the cool voice on the Beastie Boys song” phase
(Midnight Marauders; Blowout Comb; Buhloone Mindstate)

…The “holy shit if Wu-Tang isn’t the best shit ever I don’t know what is” phase
(Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers); the entire first round of Wu solos; Forever)

And then it really got crazy. The whole initial independent/”underground as fuck” movement, centered around Rawkus Records was crazy. Progression, energy, meaning…if you wanted to hear everything you thought Bad Boy Records WASN’T…this world was yours.

A centerpiece of this era for many was the incredibly packaged double disc Lyricist Lounge Vol. One. Each and every track brings me back to a more innocent time, for me and for Hip-Hop.  Rappers didn’t have clothing lines, there were more fans than MCs, and I didn’t have credit card debt. Read the rest of this entry »