pharoahe monch simon says instrumental wave

Then again, Common released his first big signature hit in ’94, and it was about how hip-hop was starting to lose its way, so there was already a sense of fragile legitimacy being threatened from all sides by the time the Golden Era ended. Didn’t matter if your jam of the year was “ Time’s Up” or “ Regulate” or “ Sabotage” - if you lived through ’94 and thought “this is the end of an era” at the time, you were probably a pessimist. The hip-hop Golden Era is generally recognized to have started in the late ’80s and runs through the mid ’90s, which covers the massive creative stretch where album-length ambitions, advances in sampling tech, and heated competition for mixtape and airplay positioning could be found in the majors, hip-hop imprints, and indies all at once.Īnd even in the waning years, there was gold: 1994 was the year that gave us the first albums by Nas, OutKast, and The Notorious B.I.G., career-prime material from Gang Starr, Redman, and Scarface, and cult classics from Organized Konfusion, Artifacts, and Gravediggaz. The catch about Golden Eras is that we don’t always know when we’re living in one - we only know when it’s already over.

Pharoahe monch simon says instrumental wave