wow damn man, a lot of u fukkers dont know shit i'd say the golden age of hip hop is everything before 95 from DJ Kool Herc, Cold Crush Brothers, and Afrika Bambaataa in the 70's to Common, 2Pac, and Snoop in the early 90's a whole 25 years
and? wtf, a passing reference? whoever ur source was had their own inhibited paradigm of Hip-Hop's 'Golden Age' i'm simply saying, the "groundbreakers" as you put it, of hip hop from my own paradigm of the golden age would be all of them from the 70's to early 90's n not just a period of 6 years. hip hop's been around for a long time and the 70-95 era is as golden as it gets. Afrikaa Bambaataa Coke La Rock Clark Kent The Last Poets Cold Crush Brothers The Funky Four (plus one more) Furious Five Melle Mel Kurtis Blow Jimmy Spicer Kool Moe Dee KRS-1 Whodini Kool G Rap Run D.M.C. Ice-T Eric B. & Rakim Slick Rick Doug E Fresh n The Get Fresh Crew Public Enemy N.W.A. Geto Boys Beastie Boys A Tribe Called Quest Common 2Pac Snoop NAS just to name a few
in my opinion, most rap sucked in the nineties. it was awesome in the eighties early ninties, then everyone started listening to that vanilla ice, icp crap. i mean its ok, but not my idea of rap. then it started getting a little better, and now its starting to go down hill again. it just seems like steriotypes and money are just getting in the way too bad. dont get me wrong, i love rap, but i just dont like where it has been and where its going.
naw logchop, youre right. the beat production has gotten softer in most cases as well, mostly because it appeals to the more female empowered RnB aspect as well as kids. its sad that its on the mainstream level when other better artists and producers are out there. i see it as the side effect of kids buying in to the new stuff but dont know shit about rap's past as well as rap's historic figures