This week marked the 23rd anniversary of Biggie Smalls' passing. The landscape of hip hop has gone through many changes since the great's death, while some things stayed the same. As rappers evolved, many were able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, as the genre's reputation has become more admirable in the public eye.
In the early-90s, the hip hop world was monitored heavily. Most artists came from backgrounds directly impacted by the crack epidemic. Between drug dealings and gang-related activity, the impression on the general public was that rappers, predominantly African American males from the inner-city, ought to tone themselves down to thrive. Rising above those internal issues was only half the battle.
Complex.com highlighted the many struggles of artists in a 2016 article promoting The Breaks, the film set in 1990 featuring all of the external issues that rappers faced when trying to make it big.
The fear of acceptance for their records on the radio and at nightclubs was a big theme in the film that resonated in real life.
Back then, commercial radio stations held back from playing hip hop songs. Soon enough, "black radio" followed suit.
Some artists who were featured on the radio were “marginalized” while others were under fire for their lyrics.
Records were only commercialized if they were deemed “non-threatening” or offered a New Jack Swing-like beat. For established stars such as N.W.A, LL Cool J, Run-DMC, amongst others; they had to fight to work past the stereotypes and change the narrative.
That is what made the influence of Christopher Wallace so monumental.
Wallace, alongside his counterpart-turned-rival in Tupac Shakur, were pillars of the hip hop scene in the 90s. In an era just removed from the initial rap boom, the two were continuing the progress for black inner-city artists making waves in pop culture.
They both were involved in the drug game. Both were in the news for criminal activity. Both had upbringings to that point unbecoming of a role model. Yet despite it, they embraced it.
Track After Track
Album After Album
Film After Film
The records didn’t exist simply to change the narrative, they reported the struggle and humanized the black community.
For Brooklyn’s finest specifically, his many songs with Sean Combs and company promoted this.
His verse on Get Money was a public service announcement that charted out the many ways that wealth can be taken away in an instant.
Juicy was a celebration of success. Graduation from the hood and aspirations of the simple life: video games, home-cooked meals, and family life.
His posthumous verse on Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems was an extension of the two. Expressing that beyond the struggle of being black, the more success you attain, the more issues you will have to maintain.
And Sky is the Limit? The chorus itself is self-explanatory.
The mid-90s saw a central focus by artists to alert people of the true nature of the underprivileged while educating the privileged.
Unfortunately, due to the infighting, misinformation, and fatalities, we didn’t get to see the teachers watch lessons get learned. As who knows how the world would have been had Biggie been alive today.
Former N.W.A star Ice Cube was heavily judged as if he was a criminal in his early days.
He, like many others, transitioned into a solo career; rapping, producing, directing, and acting. Today Was A Good Day was arguably the turning point of his career, turning him into the pioneer we know him to be today.
Snoop Dogg was on the same boat well into the early 2000s, yet the more he interacted with pop culture, the better he looked for it.
The way late artists such as Tupac and Biggie would have been appreciated in the public eye today, who knows how their legacy would have looked beyond what it already was. Their generation took the verbal backlash so that the generations of today would become the universally accepted moguls of tomorrow.
Nipsey Hussle was a great example of this. Hussle, the late Californian rapper passed away last March and left a great imprint on the legacy of hip hop as a whole. Hussle, a person who linked himself closely to his neighborhood was looked upon as a role model for the youth. Both in the black community and ultimately in pop culture. There was a respect factor for Hussle that wouldn’t have been given to rappers back then, let alone after death.
For those who are still active, the landscape of current artists is even more striking. Artists like Canadian-born rapper Drake have become so entrenched in pop culture that you can see them in commercials, hosting shows, and sporting events.
The advent of social media has also played a role, with memes, and posts of artists being more personable online. On the downside, however, a small minority of younger rappers have used the outlet and there to promote the use of drugs, as opposed to the older generation selling it. And while this isn't new to the genre, artists have arguably become more accessible than ever before.
Regardless, the new age of hip hop is available because of the way paved by artists like Biggie. The generations born after his death will never truly get his essence, the same way as Jay-Z or Eminem did. Perhaps the new greats will feature names like Drake, J Cole and Kendrick Lamar, but even they could never replicate the trials and tribulations of all rappers back then. In a word? They were all Notorious.
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