This era is known for the flourishing of different regional styles and a freeing up of the manner in which rap music was written, composed and performed these regional styles contributed to much tension and rivalry as well. This friction was exploited by record companies to boost interest and sales. It is this rivalry along with other factors that led to a decline and eventual end of the Golden Age.
First Golden Age = 1987-1992
Top Rappers:
- Rakim
- Kool G Rap
- Ice Cube
- Big Daddy Kane
- Chuck D
Top Albums Of The Era:
Paid in Full, Criminal Minded, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Straight Outta Compton, Long Live the Kane, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, Unfinished Business, The Low End Theory, 3 Feet High & Rising, No One Can Do it Better, As Nasty as They Wanna Be, Eazy-Duz-It, Death Certificate, Cypress Hill, We Can’t Be Stopped, Critical Breakdown, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Chronic, 2Pacalypse Now, Whut? Thee Album, Naughty by Nature, Mecca and the Soul Brother, and Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
Second Golden Age = 1993-1994
Top Rappers
- The Notorious B.I.G.
- 2pac
- Nas
- Snoop Dogg
- Common
Top Albums Of The Era:
Ready to Die, The Diary, Illmatic, Blunted on Reality, Resurrection, 36 Chambers, Tical, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Doggystyle, The Sun Rises in the East, 6 Feet Deep, Hard to Earn, ‘93 till Infinity, Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space), Buhloone Mindstate, Enta da Stage, Black Sunday, and Midnight Marauders