Things You Should Know: The Golden Age Of Hip Hop

By now you should already know how much we at LYFSTYL love this Hip Hop’s ‘Golden ERA’. Here’s some of the things you should know about our beloved Golden Age Of Hip-Hop.
The Golden Age of Hip Hop refers to roughly the mid eighties up to the late nineties when Hip Hop, in this sense the rapping and beatmaking aspect of it, was known and appreciated for its Lyrical content (MCing or Emceeing) its musical depth and its stark differentiation from other musical genres of the day.
Hip Hop during this time matured and touched upon many political and social issues affecting urban America which overwhelmingly focused on the African American experience of ghettos, gang life, drugs, black identity, poverty and racism.

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:

  1. Rakim
  2. Kool G Rap
  3. Ice Cube
  4. Big Daddy Kane
  5. 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

  1. The Notorious B.I.G.
  2. 2pac
  3. Nas
  4. Snoop Dogg
  5. 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