90's week: Smooth da Hustla

Before I speak about Smooth da Hustla, let me first explain why I love 90's hip hop. It's simple; lyric-driven hip hop. In the brief history of hip hop, the early 90's stand alone as the only era characterized and driven by both strong lyrical content and beat production. The golden era of the late 80's solidified hip hop as a reputable genre of music and developed true "fans" of the culture. But it wasn't until the 90's that hip hop really took off. Unfortunately, the days of good lyrical content are over. Today, artists that used their lyrical prowess to thrive in the early 90's, (Redman, Wu Tang, etc.) struggle to find success in an industry driven by radio-friendly, forumalic hip hop. Which leads me to Smooth and his brother Trigga. This "Broken Language" would eventually prove to be their only hit but damn was this shit hot. To be honest I don't remember much about these two and I'm not really in the mood to do any research but I will say that 90% of the "rappers" today
couldn't pull off a flow anywhere close to this.

90's week: Black Moon

So I've been doing some thinking and decided it would be a good idea to make this week, 90's week and relive a few of my favorite moments, albums, and events from the 90's in hip hop. Today's jog down memory lane comes courtesy of Black Moon. Black Moon and Duck Down Records (Smif-n-Wesson, OGC, Helter Skelter) were responsible for a slew of underground hits during the early 90's and my personal favorite "I Gotcha Opin" Remix. Here's a clip of the opening bars to this underground classic.