Mar 1, 2021 Thing that gets me about Tik Tok is that even 5-6 years ago if you recorded yourself doing a stupid dance to a rap track then you'd be called weird or other names. But now its the trendiest thing.
Mar 1, 2021 Pre 1979: The Underground Era When Rap was still local/regional and basically party/club music where the DJ was the real star and the emcee was mainly doing adlibs and keeping people hype. Grandmaster Caz and Kool Herc are of this era. 1979 - 1986: The Disco Rap Era When Rap first blew up commercially and was fun, lighthearted, and still party music like Disco with basic rhymes but wholesome messages with artists like Sugarhill g---, Whodini, Kurtis Blow, Afrika Bambaataa, etc. 1987-1991: The Conscious Era When Rap started to become very political, introspective, Afro-centric, and conscious, touching on many subjects on society and injustice. Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, NWA, Ice Cube, Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, DOC, Queen Latifah, Eazy E, etc. made hip hop less party oriented and more message oriented and way more serious than it started out. It's also the era where Rap became more technical because of Rakim and BDK and more rappers started having more advanced rhymes and flow. 1992-1996: The Gangsta Rap Era When Rap became more hardcore and centered around the gangster lifestyle whether it's Crips/Bloods out West or mobsters/Drug Kingpins out east. Still relatively conscious but way more vulgar, flashy and controversial than rap from the previous era. Dr. Dre kicked the era off with The Chronic and more rappers followed suit. Snoop, Nas, Mobb Deep, Wu Tang, Tupac, Biggie, Bone Thugs, Raekwon, Kool G Rap were all rapping about street s--- while still mixing conscious messages with it(especially Pac and Nas). There was no real room for "soft" rappers to blow up during this time. 1997-1998: The Shiny Suits Era A small era where rap tried to do a 180 from Gangsta Rap and tried to become more happy and party oriented. Era began when Biggie died and Puffy/Bad Boy took over. Rap videos became very flashy and tons of dancers to the point of looking like a borderline caricature. Not just Bad Boy records but Cash Money also had tons of flashy album covers and music videos and rap became slightly less about skill and more about charts and sales as evidenced with Silkk The Shocker blowing up. It also paved the way for more materialism in rap. 1999-2005: The Ultra Commercial/ Bling Bling Era This is the era where Rap album sales were at their peak and Urban culture became much more heavily marketed to the masses and around the world compared to the 90's. Rappers were getting more blockbuster movies, merchandise, clothing, toys, etc. compared to the 90's and rappers were achieving feats that weren't possible in the 90's unless you were a pop act like MC Hammer or Vanilla Ice. Also, like the Shiny Suit era, a lot of rap videos looked like caricatures either with flashy videos with video vixens, grillz, gold chains rented cars, and mansions or as cartoony comedy videos like with Ludacris and Eminem. The whole aesthetic of baggy jeans, fitted hats, big chains, earrings, etc. as fashion spread to the suburbs and overseas too during this era. 2006-2009: The Ringtone Era This was when ringtones were still in style and had a big influence over the success of rap songs. It was also the decline of rap sales and Shady/Aftermath's dominance as Wayne and Kanye began to replace Eminem and 50 Cent as the new top dogs in rap. In this era, there were tons of one hit wonders and mid singles that blew up on the charts because of ringtones. Artists like D41, Yung Joc, Mims, Soulja Boy, Hurricane Chris, Lil Scrappy, Jim Jones, GS Boys, etc. were dominating the radio and Wayne and Kanye honestly don't get enough credit for holding this pretty mid era down and helping rap transition into the 2010's. 2010-2014: Art/Blog Rap Era Rap started become less singles oriented(partly because of the decline of ringtones) and more project/album oriented and experimentation and being leftfield became embraced over being hardcore or fitting the stereotypical rapper box. Even Eminem cut back on the Slim Shady persona in this era. MBDTF, Yeezus, GKMC, Take Care, FHD, Live Love ASAP, Acid Rap, etc. helped made this era what it is. 2015 - 2018: The Trap/Emo Rap Era Starts off with Future's big run in 2015 and ends around the time of ---'s death. During this time, a lot of hip hop production became very concentrated around trap beats, 808's, emo song themes, and melodic style of rapping. Drake's peak is also in this era. Sound becomes more redundant but there's still a lot of great albums from different artists. 2019 - Present: TikTok Era Similar to the Ringtone Era but with a different medium. A lot of rappers are focusing on singles and topping charts more than albums/projects. A lot of these hits are forgettable and Tik Tok is being used to help rappers get buzz and top the charts. Only a couple of mainstream rappers are doing interesting stuff and the best music is Indie or lesser known.
Mar 2, 2021 @Grim and @Kujaku67 hit the nail on the head. I find it fascinating that 'counter-weights' seem to emerge in each era, its probably never been as pronounced as it is right now. You could be listening to Lil Tecca one minute and then Rome Streetz the next. I think one that wasn't mentioned was the initial emergence of the underground with Rhymesayers/Lyrcists Lounge through to the hardcore underground Jedi Mind Tricks type s--- in the late 90's/early 00's as a kind of counterweight to the commercial explosion of Bad Boy, Roc-A-Fella, Aftermath, etc.
