Nov 21, 2015

Article Source: HipHopDX - http://hiphopdx.com/editorials/id.3115/title.stray-shots-worst-platinum-selling-rapper-of-the-90s

by DX STAFF on November 20th 2015



Was The Golden Era really that perfect?

Once upon a time in a universe far, far away, HipHopDX used to host blogs. Through Meka, Brillyance, Aliya Ewing and others, readers got unfiltered opinions on the most current topics in and beyond Hip Hop. After a few years, a couple redesigns and the collective vision of three different Editors-In-Chief, blogs are back. Well, sort of. Since our blog section went the way of two-way pagers and physical mixtapes, Twitter, Instagram and Ustream have further accelerated the pace of current events in Hip Hop. Rappers beef with each other 140 characters at a time, entire mixtapes (and their associated artwork) can be released via Instagram, and sometimes these events require a rapid reaction.

As such, we're reserving this space for a weekly reaction to Hip Hop's current events. Or whatever else we deem worthy. And the “we” in question is me, Andre Grant, and our Sr. Features Writer Ural Garrett. Collectively we serve as HipHopDX's Features Staff. Aside from tackling stray topics, we may invite artists and other personalities in Hip Hop to join the conversation. Without further delay, here’s this week's “Stray Shots.”

Was Silkk The Shocker The Only 90s Rapper Due For Criticism?

Andre: Of course not. The 90s were littered with middling to straight up terrible emcees that hit a deep vein of rap gold and struck success. Let us never forget Milli Vanilli orVanilla Ice. And let us own the fact that Shaquille O’Neal went platinum at one point. You can find his great contribution to rap here:



That doesn’t even include “(I Know I Got) Skillz,” which was buried deep in Hip Hop apocrypha before Shaq got his own Vevo channel. I digress, though. Are we really going to act like Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch weren’t a thing?



And they're just the ones that achieved a reasonable amount of cultural saturation. There were the weed carriers (Byron Crawford would be proud) getting deals left and right because the 90s were so flush with cash no one knew what to do with it all. Every once in awhile I’ll bump into an OG somewhere and they’ll proceed to tell me what the party life was like during the glory years. It makes my job feel like a government one as they regale you with stories about how Def Jam flew them out to their own private island and all the women were like 12s or above. And, about how the champagne flowed from heaven itself.

A few were more going to slip through with all that money floating around, and they did.Silkk The Shocker wasn’t one of them. He wasn’t going to assassinate you on some lyrical s---, sure, but the dude was entertaining. Plus, as long as someone with real chops like Mystikal was there to make things coherent, it was for sure fine. “It Ain’t My Fault” is a hood classic and it literally had a reference to Steve Urkel. Who can be mad at that?

And to all the folks who are going to be all like, “he rapped off beat!” My answer is so? So what? Yeah, he did and now half the game does. Who cares? These guys built an empire off of hard as beats, mafioso references and truly not being able to understand some of what these dudes were saying. I’ll take it.

Ural: Regardless of the genre, there are certain artists who generally made bad music despite having commercial success. Hip Hop wasn’t any different. Nothing killed me more than the success of Coolio. For me, he serves as the antithesis to the perfect notion of The Golden Era. And yes, I hated “Gangster’s Paradise.” To this day, it bothers me that the L.V. assisted track managed to win a Grammy over Tupac’s “Dear Momma,” Biggie’s “Big Pappa” and most importantly Skee-Lo’s “I Wish.” d--- you Michelle Pfeiffer!



For one, I never found Silkk The Shocker that bad as everyone believes. His verse on classic No Limit track “I’m A Soldier” was on par with Mystikal and Mia X’s standout verses. Matter of fact, The Tank had quality control issues due in part to the ridiculous amounts of artist signed to the label. Compared to several notable WTF signees to No Limit, at least Silkk sold fairly well.

Then there’s the ultimate blemish of the 90s in Vanilla Ice. How exactly To The Extreme managed to sell over seven million copies is beyond me. Then again, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Couldn’t have been any more different than the stuff folks complain about in this day and age. “Ice Ice Baby” wasn’t the only offender. Mr. Van Winkle almost ruined my childhood fascination of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles through “Ninja Rap.”