His followers may debate whether Rain in England or 6 Kiss or Illusions of Grandeur or Bitch Mob: Respect Da Bitch is better (Lil B has a flair for titles), but for the uninitiated, I'm Gay does a great job of articulating his ethos and appeal in the space of one album. I'm Gay appeared on iTunes last week, and by convenience or design, it's his most coherent, cohesive, and accessible single release to date. Whatever his motivations (it probably had something to do with his philosophy of universal acceptance and self-love, but his manifestos don't survive close analysis), he guaranteed that the album's audience would be exponentially larger than anything he'd done before. With this single statement, Lil B calmly detonated a flower-power land mine in the center of what is arguably rap's most tortured, combustible political arena. And then he announced at Coachella he was going to name his next album I'm Gay.
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The result was a hip-hop comedy of manners: as XXL included him on their Freshmen 2011 list alongside industry non-entities like Mac Miller and Lil Twist and Lupe Fiasco publicly congratulated himself for "getting it," B basically continued whistling his tune, collaborating with Lil Wayne and Jean Grae and Tony Yayo and rapping over How to Dress Well instrumentals. And because of his talent on the mic and ability to earn the respect of peers from the other side of the map, Method Man is the only rapper to appear on both a Biggie and 2Pac album while both men were still alive.It's a self-contained musical universe, located at the vanishing point on the "all-or-nothing" spectrum, and its cult of faithful has been steadily building to the point where the mainstream rap industry has been forced to contend with him.
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He’d managed to somehow remain in Pac’s good graces, appearing on the song “ Got My Mind Made Up” from Shakur’s critically-acclaimed Death Row album All Eyez On Me.Īnd with those times, and because of that special moment in time where the rising stars were all connected. But headlines that mentioned New York and Cali rappers in this era were often followed by a word or two on the brewing “East Coast/West Coast Beef.” Tupac Shakur, the poetic, emotional but criminally talented rapper linked to much of the melee had ties to both coasts but repped the West as he declared war against Bad Boy & Friends. He locked in with the television world, appearing on the hit FOX comedy, Martin.īy 1996, B.I.G., Nas, Snoop, Dre and Meth were all superstars in the game. for “The What,” a hard-edged lyrical rhymefest on Ready to Die, he was also notably the only rapper guest feature to appear on the album. The Wu was ahead of its time, and their shining star, Method Man, made history by becoming the first Wu-Tang member to drop an official solo disc with the release of Tical on November 15, 1994. This is hardly an earth-shattering concept in 2021, but in the early 90s, this would have been like being the only guy on the block with a smartphone. These guys saw things a little differently: Why only split the pie each album out, when they could record as a unit, and in-between time, release discs as solo artists? And since we’re dreaming big, why limit ourselves to one label – when they could shop around and choose a home based on what worked best? In fact, they weren’t just going to be a group. Remember that little group called the Wu-Tang Clan we spoke about earlier? Yeah, they weren’t done.
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While Esco’s effort was a slower burn on the commercial end, Biggie easily slid between Casanova and crook, allowing his music to exist on airwaves and pissy hallways simultaneously. capped the year off with “ Ready to Die” and all of a sudden: New York had its champions. The Big Apple was still respected, but the unchallenged reign it had experienced in years past seemed like a lifetime ago once California entered the room.Ī beacon of hope that NYC would soon be back bubbling arrived in November 1993, as the Wu-Tang Clan‘s Enter The 36th Chambers, with its grimy sound and cast of 10 distinct bandmates, made the world pay attention.įirst, Nas offered up his masterpiece, “ Illmatic”, in early Spring. The genre was being firmly controlled by West Coast giants like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr.
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It was an interesting time to be a New York rapper.