Um, I haven't made the thumbnail for this video yet so we're just using my YouTube banner
as the background for the intro. 3 years. That’s the amount of time it has
been since I uploaded my video titled “What Was the Worst Year For Hip Hop?”, and now
over 1,100 days later, I thought it was finally time to flip that video idea on its head and
look at it in a more positive light. And the question we're gonna be answering now: what
was the best year for hip hop? As discussed by me, a 22 year old Scottish white kid. It’s
a question that there could be a lot of different answers to. Just like I said in the previous
video, I haven’t lived through every single year of hip hop so what I did was turn to
the internet and saw which years were most commonly mentioned in this discussion, broke
down the music that dropped within those years in terms of the albums and singles, and used
that to decide which one was the best, at least in my opinion.
But right before we get started, I have a big announcement that I’m excited to share
with you guys. Me and BlackySpeakz have started a podcast where we mainly discuss hip hop
called MindzCollide, the channel will be linked down in the description below, and we're gonna
be dropping the first episode of that podcast one day after this video goes up. We’ve
been planning this and working on the podcast for over a year at this point so we're super
excited for you guys to finally be able to see the finished product. So go to that link
down in the description to the MindzCollide channel, click that subscribe button, and
turn on the notifications so you know right exactly when that first episode drops.
With all that being said, we’ve got 5 years as contenders for this video this time, as
opposed to the 4 that we had last time, so let’s not waste anymore time before jumping
right into it. This is CDTVProductions, and let’s get right into the video.
1988
Now 1988- I wasn’t born until 10 years after this year, so I can’t talk about it as if
I lived through it, but you just have to look at the albums that dropped within this year
to see how important it was for the genre. Browse anywhere online and you’ll see people
talking about how ‘88 was an awful year for music in genres like pop and rock, but
for rap it was the opposite- a clear highlight. Look no further than NWA’s Straight Outta
Compton, a landmark album for rap music. It’s pretty much the main album that popularised
gangsta rap and put hugely influential rappers like Dr Dre and Ice Cube in the spotlight
for the first time. The fact that it still goes hard to this day is just a bonus. Then
of course there was the song from that album, F*** the Police, which combined with Public
Enemy’s album, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, put raw, gritty music that
had socially conscious lyrics at the forefront of rap. Just those albums are enough to show
the influence of this year, but you also had the storytelling of Slick Rick’s The Great
Adventures Of Slick Rick, the lyricism and production of Follow the Leader by Eric B.
& Rakim... uh, MC Hammer dropped his debut major label album. Ok not everything from
this year was legendary, but just look at the amount of influence and quality music
that 1988 produced. When it comes to hit songs, there really weren’t many that I could find
in this year that hit the Hot 100, unless they were by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince,
but that isn’t so important to this year. Regardless of charts or radio play, the music
was classic and a lot of it is timeless. And a lot of it paved the way for rap music to
be as big as it is, so that rappers eventually WOULD dominate the charts. I’m not necessarily
the biggest fan of 80’s hip hop as a whole, but if there’s one year in that decade that
I’m picking to listen to albums from and thoroughly enjoying them, it’s this one.
On top of all that, one of my favourite hip hop songs of the 80’s, Ain’t No Half-Steppin
by Big Daddy Kane dropped in ‘88 as well. It’s easy to see why this is singled out
as one of the greatest years ever for hip hop, but is it THE best? Let’s continue
through the 4 other years to find out.
1993
Yep. I picked a high quality image for this one. In contrast to the previous year we talked
about, 1993 actually had a decent amount of rap songs on the Billboard charts. Most notably,
Nuthing But A G Thang and F*** Wit Dre Day by Dr. Dre (I'm sure both of those sounded
great in my accent), Ice Cube’s It Was A Good Day, Snoop Dogg’s What’s My Name?,
and I Get Around and Keep Ya Head Up by 2Pac. Already looking incredibly strong from the
singles, and that is something that translates over to the albums of this year as well. The
aforementioned rap legend 2Pac got his big break into the rap game with his second studio
album, Strictly 4 My... you know the rest, an album which would be his first record to
go platinum. And hip hop was expanding on all sides, very slowly shifting from the more
west coast focus of 1988 onwards, with classic and notable albums starting to appear from
every coast with a variety of moods and sounds. Yes we did have Snoop Dogg’s debut album
which sold a massive 800k units in its first week, which I believe at the time made it
the fastest selling hip hop record ever, and Ice Cube dropped Lethal Injection, but from
the east coast you had one of my favourite hip hop albums of all time, Enter the Wu-Tang,
which dropped on the exact same day as Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest. A very
tonally different New York album to Wu Tang’s. And of course, the influence of Midnight Marauders
is just so clear, going on to heavily inspire modern albums I love, like Logic’s Under
Pressure and Kanye’s College Dropout. Seriously, if you've heard Under Pressure but you haven't
listened to Midnight Marauders, go listen to it and you'll notice some heavy similarities.
Especially with the whole Thalia thing. Obviously that was an intentional thing on Logic's part,
but I'm just saying, if you haven't heard it and you're a Logic fan, I could recommend
it highly. And while there wasn’t necessarily any southern classics this year, we still
did get an album from Scarface and the debut album from 8Ball & MJG. ‘93 was another
pretty monumental year for rap that I don’t have much bad to say about. The west coast
was still mostly in control here in terms of popularity, but as I said this year was
jam packed with great albums from every region. Honestly, this would’ve been a great time
to be alive, because up next we have the following year...
1994
Yep. That's 2 years in a row that were absolutely incredible for hip hop. If hip hop was expanding
on all coasts in 1993, it just continued to do it further in '94, with the east coast
taking back the spotlight a little bit more. Illmatic by Nas, considered by many to be
the greatest hip hop album of all time. Ready to Die by Biggie. Just those two alone are
legendary albums that are gonna be remembered forever, and rightfully so. The southern hip
hop music scene really started to emerge in this year with OutKast's debut southernplayalisticaddilacmuzik
and The Diary by Scarface. And in the Midwest, Common’s Resurrection and Bone Thugs N Harmony’s
Creepin On Ah Come Up. Not to mention, Vanilla Ice dropped Mind Blowin. All records on the
exact same caliber as each other. And in terms of what songs were charting... this year was
pretty much just as good as '93, if not better. The smooth G funk sound of Regulate by Warren
G with Nate Dogg’s always memorable vocals, Ice Cube’s G Funk hit You Know How We Do
It which was released in ‘93 but didn’t chart till this year, the inspirational, slick
flowing Juicy by Biggie, the haunting I Seen A Man Die by Scarface (side note: it’s very
interesting to see the difference in what could chart back then vs. now because that
song is dark). And I can’t forget Flava In Ya Ear by Craig Mack, which went on to
have a remix featuring Biggie, Busta Rhymes, Rampage & LL Cool J. So. F******. Much. Good.
Music. Honestly part of me envies people who grew up in this era because ‘93 and ‘94
must’ve been a wild time to live through as a hip hop fan. Part of me also doesn't
envy them because I'm younger but- y'know, pros and cons. Sure, I can revisit all of
the singles and albums of that time due to streaming services, but it would’ve been
a whole other experience to truly live through it. We’ve had a lot of iconic years so far,
but now for these final 2, let’s take a look at a couple that are more recent, before
deciding which is the best one.
2013
Nearly a full 20 years later from our previous best year candidate, we have 2013 up next.
This is a pretty recent year compared to everything else here, and even then you can still see
how it’s shaped what hip hop is like today and further enhanced its rise to being America’s
most popular genre. This is a year where hip hop arguably became more diverse than ever,
opening up the possibilities for endless experimentation, creativity and crossover within the rap genre.
Case in point, Kanye West’s Yeezus. An album that isn’t necessarily loved by everyone
but is undeniably hugely important for widening the soundscape of hip hop on a mainstream
level, featuring some of his most intense, industrial, electronic and abrasive production.
I honestly think it's a great album now and it could even be argued that this album had
a huge part to play in the explosion of SoundCloud rap from 2017 onwards, with its more rough,
rebellious and unapologetic sound. And Yeezus wasn’t the only brilliant album to drop
in 2013 that was mostly self produced by the artist rapping over the beats. We also had
Because the Internet, Wolf, and Born Sinner. Established acts in the game like Drake dropped
one of his greatest albums this year, and Eminem released MMLP2 which is a pretty solid
addition to his discography if you ask me. And I haven’t even mentioned Watching Movies
With the Sound Off, Doris and Run the Jewels, even more fantastic albums that dropped within
this time period. Top that all off with some album quality mixtapes like Welcome to Forever
and Acid Rap, and 2013 was just a powerhouse of a year. There was just such a big variety
of great projects with unique and diverse sounds and personalities rapping on them.
Sure, French Montana and Tyga did their best to drag this year down by dropping a project
each, but they didn’t manage to take away from the strengths of 2013. In terms of the
charts, there aren’t a crazy amount of songs I loved from this year but there were a few
Macklemore songs that dominated the charts that honestly did bump until they got insanely
overplayed, A$AP Rocky had F***** Problems, Lil Wayne had Love Me. There was some fairly
good songs topping the charts. Overall, 2013 had many more hits than misses when it comes
to the music that dropped. Exceptional albums, great new material from stars in the rap game,
and a few new generation stars were really starting to take off. Maybe you don’t think
it compares to the impact of the earlier years in this video, and I can see why, but it is
undeniable that this was an amazing year for rap.
2015
And for our fifth and final year in this video, we have 2015. And the easiest way for me to
sum up why this year was so good, is because so many huge artists in hip hop were at their
absolute prime in this year. Drake put out If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late,
another top 3 project of his, Future dropped DS2, one of his best, also dropped 56 Nights
which was great as well, then Future and Drake dropped What A Time to Be Alive together,
an album that I only listened to recently but it absolutely slaps front to back. Drake
& Future were in their element on that one. All 4 of them are great projects and absolute
highlights within the mainstream trap sound, and when it comes to that I can’t forget
to mention Travis Scott’s Rodeo either, an album that I still listen to constantly
in 202020. Earl Sweatshirt was in his prime with IDLSIDGO, my personal favourite album
from him, Rae Sremmurd dropped their best album with SremmLife, Young Thug released
Barter 6, Slime Season 1 and Slime Season 2, Joey Bada$$ put out B4.Da.$$, Logic came
with The Incredible True Story, Tyler with Cherry Bomb, Dr. Dre made a great comeback
with Compton, and as if we weren’t spoiled enough with all that great music, Kendrick
Lamar released one of the greatest, most well crafted hip hop albums of all time: To Pimp
A Butterfly. Oh my god. I don’t even need to say anything more about that album, it’s
simply a modern classic that will live on forever. Again, the charts don’t even really
matter for this year, it was mostly just Fetty Wap killing it and his songs were super catchy,
but the main focus here is just all the phenomenal albums that came out. Could do without DJ
Khaled & Tyga though, but I'd be surprised if anyone remembers Tyga’s 2015 album with
sales like that. Then as a little bonus, in 2015 we also had the Drake/Meek Mill beef
so that was fun too. When you think “best year for hip hop ever”, 2015 probably isn't
one of the ones that immediately jumps into your mind, but when you really take a look
at it, it was maybe the best year for rap music in the 2010s decade and is definitely
not one that should be overlooked in this discussion.
What Was the Best Year For Hip Hop?
So now it’s time to answer the question: in my opinion, what is the best year for hip
hop? Honestly they’re all great contenders. 2013 is probably the most sentimental to me,
as I was 14 throughout most of that year and that was around the time that I started to
branch out and listen to a bit more of a wider variety of hip hop, and it got me through
a lot. If we’re talking in terms of music that I personally listen to the most frequently,
then 2013 and 2015 are the years for me. But when I’m looking at it in terms of true
impact and monumental releases, then all the earlier years are much stronger contenders.
There’s just 3 to pick from now, and personally I’m gonna have to go with 1988 as the best
year for hip hop. Every single one of them has such strong releases, but ‘88 is a year
that changed everything for hip hop, and the influence of it can still be heard to this
day. Not to mention, the fact that there’s albums from this time period that dropped
so long ago but are still so replayable nowadays, that says a lot. Even if I personally don’t
listen to music from this era constantly, it’s impact and influence cannot be denied.
But what do you guys think? What is the best year for hip hop in your opinion? Let me know
down in the comments below, lemme know if you think it was one of the ones that was
in this video, or if you think there's any years that I'm missing from this video. I
would appreciate you leaving a like of course if you enjoyed this video, and subscribing
if you wanna see more videos similar to this. Thank you so much for watching guys, I will
see you all in the next one, and this is CDTVProductions... signing out.