As someone who will have a 6 in front of his age before the end of the decade, I'm obviously from the original generation of Hip Hop heads who spent their 20s in the 1980s. I still have my 12 inch of the original "Superrappin" by Flash and the Furious Five from 1979. To me, Melle Mel was the greatest rapper from the first era of recorded rap, which would run from King Tim III, up until Run DMC turned the genre on it's head in 1983. Then you have what I call the "beat box" era. Stripped down beats, with few instruments. LL is the king here. The 12 inch acoustic version of Rock The Bells (not the album version, which is also a monster), is in my opinion, one of the greatest examples of MC-ing ever put to wax. Then comes the sample heavy, Golden Era, of Hip Hop. This gave us a quartet of royalty. KRS-One, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and Kool G Rap, as well as Public Enemy, and De La Soul. To me, it never got better than this. Still, there was plenty to like in the early 90s from Cube, Dre, Snoop, Cypress Hill, The Geto Boys etc. Illmatic was really the last album that truly moved me. By that time, I was in my late 30s, and my interest in rap began to wane, although I did like Outcast. I have become a card carrying member of the "today's music sucks" crowd. This cuts across all genres. I satisfy my need for "new"music by looking to the past, beyond my era of the late 60s, to the mid 90s. I've been enjoying artists from the original jazz era, such as Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ella, etc. I've gotten into the ska music that came out of Jamaica in the early 60s, and set the table for reggae. Lately, I've been digging into the endless supply of doo wop records, made in the 50s, and early 60s, and enjoying it immensely.
