When Was The Golden Era Of Hip-Hop? What Year? What Time Of Year?

[Inspire / Moss]

I say 93 up to 95.. everyone was in their best at those times..

[pappy]

-Jay-Z was at his best.  Even people like me who hate Jay-Z, loved his first solo album that dropped that summer.

actually RD is a lot like illmatic in a sense.  It was heavily slept on when it first dropped an people didnt really start to appreaciate untill the rappers 2nd album.  But when Jay dropped in 96 he really didnt create that much buzz.

[Lincoln]

Late 80's. Eric B & Rakim, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, BDP, etc..

[-VZA-]

i gotta go with 1994... that was around the time when wu-tang and outkast both came out.  wu hasn't been the same sense but outkast is still going strong.  to me they are the most innovative artists around so i think that has to be the golden era right there.

[Sikx]

-96, pac, jay-z, snoop, that's it.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

92-95 for me, you can't name just one year in that time. So many classics dropped in that space of time, that it was almost untouchable. 87-88 runs it close, but I'd definitely pick 92-95. On the subject of 96, out of the people you mentioned only Jay Z and The Fugees dropped classics in 96, most of the other stuff coming out that year wasn't up to the level of the material the acts you mentioned had dropped between 92-95.

[Kill]

lol smerlus, but then IMO 2004>2003. 's too bad for you if you judge hiphop going from a few mainstream albums. yes, fuck the new em, yes, fuck the new snoop. but we had masta ace, the roots, ghostface, murs, the nas is at least decent, we had royce, mos def (yes, good album), 213 was aight too....and that's still the comparatively popular artists, if i start mentioning shit like the koopsta knicca album there would be loads somebody could come up with.

something that i find funny: Does anybody know the track by DJ Shadow "Why HipHop Sucks In '96"? listen to the 'lyrics' lol...now '96 is called the golden era, back then people complained in the same way they do now. kinda shows how the past is always glorified

anyways, i do agree too that those were great years, my personal pick would be '95. The Infamous, and Cuban Linx dropped on the east coast, the west had albums like Season Of Da Siccness, Me Against The World and Dogg Food, in the south the so badly overlooked classic Soul Food dropped, Mystic Stylez was a great dark album...........but it's difficult, '94 and '96 were great too...and if i was more into old school stuff i'd prolly say '88

[smartass]

92-96

it was the perfect mix of every type of rap... boom bap, g-funk, concious etc

damn, 96...back when the underground wasnt full of nerds and no talents.

[Ras Kass' Toothpick]

Late eighties without a doubt.


























...plus much more.  None of those options is fucking with that.

[Drudge]

mobb deep hell on earth was also released. classic. ghostface killah with ironman too.

Yep! "Hell on Earth" is one of my type five hiphop albums of all time.

[Thirteen]

lol smerlus, but then IMO 2004>2003. 's too bad for you if you judge hiphop going from a few mainstream albums. yes, fuck the new em, yes, fuck the new snoop. but we had masta ace, the roots, ghostface, murs, the nas is at least decent, we had royce, mos def (yes, good album), 213 was aight too....and that's still the comparatively popular artists, if i start mentioning shit like the koopsta knicca album there would be loads somebody could come up with.

i know there are good underground albums but very few people listen to them...i judge hip hop by the mainstream because that's all people care about...start talking to a person just getting into rap these days and you will see some of the most biased opinions ever...everything else sucks but the shit on the radio to them...about 5% of the hip hop consumer probably knows who the people you listed are and that's pretty sad

[Kill]

about 5% of the hip hop consumer probably knows who the people you listed are and that's pretty sad

as for ace, royce and murs that be true going from the 'hiphop' consumer being the type of person who likes the new chingy, but might as well listen to britney spears or some boyband, in other words including everybody who isn't really 'into' hiphop, but occasionally listens to it. but even outta those people more than 5% will have heard of nas, the roots or mos def (whose last album was pretty big, commercially)