when it comes to hip hop call me old school

I know i'm not the only one

Slick Rick
Public Enemy
Eric B and Rakim
EPMD
De La Soul
Ice-T (perhaps the only west coast rapper I ever dug)
Black Moon
Pete Rock and CL Smooth
Gangstarr
Pharcyde
Krs-1 / bdp
Smif N Wesson
Camp Lo
Tribe
Naz' Illmatic album is still the best
Mobb Deep's The Infamous



this music spoke to me, I memorized it by rewinding the tape, writing it down, playing it back. It was either venting my frustration or elevating my consciousness. NYC was its cultural center. It still is if you like the new stuff that is coming out, but I don't. I can't.
my point of refrence for where it all went wrong is after wu-tang had split up to do their solo albums. Right after liquid swords, ol' dirty bastard's album, right after those albums there was NOTHING. Jay-z, eminem, 50 cent and the lot of new crap is sheer shite to me, there is nothing there, like trying to grab water or sand, there's nothing there to hang on to. Sean Paul? Ka-ka. Glamourous nonsense with bling ice rocking SUV shit-for-brains. It breeds contemptous sleepwalkers on cellphones, glamourous but ignorant, selfish and oblivious. Granted, these are all my opinions, someone else would probably call it profoundly moving music but not I. Perhaps the kids in the suburbs with the cornrolls can dig it (that is mostly who is buying it).

About as new school as i ever got was Black Star (Kwali and Mos Def) and that was bloody 7 years ago!
Their lack of a second effort makes me think they were a fluke, besides there were at least two covers on that album: slick rick, BDP. Kind of weak of them not to come out with anything after that. Were they tapped out? I was depending on them to save hip-hop. They knew it was a good album and I guess they didn't want to tarnish their rep. with something substandard.
pharoahe monch was good. Soundboming I and II were good too. But what happened? Here is what happened to Rawkus.