I feel bad for you homey and all the 90's babies that were either too young or just didn't understand that history was happening. Lucky for me my High school years were:
9th Grade: 94-95
10th Grade: 95-96
11th Grade: 96-97
12th Grade: 97-98
Tupac and Biggie died my 11th grade year. I was 16 when Pac went and 17 when Biggie went so the heart of my Hip Hop Life was right there in the 90's. We had it all, the artist, the classics. The singles back then were much more diverse, you would have your commerical stuff but all the underground stuff got airplay also. The Movies like "Juice", "Above the Rim", "Menence II Society", "Boyz In the Hood", "Poetic Justice", "New Jack City". And Yes even the wack artist of the 90's still made better music than the weak dudes now. We had Rap City before it was the bassment and after, we had Yo MTV raps. Watching Rap videos after school = GOAT. It was just a great time to be a hip hop fan. My Avi of NaS and Biggie was a photo taken of them together in 1993, I post that picture because at that moment when they dropped, that's when I knew I will forever love rap music. It's this era that has kept me holding on to this genre even past my 30's. This last decade was a huge step down for the genre but there was still some good music.
Just think about it though, Naughty By Nature, Tribe, Dre, Snoop, Ice Cube, Warren G, Dogg Pound, Biggie, NaS, Jay Z Tupac, Redman, Wu Tang, DMX, Bone Thugs, Big Pun, Puffy, Bootcamp Click, Jeru da damja, Fugees, Outkast, Scarface, No Limit, Lil Kim, Foxy We even got Rakim back in the last 90's. It was just THAT Era. 80's era is the only thing that rivals it. So I sympathize with what the O/P is saying about not being old enough to truly appreicate the era. I feel the same way about the 80's because I was a youngin during the Golden Era 82-89 so though I heard the music through family I wasn't old enough to appreciate it. Remember, everyone his their own era in life so it's not that you got cheated, destiny brought you here when it did. With that said I feel blessed that my teenage years was 90's Hip Hop, Classic Ish which is why no matter how old I get, I pop in those songs and it's like hoppin in the deloeran and going back in time to when Hip Hop was just uncut pure crack rock, lol. My 1st Clubbing experiences was to that great 90's era, going to the club with 90's Hip Hop, they were playing album cuts in the club not just singles, that's how dope Hip Hop was.