What was the worst year in hip hop history?

[ustreet_monsta]

97. It was the year after a bunch of classics dropped. BIG and Pac were dead and set the stage for a bunch of less than convincing clones to water down their legacies. If BIG and Pac didnt die we might not have so many wack rappers tryna copy them and Puff would have never had a solo career.

 

[MysticBoy]

This thread is lame as fuck. If these factors contribute to "bad years" just because "wack" shit is/was popular, then Hip Hop is the only genre that shits on itself.

 

[Mdizzle9000]

like the whole 2000s after 03

 

[J. Rob]

Overall, it was probably 2006. Mainstream was wack as fuck, and the underground was pretty mediocre. I'd say second half of 2006 and the first half of 2007 was the worst one year stretch hip hop has ever had in terms of music quality.

2008 was pretty bad too.....it wasn't as wack as 06, but it was just an extremely forgettable year. Carter 3 was really the only anticipated release that year and that turned out to be a disappointment IMO. Seriously, what other other albums dropped in 2008 because I'm really having a hard time remembering. L.A.X., Paper Trail, 808s & Heartbreak......can't remember shit else. LOL

 

[704Hustla]

91 - Fat Boys and NWA break up, Vanilla Ice blows up, east coast takes a plunge

96-97 - Big and Pac die, jiggy era is born, Dre releases that Aftermath and Firm shit

2000 - Pun dies, Nelly debuts, only a handful of notable albums are released

2006 - Snap music hits mainstream, cats like Jeezy, Ross and Wayne lower standards of lyricism, Jay drops a half assed comeback album, feelings caught over the term "Hip Hop Is Dead"

2011 - All of the above culminates to the mass public accepting mediocrity, rappers releasing half assed albums, monotonous production trumping over lyrics

DISCLAIMER: This may sound coast biased or whatever, but that's not what I'm trying to get across. Just my thoughts on what ruined a year for hip hop, and all of our minor missteps making the problem bigger. Add on.

that's what it sounds like but whatever man...91 wack???nah...that dancin shit was dyin it 91 and it really started in the late 80's it just got old by that time but death certificate and low end theory dropped in 91 not to mention boyz n the hood

97...was pretty damn lame

2000...don't forget to add ja rule's 2nd solo

2006..yea the snap came out but people act like this is the first time a new popular dance came out...like how long have ya'll listened to rap or are ya'll those backpackers who like to keep everything in a strict box..yea people had a right catch feelings over that bullshit ass hip hop is dead shit...(killer mike was one of the first wear that t shirt then so im not hatin on the east like that cause i don't agree with him either)..lol @ blaming jeezy,ross, and wayne..because game, g-unit and diplomats was groundbreaking right???

2011...could've said the same for 2007 up until now

 

[FyHunnit]

2009 hands down.

 

[G.R.I.P. Money $$$]

hell nawl, 06 still had some quality..

the winner here(at least in recent memory) is prolly 09.

 

[G.R.I.P. Money $$$]

damn 06 was bad tho huh.

 

[blackdemo]

Everybody who sayin 2000 and up need to chill cuz ican name like 30 artist who did they thing this whole deaced including this year. Hip Hop is still very strong, jus as good as the 90s imo, its jus mainstream hip hop wasnt all that great but the underground, "mainstream underground" and the way everyone hustles now thru forums, blogs, magazines, youtube, twitter, hometown buzz, massnetworking, hip hop changed drastically and things are different but in a good way. jus gotta know where to look.

jus like everyone else on this site, we all kno whos gonna blow up before the general public like 1 or 2 years in advance then the general public, imo anyways

 

[buttuh_b]

2011 has been garbage.......

 

[Beta]

Yeah Ima say 2009...

 

[Mr. AJ]

2004 - to current date...
05 - 08 = lowest point out of that span

 

[grumpy_new_yorker]

every year gets worse and worse.

 

[will blax]

man i think hip hop gets better and better every year. For all the whack shit theres is the same amount of dope shit. You just gotta look and not listen to what the radio plays or what coporate blogs say

 

[tompetrez3]

co sign with 2009. thats around the time i stopped fucking with hip hop and switched to disco, pop and big band. 09 was a low point. everybody was wack in 2009. even my favorite rappers on my GOAT lists dropped some dissapointing music that year. 09 in general was shitty now i think about it. fuck 2009. 2000-2008 wasnt all that bad though. matter fact i was sittin back earlier thinking about how 2002 needs to be mentioned in the same sentence as 1988, 1994. 2002 had dope music coming out every month a lot of rappers were just reaching their primes in 02. mainstream hip hop was tolerable and bumpable. the new wave of independent artist were arriving. the mechanics of creating hip hop music and marketing/distributing started to change in this year. 02 was the shit historic year. 03 was dope. 04 was another classic year. 2005-2006 booming innovative year. wont be appreciated for another decade. 2007 was eh to me. 2008 was better but 09 is when it all started to end. 2010 was wack. 2011 is wacker.

 

[CirocObama]

How the fuck y'all gonna say 2006? I mean there was def wack shit but c'mon now.

2006, good or bad, had "King" (T.I.), "Doctor's Advocate" (The Game), "Big Bang" (Busta Rhymes), "Release Therapy" (Ludacris), "Kingdome Come" (Jay-Z), "Hip Hop Is Dead" (Nas), "The Blue Carpet Treatment" (Snoop Dogg), "Food & Liquor" (Lupe Fiasco), "The Inspiration" (Jeezy), "Laugh Now, Cry Later" (Ice Cube), "Blood Money" (Mobb Deep), "Fishscale" (Ghostface) and many more.

Y'all niggas is trippin'. I'd say '97 had more wack shit than good cuz that's when the whole R&B mixed with party rap shit became bigger in the mainstream. 2000-2001 was the years of singles more-so than albums (with a few exceptions) so i guess you can count those years. 2002 and 2004 was pretty boring overall too. Plus let's not even talk about 2007-2009 with the exception of a few joints like Kanye and so on.

 

[Lab Baby]

that's what it sounds like but whatever man...91 wack???nah...that dancin shit was dyin it 91 and it really started in the late 80's it just got old by that time but death certificate and low end theory dropped in 91 not to mention boyz n the hood

97...was pretty damn lame

2000...don't forget to add ja rule's 2nd solo

2006..yea the snap came out but people act like this is the first time a new popular dance came out...like how long have ya'll listened to rap or are ya'll those backpackers who like to keep everything in a strict box..yea people had a right catch feelings over that bullshit ass hip hop is dead shit...(killer mike was one of the first wear that t shirt then so im not hatin on the east like that cause i don't agree with him either)..lol @ blaming jeezy,ross, and wayne..because game, g-unit and diplomats was groundbreaking right???

2011...could've said the same for 2007 up until now

Good points. As far as 91, I was gonna say 89 or 90, but way too many classics dropped at that time. I almost didn't wanna add 91, except that it was kind of a boring year compared to the others, and Hammer/Ice were still going strong... they officially got played out in 92.

As far as 06, nah, no one's mad over the dance joints. We're just mad at how wack they were. At least the Pee Wee Herman, the Steve Martin, etc. were somewhat entertaining, and the artists that made those songs had a decent catalogue or a skill set to fall back on. Not only the 06 dance craze was wack, they were full of one hit wonders that weren't shit outside of those songs.

As far as saying hip hop is dead, I don't agree with it but people saying did have their cases. Like Monie Love said in that Jeezy interview, not everyone was getting a chance... you either had to dance or "bust your gun" to get recognized during that time. And seeing that hip hop "still selling" is a case for some people that hip hop is still alive really says something about the culture itself.

And yeah, G Unit (mostly 50 and Yayo) was pretty elementary, but the rest of them dudes had bars. Even Jones was able to spit before the whole Ballin phase (also a product of 06). And they never stooped to low levels of "So Icey", "Dear Mr Toilet, I'm the shit", and "whip it whip it real hard". Them dudes were the only mainstream "lyricists" out of a bunch of wackness, so of course they're sound dope. Jay and Nas are legends so that's a given, and Lu wasn't getting the same recognition.

 

[southsil4lil]

Chamillion dropped sound of revenge and Slim Thug dropped already platinum in 06

 

[thekillingjoke]

I say 97. Biggie had passed, Puff had everybody following the Shiny Suit Era.

 

[a_list]

Wu-Tang Clan

Wu-Tang Forever(1997)

Capone-N-Noreaga

The War Report(1997)

The Notorious B.I.G.

Life After Death(1997)

.....................eliminate 97