Hip Hop 101 for Baby Boomers

Ladies and gentleman, Eric B. & Rakim:









Here we have the birth of the New School. Hip Hop began around 1977 and after 10 years it had stylistically evolved to the point where there was a clear break between an older generation and the new. The defining hallmarks of the new school are technological innovations in beat making with samplers and drum machines, a new emphasis on album and music video making as opposed to 12" singles, and a shift away from the party-and-bullshit subject matter of the old school. No rapper epitomizes the stylistic innovations of the new school (aka the Golden Age) like Rakim. His flow is serious, complicated, non-nonsense and dense. He enunciates his carefully written rhymes clearly to give them more gravitas while maintaining a coversational, yet confrontational tone. While rappers like KRS-One or Tupac were more thematically grandiose and ambitions and rappers like Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z were more lyrical and popular, Rakim still tops most charts of "Greatest Rapper of All Time" for his intensity and craftsmanship. A true MC's MC.