>5th century A.D. - 8/11/73: Prehistoric Era
Norse flyting, spoken word poetry, disco and funk music develop and lay the groundwork for hip hop (Last Poets, Pigmeat Markham, etc.)
>8/11/73 - 9/16/79: Underground Era
DJ Kool Herc invents hip hop at a birthday party and word gets out; rappers (then known as MCs) rap over mixed and scratched disco samples made by producers (then known as DJs); it's mostly party music with no real artistic value
>9/16/79 - 7/7/87: Old School Era
The Sugarhill Gang drops Rapper's Delight, the first mainstream rap hit and introduces the world to hip hop; hip hop slowly moves away from disco-esque beats to more barebones and grimy sounding beats; rhymes are still basic and it still has no artistic value, but Public Enemy and Rakim toward the end of this era
>7/7/87 - 11/9/93: Silver Age
Eric B. & Rakim drop Paid in Full, completely revolutionizing the genre and elevating it to new heights; rappers take note and slowly more skilled rappers and producers start to pop up, but there is still plenty of trash available; N.W.A popularizes and perfects the subgenre of gangsta rap; g-funk and jazz rap are also created
>11/9/93 - 7/22/97: Golden Age
Wu-Tang Clan drops Enter the Wu-Tang, revitalizing the fleeting New York hip hop scene, and setting the stage for monsters like Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., and Mobb Deep, among others; hip hop becomes considerably darker and hardcore; a good majority of big releases during this era are timeless classics; OutKast become the first major southern rappers with their own distinct sound; 2Pac and Biggie become the first major deaths in hip hop following the massive East vs West beef
History of Hip Hop
>7/22/97 - 12/18/01: Shiny Suit Era
Biggie's death leaves Puff Daddy as the de-facto king of New York, and he becomes the arbiter of a new mainstream sound, consisting of polished, minimalist beats and lush R&B hooks; mainstream hip hop suffers a significant drop in quality, with even Jay-Z, Nas, and Wu-Tang succumbing to the trends of the time; southern hip hop however begins to elevate, with Cash Money, No Limit, and Hypnotize Minds at the forefront, leading to numerous classics records being dropped; underground hip hop continues where A Tribe Called Quest left off, leading to a softer, more soulful sound, and some start to experiment a little; Eminem becomes the first successful white rapper; crunk and bounce start; producer Kanye West brings soul to the mainstream on Jay-Z's The Blueprint, which contained a diss to Nas
>12/18/01 - 5/2/07: Bling Era
Nas drops Ether, which popularizes a hardcore style of hip hop only heard previously in the underground; this, combined with the increasing popularity of mixtapes and an Eminem cosign allow 50 Cent and G-Unit to dominate this era; Dipset and other New York rappers adopt this sound; West Coast hip hop is basically nonexistent in the mainstream save for The Game and the old guard of 90s west coast rappers; crunk hits the mainstream; Gucci Mane and Zaytoven invent trap music; T.I. and Young Jeezy hop on the bandwagon; Kanye West continues to make soulful hip hop; mainstream hip hop is noticeably better than the previous era, but still isn't as good as it should be; underground hip hop becomes a little stale but isn't that bad, with acts like Little Brother and the late J Dilla dropping classics
>5/2/07 - 11/22/10: Ringtone Era
Soulja Boy drops Crank That, leading to a new wave of low-effort rap music with catchy hooks to be produced; the worst era for hip hop since the old school era; almost every mainstream rapper falls victim to the poppy sounds of the era; Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, and Kid Cudi are the only mainstream acts to drop classics; the underground suffers greatly as well, but SpaceGhostPurrp and Lil B start around this time; the internet starts being used by underground and independent acts, mainly myspace
>11/22/10 - 8/25/17: Second Golden Age
Kanye West drops My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, a completely new type of hip hop never heard before; the mainstream is completely flipped on its head and more artistic and conceptual albums are released (TPAB, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, etc.); the underground follows suit with more experimentation and the formation of new subgenres; Death Grips, Maxo Kream, Mick Jenkins, Raider Klan, Young Pappy, Sybyr, and so many more unique artists are able to coexist and consistently drop classic after classic; mixtapes start to resemble albums more than demo tapes; trap becomes mainstream, and even rappers that shouldn't be good like Future, Migos, and Lil Yachty drop classic projects; semi-underground rappers like Chief Keef and Young Thug enjoy moderate success; albums become shorter and it seems like rappers actually care about the integrity of their craft; literally the only rappers who don't get better are Strange Music; blogs replace myspace, and soundcloud replaces blogs; A$AP Mob changes the New York sound; 70-80% of major records are classics
>8/25/17 - Present: Second Silver Age
BROCKHAMPTON, Lil Uzi Vert, and XXXTentacion all drop albums on the same day, perfectly encapsulating the direction that hip hop was heading; BROCKHAMPTON releases the final album of the golden age, Lil Uzi releases a meh record with some amazing heights, and X drops rushed trash as reflective of the current cultural zeitgeist; some drop in quality, but there is still a lot of good stuff being released; once great mainstream rappers that dominated the last few eras finally fall off; underground dips in quality a little bit too; Lil Nas X and Cardi B are surprisingly some of the better artists to come out of this era; hip hop becomes the #1 genre in America; backpack rap simultaneously gets better and worse; songs become shorter with less effort put into them; labels start bloating albums to boost streams and sales; manufactured rap stars like Baby Goth and Clever become more apparent and widespread; X becomes the new 2Pac and is worshipped endlessly; Playboi Carti somehow goes from a below average trap rapper during the previous era to one of the more experimental artists of the mainstream; mixtapes and albums basically become the same thing
shit I forgot also emo rap gets popular after years in the underground
Reading this hurts.
Lil Uzi fell off after Luv Is Rage 2 sadly
Very opinionated about the "has no value" in the beginning
For example "the message" by grandmaster flash and the furious five isn't party rap, and "it's like a jungle" is a classic citation. Yet you say
>rhymes are still basic and it still has no artistic value, but Public Enemy and Rakim toward the end of this era
>it's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
>how I keep from going under
Not "basic and it still has no artistic value" imo
the message is the exception
Kill yourself furry
>underground hip hop becomes a little stale
You must be joking
This definitely has to be the first undeniably rap/hiphop song
these all suck except for the last one
jesus if that was rap's golden age, this truly is a shitty genre
It's only its golden age to hood niggas, black "boomers", and suburban white kids who think all rappers are gangster.
what is its golden age then
has it even had one yet
A lot of effort and history for such an insignificant deadend genre.
Owned. owned. get destroyed
Hip-Hop will never have a golden age because it's a creatively bankrupt genre that's parasitic and leeches off other, more creative genres of music
Great write up OP. Enjoyed it. I definitely think The Message is an important thing to mention though since it basically jumpstarted hip hop being more than just party music. It set the stage for Public Enemy. Also acts like Run DMC, Beastie Boys, and Vanilla Ice are important mentions since they opened up rap to the maainstream
You missed the Neptunes and Timbaland who dominated radio in the early 2000s. Three Six Mafia basically inventing this decades sound in the 90s. MBDTF was not influential at all and not a "completely new type of hip hop" it was just hip pop with someone delusions of grandeur that occasionally backed it up. TPAB was jazz rap that really was nothing like MBDTF and neither was that Cole shit. Danny Brown was more significant to the underground over Mick Jenkins and Sybyr and whoever the fuck Young Pappy is. You also missed WAKA FLOCKA and the landmark album FLOCKAVELI in which producer Lex Luger honed and popularized the current trap sound. Him and Gucci really started that whole shit. You also missed ASAP rocky who was huge in earlier in the decade. And no, Future Migos and Yachty did not drop "classic" projects. Future might have dropped classic songs. Migos lacks the depth for a real classic full length, and yachty was flash in the pan meme trash. BH did not release the final album of the golden age. BH is totally irrelevant and was Odd Future for LGBT art hoes before Tyler did his whole gay thing. BH released nothing of note in the world of hip hop and will be forgotten. Uzi was one of the few good trap artists that is mainstream with crossover appeal. You forgot about the wack white boy emo trap shit from Bones and Suicide Boys too. Lil Ugly Mane and SGP really made that a thing but it was actually artistic and fresh and different when they did it. Bones made it a caricature and suicide boys made it even worse and palatable to a mainstream audience. The "Second golden age" really ended around 2015 at the latest. Since then it's just been rehashing trap over and over and over. Before more unique sounds were in play. Cilvia by Isaiah Rashad was really the final release in that era that mattered. By the time TPAB came out it was already going down the shitter. Schoolboy Q always sucked and so did the rest of TDE besides Kendrick and Isaiah.
THIS the underground boom in the 2000s was one of the best parts of that decade