i used to love H.E.R. / my favorite rappers / new series / intro

There is a German rapper who I think was the first battle rapper to have mainstream success in Germany as of 1998 as featured artist. On one track of his crew's debut album he raps "ihr kennt rap seit puff daddy, wisst nix über graffiti" ("you know rap since puff daddy, know shit about graffiti"), which is clearly something most rap fans would take as on offense. nonetheless, i'm afraid it also applies to me.

I was born in November 1987, so I was just 8 and 9 years old when 2Pac and Biggie, respectively, were killed. At that time I was mostly interested in playing football (soccer) after school and buying or stealing candy
(I was caught stealing mentos in our home town's supermarket once. My dad had to apologize to the owner personally. Quite embarrassing everytime i took another step inside that supermarket.), and i didnt care about music much. But then, "I'll be missing you" in Biggie's memory was a big hit in Europe. So was "Come with me" from the Godzilla movie soundtrack a bit later. I remember my brother, who is one year older than me, arrived home with the CD of the single. I think Puff Daddy, along with Pras' "Ghetto Supastar" were probably my first contacts with hip hop. Definitely rather catchy mass appeal tunes but then again I was merely 9-10 years old, and I'm from Europe/Germany. I didn't even speak English back then. I did find the name "ol' dirty bastard" quite funny though.

Most days I would just listen to the music and CDs my brother brought home, and this Ol Dirty Bastard guy was on one of them again, this was Wu-Chronicles. By 1999, I was really hooked and started buying music myself with the little pocket money I had. Eminem came out with "my name is" and the single CD had the music video on it and the Quick Time player to play it. We only had a PC with Windows 3.11 and without a soundcard at home but I tried to make it run for hours.

We listened to everything that was hip hop, and the late 90ies and early 2000s did have some great releases. There was Wu-Tang with the W, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Xzibit, DMX, Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Busta Rhymes, Nas, ... we realized they all had been around for some time already. We started digging, not for funk or classic samples but for previous releases of our favorite artists. And so we discovered how great 90ies hip hop was.

Me and my brother last summer - he is more into metal nowadays...

The golden era had already past, there was a lot to catch up on. But the time travel was a bit chaotic, it went kind of like this: Wu-Chronicles and the W led us back to their solo albums, Method Man to Redman, DMX to Onyx, Nas to Mobb Deep, Dr. Dre and Xzibit to the whole West Coast. There was a whole decade to discover and listen to, the way hip hop sounded in the 90ies was more exciting. And whenever I discovered a reference, I had to find the referenced track or artist.

I spent so much time digging deeper into hip hop's past that I ignored many releases of the new millenium. I grew up with 90ies music but in the 2000s. That's why it's the music I have the strongest emotional connection to.

From time to time I'll write a bit about my favourite albums and rappers. my main criterion is having listened to them over and over again and knowing most of the lyrics, but not necessarily the "general popular opinion" about a particular artist or release.

Feel free to comment, let me know your favorites, your story, where you are from, anything. Stay tuned.

Ruben out # mic drop