Death Row on the radio.
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GAF-Hop |OTX| Long Live the Watcher
- Thread starter Esch
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Death Row on the radio.
My cousin always used to play 2Pac when we'd play Age of Empires and shit.
MorisUkunRasik
Member
Westcoast rap was real big when I was young. I was only 6 or so in 95 but I remember cousins and siblings listening to the radio and I'd hear 2pac/Snoop/Dre on constant rotation as well as Outkast Nas Biggie Bone Thugs etc. I vividly remember coming home on September in 96 and hearing on the radio that 2pac had died, it's crazy cause I have a real bad memory, but that's one I still have.
My brother got Wu Tang Forever on casette for Xmas and since we shared a room I heard it probably 100+ times, but I really didn't delve into it on my own until highschool.
MuddyDonut
Member
Always had an interest ever since my mom played the fugees when I was younger. Her husband was really big into 2pac as well, so I grew up listening to that and Nirvana. Then my first ever album that I legitimately bought was Graduation and Carter 3 shortly after. I think that's when I started really getting into it with my next step being a Blackout 2 commercial on BET. Then the gradual introduction into Wu Tang began and boom, here I am. Of course I'm leaving out all the Lil Wayne mixtapes and the first two Lupe Fiasco albums.
Hahaha
This is kind of similar to my coming up with hip-hop, except friends and I all had bootleg PC versions of Sonic R that didn't play the music for some reason, so, while playing, we listened through Tupacs greatest hits in the background instead.
Never anything else either. Just Pac.
IrishNinja
Member
i grew up in a black neighborhood, and my older brother bumped NWA. years later when i started really getting into it, bootleg tapes from this NY dude were like currency on my block, and i traded a genesis game i forget for Nas, Wu & Black Moon, which i still consider one of my better trades.
haha that's crazy, since the OST is like the only good thing i remember about R
It really is.
I didn't actually hear that awesome Jacques OST till long after I had played the game.
Cousin of mine gave me a cassette copy of 36 chambers and straight outta Compton. It was off to the races after that.
Pharrell can't put out a good solo album. He does good work outside of his solo-stuff, but can't deliver when it comes to a whole project of his own. His LP back in 07 was garbage too.
Frontin' had everybody thinking Pharrell was going to come correct as a solo artist.
I can't remember when I wasn't at least listening to some rap. Listened to College Dropout with my friend in 4th grade. My largest growth wasn't until 5th grade - 6th grade summer. My brother was getting into drugs/alcohol/slinging shit, but him and his friends would play dope shit. They were cool to me and my middle brother, so it's a fond memory. Mostly 90's rap, but in middle school I listened to radio rap and watch videos on tv a lot. So a mix of 00's commercial and 90's shit my brother played. I carved my own path through hearing Kick Push on the radio. Going home and downloading more Lupe off Limewire. Led me to finding other genres even, honestly. I had an underground/early 90's phase from 8th - sophomore year of HS. Around the time The Cool, Beneath the Heavens and others came out. By junior year I was reading GAF-Hop, and senior year I joined here. Rest is history.
I've been reading GAF in general since 7th grade, so yeah, GAF-Hop was instrumental.
I have no idea. All I remember is wearing an Ice T shirt when I was like 12 while everyone else was into Guns'N'Roses and shit like that. Yes I'm that old. Wait now I remember..I think my older brother brought home the first Public Enemy record back in 88?and I was immediately in love. Good times.
I was 14 and a dude at school had a shirt that said "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nutin Ta Fuck Wit" on its back. I googled it, listened to the song started listening to 36 chambers and you can imagine how the rest goes.
I actually had listened to some hip-hop before that but i was never deep into it until I checked out 36 chambers and the rest of the 90s wu catalog.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I heard "Same Love" on Pandora a year ago and since then I've been digging real artists like Immortal Technique, The Roots Crew and Dilated Peoples.
Don't you fucking drag the roots into this shitty troll.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
To be fair, I think they do pretty good on Fallon. I was surprised they were more than just a late night show band, like Leno's crew. Questlove is a pretty dope rapper.
Tokubetsu
Member
An older black sister who lived on BET. She was in it for the R&B, sould and gospel stuff and I ended up loving Rap City The Basement etc.
this is good. j-live has put out six albums?
Rastafarian42
Member
My older brother use to blast a lot of hardcore Bay Area music when I was 5 and I listened to the radio so I heard all the popular stuff like Pac Biggie Will Smith etc.
PhoenixDark
Banned
My cousin was a heavy hip hop head, and lived with my grandmother so whenever I visited her I'd get to listen to his shit. Wu, Biggie, Nas, Dre, etc back in 1994. We used to spend hours playing Street Fighter II and listening to Spice 1, Wu, and Nas. I couldn't listen to rap at home though, or any music actually since my parents were religious. Although they really liked Gangsta's Paradise and literally sat me down to listen to it on some "you see what happens if you run the streets" shit. This was when we lived in Detroit lol.
I managed to get a radio in 1998 and would secretly listen to shit at night. I was a Matchbox 20 stan at the time brehs, and I'd also listen to rap. Nas, 2Pac, etc.
By highschool I had become a backpacking fruity ass mothafucka. Blackstar poster, shaking my head at 50 Cent stans even though I secretly fucked with a lot of GRODT. I had a low opinion of white women and was searching for a Nubian queen with locks and a dark complexion drenched in cocoa butter.
public school + older brother.
The Artful Dodger
Member
I actually ignored it for a long time. I was into punk and garage rock and that's what I liked, but when I graduated HS, somebody turned me onto NWA, and I really identified with the energy and attitude, from there it was 2pac, who I felt really had that same attitude that The Clash had. After that I was sold and just kinda fell into the whole thing.
Eminem actually stopped me from getting into the genre for a while. One of my buddies from the hood burned me The Eminem Show excitedly in 7th or 8th grade and I enjoyed it for like a weekish but eventually the heavy handed maudlin bits of it put me off. Yeesh.
spindashing
Banned
School, really. I didn't like hip-hop/rap at first since I was raised on "the classics."
I got really into West Coast shit during highschool though which is ironic as hell. Pac, Eazy, Dre, NWA, etc. Also, I think the Tony Hawk games put me on a lot of hip-hop related tracks too.
For me it was the day Tupac died. I was around 7 or 8. I remember whatever news channel it was playing a clip from a song and a music video and just loving the way it sounded.
From then I would watch MTV and hoping they would play hip hop videos (which they didn't do often). Some of the first tracks and music videos I fell in love with was Nothing but a G Thang, Put your hands where my eyes can see, Triumph.
And then Biggie died a year later and it sparked my interest in hip hop more. I remember my parents not letting me listen to it but still trying to find ways to listen to it. Eventually they figured it was a pointless battle and pretty much all the music I've listened to other than System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine has been hip hop.
From then I would watch MTV and hoping they would play hip hop videos (which they didn't do often). Some of the first tracks and music videos I fell in love with was Nothing but a G Thang, Put your hands where my eyes can see, Triumph.
And then Biggie died a year later and it sparked my interest in hip hop more. I remember my parents not letting me listen to it but still trying to find ways to listen to it. Eventually they figured it was a pointless battle and pretty much all the music I've listened to other than System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine has been hip hop.
I was never really into music growing up. Only heard what I heard on the radio or what my older cousins were listening to on car rides. I always enjoyed rap that was mainstream. I remember loving some of the big Jay Z and Biggie hits that would be played non stop. Oddly enough almost 20 years later and those songs still get played on the radio.
But I always treated rap like it was good for a fun pop song but nothing more. I was heavy into nu metal and metal overall. Eminem's "My Name Is" made me dislike rap even more especially cause I saw it as so corny that I deemed all of rap as just stupid singles even if I enjoyed some of it.
But Eminem is the one who brought me back in when I heard my younger brother bumping "Stan". I was like wtf this song is amazing. Then it was like a light switch went off and I realized holy shit all these other artists I liked were more than just the singles I heard on tv/radio. I started going backwards listening to all the Jay and Nas albums. It really quickly became my favorite genre.
In college went through a stupid battle rap period when FB just started. We created a group and did written. Thought it was the coolest shit ever but honestly I was a lot more into music/rap back then. I still try to check everything out and this thread is great for keeping me up to date but back in college I couldn't get enough of it.
But I always treated rap like it was good for a fun pop song but nothing more. I was heavy into nu metal and metal overall. Eminem's "My Name Is" made me dislike rap even more especially cause I saw it as so corny that I deemed all of rap as just stupid singles even if I enjoyed some of it.
But Eminem is the one who brought me back in when I heard my younger brother bumping "Stan". I was like wtf this song is amazing. Then it was like a light switch went off and I realized holy shit all these other artists I liked were more than just the singles I heard on tv/radio. I started going backwards listening to all the Jay and Nas albums. It really quickly became my favorite genre.
In college went through a stupid battle rap period when FB just started. We created a group and did written. Thought it was the coolest shit ever but honestly I was a lot more into music/rap back then. I still try to check everything out and this thread is great for keeping me up to date but back in college I couldn't get enough of it.
Oh man. I had a good year backpack phase. Atmosphere, Binary Star, MF Doom, Talib, Mos, blah blah blah. I still like some of the shit from that period. Well not Atmosphere.
I have to admit that while I loved Wu-Tang and Biggie, there was a period where I didn't 'get' Hov or Nas albums. At the time, I thought Hov was amazing musically but since I was a hater as far as commercial shit, I couldn't reconcile that with my 'principles' (lmao). A lot of his wordplay, humor, and delivery went over my head hard. I think i preferred The Blueprint at the time and hated all the Volume records, which I love now except 3. Nas... I thought had a good voice and clearly had some amazing ideas, but picked really terrible music to rap over and couldn't make anything catchy. Plus I had trouble accepting his worldview, and back then I took all that shit super serious. Kanye I enjoyed a lot when I was in high school. I was one of the first people bumping College Dropout off the net, but I didn't see myself as a rap fan for liking him. And to this day I see a lot of people like that actually, who are Kanye stans and by association talk about rap as if they're real fans, but don't really know sheit. Pac? I never clicked with like that, even to this day. I respect him, but he has a lot of filler on his shit and the music never hit me the way it hit others. My brother was a stan though, and I hated him hard when we were kids, so that might have something to do with it.
I have to admit that while I loved Wu-Tang and Biggie, there was a period where I didn't 'get' Hov or Nas albums. At the time, I thought Hov was amazing musically but since I was a hater as far as commercial shit, I couldn't reconcile that with my 'principles' (lmao). A lot of his wordplay, humor, and delivery went over my head hard. I think i preferred The Blueprint at the time and hated all the Volume records, which I love now except 3. Nas... I thought had a good voice and clearly had some amazing ideas, but picked really terrible music to rap over and couldn't make anything catchy. Plus I had trouble accepting his worldview, and back then I took all that shit super serious. Kanye I enjoyed a lot when I was in high school. I was one of the first people bumping College Dropout off the net, but I didn't see myself as a rap fan for liking him. And to this day I see a lot of people like that actually, who are Kanye stans and by association talk about rap as if they're real fans, but don't really know sheit. Pac? I never clicked with like that, even to this day. I respect him, but he has a lot of filler on his shit and the music never hit me the way it hit others. My brother was a stan though, and I hated him hard when we were kids, so that might have something to do with it.
Back in like 7th grade I had heard of Cash Money Millionaires, and I guess I thought it sounded cool or whatever so I just went out and bought Lil Wayne's Tha block is hot. Pretty sure that was my first bought rap album.
Then when I went to highschool I pretty much dropped rap and got into metal (not wanting to be associated with the 'gangsters' in school, you know, high school cliques and all that)
Then when I got out of high school I pretty much said fuck it and started listening to everything I liked, rap included.
Then when I went to highschool I pretty much dropped rap and got into metal (not wanting to be associated with the 'gangsters' in school, you know, high school cliques and all that)
Then when I got out of high school I pretty much said fuck it and started listening to everything I liked, rap included.
Sketch but, thinking back...I probably got into rap thru 8 Mile. 10 and impressionable, Lose Yourself was crazy to me and the movie itself was cool because I wasn't supposed to be watching r-rated stuff. I hadn't listened to any hip hop (or much music at all for that matter), mainly pop and alt rock and my parents 60s/70s rock and blues (Otis, Van). a friend gave me mmlp after that. Couple years after that it was Outkast, B.o.B, Soulja Boy, so basically just what my friends were listening to. And Ye, every kid in a 50 mile radius of Chicago had to listen to him. Wasn't until I was 16 or 17 that I started really searching out music on my own.
Jason's Ultimatum
Member
Updated flash player, and I still can't play any songs. Just the image of the cloud. 
My mom was a huge fan of rap and I would steal her Jay Z & Outkast albums when I was in elementary school and just listen to them non-stop. I also grew up going to a school that housed a majority of black students, so I kinda just listened to whatever they listened to as well. In middle school, I tried to distance myself away from rap (everyone in middle school is immature and I got blasted for not listening to whatever anyone else was listening to), so I got into stuff like Radiohead and Sonic Youth (which I still listen to this day), but whenever I got into high school, I kinda said fuck it and I went back to listening to rap (and whatever else I was listening to back then as well). I could say a lot more about what rap has done for me (and how it's kinda affected my social life), but I'm grateful for the genre and I've loved it my whole life, so there you go
Hey fuck you, Dilated People's are pretty good.
An older cousin gave me 36 Chambers as a present when I was 8 years old. I listened to that shit everyday, learned the lyrics by heart even though I couldn't understand a lot of it (I'm Croatian, started learning English in school when I was 10, although I could speak it very well from an early age due to Cartoon Network and shit). I remember thinking the chorus to Method Man was "Let me in get yo deep man", I had no idea he was spelling his name, now imagine a 8 year old white kid rapping that shit.
Anyway, I continued to get most of the music from my cousins, the second album I heard was Operation Stackola by Luniz, loved that shit too. After that it was Tupac, Biggie, Puffy, Snoop, basically everything, they would record compilations on tapes for me.
I started discovering stuff on my own when I was 13, that's when I bought my first two album, Blackout! by Red and Meth (loved both of them, so I had to buy that shit), and the Irv Gotti presents the Murderers compilation (I bought it since I loved Ja Rule's voice, no homo, I enjoyed that We Murderers Baby song on the Next Friday soundtrack and it had like 26 songs, so it was more bang for my buck).
After that I got into the Def Jam 2000 "movement" heavy, I was the biggest DMX stan in the world, bought anything Ruff Ryders related (still have Eve's and Drag-On's first albums for instance, although I gave a lot of stuff away), also Roc a Fella, Def Squad, Murder Inc., that's still probably my favorite period of hip hop, although a lot of that shit didn't age well, it holds a special place in my heart.
That lasted for a couple of years, my backpack "real hip hop" phase started when I was 17, I basically hated anything that sounded commercial, 50 Cent was wack, Ja Rule was a bitch, LOVED Talib Kweli, Mos Def, DITC, Dilated Peples, anything Def Jux and so on.
I got out of that phase like two years later and started listening to anything I considered good, and that's basically it.
During the Bosnian war, I was running around with kids in destroyed buildings and stumbled upon a tape. Being curious, picked it up and listened to it at home. If I remember correctly it was some NWA stuff mixed with Pac and Wu. I didn't understand shit they were saying, but loved the sound. Aside from that, not much hiphop for a while until after the war when I started stealing at a local flea market and saw the WuTang name on some CD. Remember it from some songs so I stole that, and have been hooked ever since.
Yeah it's almost the same for me. My older cousin introduced me to Pac, game, NWA, etc. He's a huge stan of those 3 but yeah, I mainly listened to those guys + eminem and lil wayne (from another cousin lol). I was a huge pac and em stan because thats all I'd listen too This was around grade 6, and then I stopped listening to rap for like a year or 2 after grade 8. In high school I started messing around w/ it again and I discovered so many rappers, I'd spend hours looking up rap beef, and other rappers and shit. As I got more exposed to people like nas, wu tang, biggie, I just realised how amazing rap is. I loved hit em up when I was younger and now I just hate it. I like pac and all and still bump his shit, but after discovering all these other rappers, his music just doesn't click like it used too.
Enter The 36 Chambers
Member
Dmx it's dark and hell is hot got me into rap
Low key i feel Pac is kinda emotionally and culturally heavy handed in a similar way to Eminem. He's also not as good of a rapper as Hov, Nas, Biggie, Em or even a slew of dudes under that 'tier'. Dont get me wrong he has his moments for sure on the mic, but overall I never come away from his music feeling super wowed. Great voice though.
Getting shot helps elevate the GOAT status. Still I always prefer Tupac over Biggie. He might not be the better rapper but his songs always worked better. That emotional aspect you mentioned hits the right key for me. Same with Em.
And to think that everyone used to give me shit in here when I basically said the same thing a few years back...
Yea, you were right. You might have phrased it differently / a little more trolly though. People got in your ass for that one, maybe even me
jakefromstatefarm
Member
Video game soundtracks. Really. They put me on to stuff like Gang Starr and Tribe in 7th grade, I remember digging it but not enough to really go out and actively look for new material. It wasn't until 9th grade when I came into my own as a music listener, amd being a metalhead, I was adapted to finding material through the internet, stuff like YT, forums, etc. One stray recommendation was C.R.E.A.M., I gave that one spin and it was off to the races. That first year I remember bumping Mos Def, Tech N9ne, Nas, Mobb Deep, KRS, Del, and Wu along with a couple backpack acts like Cunninlynguists and Apathy. The summer before my junior year of high school I found GAF and this board, and my taste has been gradually changing ever since.
The first hip-hop album I got from my aunt randomly was Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. I played the shit out of that album but hip-hop never really stuck. Around sophomore year of high school, one of my good friends was a hip-hop head and in turn I started to pay more attention to the genre. Cut my teeth on Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West and, embarrassingly enough, Charles Hamilton. I wasn't fucking with these new (Drake, Wiz Khalifa, though I did like a bit of Asher Roth) cats too much so it caused me to go back to the 90s, and I've been hooked for good ever since.
PhoenixDark
Banned
2pac was a better writer and made better music than Biggie. Biggie was the better rapper. But I don't see how anyone can listen to Ambitionz As a Rider and say Pac wasn't a dope rapper.
Quintessential gym/lifting music.
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