As a music critic, I listen to all genres of music. It is interesting to reflect on times throughout life where a musical genre had become a part of yourself as a fan and as a critic. As a kid I knew very few rap songs. I knew “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, “Mama Said Knock You Out” by LL Cool J, “Push It” by Salt n’ Pepa and a few other really popular songs within the genre of rap/hip-hop. I started out listening to R&B, pop, and R&B/pop music. It wasn’t until I was in the fourth grade that I truly became a rap fan because my friends at school let me borrow some of their cassettes and CDs and that rose my curiosity about hip hop as a trending genre, and what other acts were out there that could make music in ways that I have never heard before.
My transition into hip hop started with rhymes by Lisa “Lefteye” Lopes on TLC’s first album Ooooooohhh…On the TLC Tip. It was a good introduction for me because the album had the pop and R&B elements that I was used to listening to in collaboration with rap. When I got to the point where my friends and I were borrowing each other’s music, another standout group grabbed my attention, Bone Thugs-n’-Harmony. Bone made rap music with many different melodies and harmonies like a singing group, but lyrically and through instrumentation they were hip hop. So, rap for me began as something fun and easy to listen to and transformed into a musical genre with an infinite number of styles, flows and production elements that can take place during songs.
After the hip hop community lost Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. the entire genre changed. The battles between rappers from the east and west coast seemed to be less important due to the absence of these two-great artist. It created a scenario in which many hip hop artists did not know what direction to follow; there were many acts that were trying to throw different ideas against the wall to see if it would stick. Some individual performers and groups were successful and others were not. During this period I was listening to rap music from all different areas, it didn’t matter to me whether the artists was from the west or east coast. Some of my favorites to listen to at that time were Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and Puff Daddy and the Family. Each of these acts were very special, but someone needed to fill the void that was left when the community lost Tupac and Biggie. DMX became the artist to fill that void.
One of my favorite things to do in my life at this time was to listen to music with my cousin. He was pretty much over the east coast/west coast thing and immediately realized that hip hop from southern states, know as the “Dirty South”, was gaining a lot of traction and he predicted it would be the premiere sound of hip hop in the near future. He was totally correct with his prediction as southern hip hop has been more popular than east and west artists over the last 23 years. While he was listening to Dirty South music, I was still enjoying the production of music by Dr. Dre and Puff Daddy. My cousin was about to start listening to Dirty South music exclusively until he heard DMX, a New York rapper with the enthusiasm of Tupac and the energy of Biggie. DMX was like a combination of those two artists. Even though the hip hop landscape had been changing, DMX became very successful by filling that void that hip hop listeners were missing around the turn of the millennium. DMX had great lyrics, flow and excellent production particularly when he was working with the Ruff Ryders and Swizz Beatz. He created a collection of albums that are still appreciated by his fans today. He made memorable appearances on the big and small screen. His style of music inspired so many others; he was completely original and he gave the fans 100% of himself as an artist through recording and live concert appearances. Without DMX, hip hop would not be as successful as it is today.
For an excellent tribute to DMX please check out Suzanne Rothberg’s Podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6GACombY8MqW532SWNvefJ