A few years ago, I wrote a blog of hip-hop truisms and I got the urge to re-up the concept.
Here it goes:
1. Everyone knows that hip-hop officially died with the release of Puffy's No Way Out, but the final nail in the coffin will be known forever as the moment Lil Wayne was anointed the greatest rapper alive, without incident.
2. Definition of a hip-hop purist: anyone who owns every KRS-One album, yet refuses to concede that his flow has remained (frustratingly) unchanged for 2 decades.
3. Speakerboxxx is better than The Love Below, but no one will ever say it because Big Boi's equally unapologetic persona can't be sold on Madison Avenue.
3a. Also, it will be forever true that OutKast, as a proper duo, have only made two great albums, ATLiens and Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.
4. The only difference between T.I.'s career and LL Cool J's is that T.I's will end sooner....oh, and T.I. can't rhyme.
5. New albums by Rakim and the Fugees, should we ever get them, will be brilliant, but everyone will hate them because hell hath no fury like keeping the streets waiting.
5a. The streets' reception of The Wu's 8 Diagrams is the example that proves this point.
6. You never quite understood Digable Planets, but you miss them just the same.
7. Knowing the so-called Five Pillars of Hip-Hop means absolutely nothing.
8. It will always be true that anyone labeled the next "Tupac" will have heard nothing he created before all eyez on me.
9. Nas is a better rapper than Jay-Z, but a Jay-Z album is more likely to be enjoyable.
10. You know they didn't really write their rhymes, but you still love you some Salt-N-Pepa.
