Because hip-hop morphed into something completely different and became way grimier. A lot of 80's rappers got lost in the sauce trying to be more hardcore.

Not all of them failed though LL weathered the storm, so did Cube and Dre, KRS had a decent run, and Rakim made a comeback.

93 was a huge turning point in hip-hop

You can honestly make a good case for rakim he gave rappers the blueprint he was way ahead of his time. He's to rapping what Muhammad Ali is to boxing. Mayweather might be "better" but is he really? It's debatable.

Rakim renegaded prime Canibus and made it look easy too

Because they thought those hip hop bibbity boop bop zim zam wimmy wamwam bars they was spittin was gone age but they didn’t

the vast majority had no swag with the vocals & topics compared to every other decade pool after

"hip to the hop to the hip"

Y'all gotta start putting names to that s***. Bc every 80's legend I can think of had at least one great album in the 90's.

Kool G Rap had "4,5,6"
Rakim had The "18th Letter"
KRS-One had "Return of the Boom Bap"
Queen Latifah had "Black Reign"
Will Smith had "Big Willie Style"
Public Enemy had "Apocalypse 91"
LL Cool J had "Mama Said Knock You Out" and "Mr. Smith"
Slick Rick had "The Ruler's Back", "Behind Bars" AND "The Art of Storytelling" (goat)
Ice Cube goes without saying

It goes on and on

same for most of the early 50s rockstars

slick rick came back in the late 90s with a classic and did the modern style better than 99% of rappers popping at the time

And Rakim was working with Dr. Dre on a highly anticipated comeback album in the 00's but ended up scrapping it bc he wanted to stay true to himself.

They're extremely off base as well, those stereotypical ABC were early 80s and came before the shift we're discussing in this thread.

Matter of fact, all the 90's icons copied their bars and rhymes, sampled them and/or remade their songs.

The World Is Yours, La-Di-Da-Di, The Ruler's Back..

S***, even Stan is a Slick Rick type song. Real ones know.

damn you had the time today

talk to em goo

kool g raps roots of evil and the giancana story were rock solid as well. roots of evil has some real grimey mafia themed tracks

i love love love 80s rap man

They adapted, thing is Westcoast gangsta rap took over and shifted the game. They were more conscious in the 80s. 90s niggas just wanted to be niggas lol

80s rap underrated tho. Dudes had skills.

@El_Senor

Glad to see that both of you enjoy it too, I don't get why people hate it so much. It's aged better than s*** released in the last 5 years

CRAZY

it gets so underrated compared to 90s and 00s its honestly crazy

Most people don't dive that far back to recognize the greatness that Eric B Rakim and Big Daddy Kane brought us.

They are the literal blueprint

The leap from 80s to 90s was arguably larger than 90s to present day, at least in terms of rapping as an evolving skill set. That was a difficult transition to make, plus gangsta rap completely changed the mainstream expectations for what constituted respectable hip hop and many 80s rappers were not prepared to make that tonal shift.

None of this is to say that 80s rap isn't good, it just had a different vibe.

It's this

what in tarnations is this?!!?

bro was FIFTEEN in 80s detroit when that s*** was basically a warzone and made the grittiest rap album up to that point

s***s crazy

@DAVIDP