Fair enough.
Back in 97 or so, Rosenberg was our college DJ spinning at University of Maryland for campus radio and had hosted a hip hop night one Saturday night. He was cool with some old friends of mines and got us back stage.
The whole Terror Squad had showed up as well as Lauryn Hill. So we’re in the back and a cypher breaks out. Fat Joe leading the way, along with Cuban Link, Lauryn, and everyone spittin flames. In the back, with a oversized hoodie on, was a dude that nobody was paying attention to. Small, quiet, unheard, and slightly soft spoken, Fat Joe pulls him in... he takes his hoodie off and it was Big L. Now nobody at the time realized who he was or folks would’ve flipped tf out and this was before the cell phone era, but when he got in there, he shut it down COMPLETELY. Fat Joe kept biggin him up like “my man is next watch!”
Sadly we know how that story ended, (RIP) but I digress.
My point is, for most of us, that was the beauty of growing up in that time frame. Your aesthetics (visually and sonically) didn’t matter much, (if at all) like it does today. It was ALWAYS skills first, marketability second.
If you could spit, you could spit.
Niggas like Big L, Slick Rick, Phife Dawg, B-Real, Big Pun etc all had distinct “character flaws” that would be difficult to market today, but it ain’t matter cause they was all flames with the pen.
Cyphers were truly the essence of rapping cause you couldn’t hide behind anything. Either you had it or you didn’t, and the streets would always let you know.
I miss that realness.
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