The Miseducation of Hip-Hop: Silver Age
At the cusp of a new millennium, Hip-Hop has bridged into a new era. The Silver Age. Living in the shadow of the death of its two biggest stars, the rap game has changed. Spanning from March 1997 to February 2008, the arguably shortest era has been one of the most perplexing times to be a Hip-Hop fan or a historian.
For context, the Silver Age that I propose begins with the death of The Notorious B.I.G on March 9th 1997. After his death, the Hip-Hop community is heavily scrutinized for its dangerous nature, by both the older statesmen and the media. Therefore, Hip-Hop starts to change and become happier and poppier. It's a transition that can be seen between Jay Z's first and second album: Reasonable Doubt is hard and gritty, while In My Lifetime Vol. 1 is glossy with pop hits. Anything that resembles murderous violence is left in the Golden Era.
New artists rise within these constraints. Nas released the critically acclaimed albums I Am and Stillmatic at the beginning of the era without any real mention of gun violence. Eminem changed the violence and helped usher horrorcore with shocking jabs at the music industry and their chosen pop symbols.
Sadly, some wouldn't understand. A lot of the members of Junior M.A.F.I.A. would be left behind because of violent wording. That can be said about mafioso rap in general. A lot of gangster rap in the West Coast was abandoned for a long time, only coming back in the late 2000's.
Those who made money weren't only those who stayed away from violence,but also those who took some aspects of the greats. People who listen to 50 Cent and Ja Rule know that the lover boy thug was something that Tupac brought to the table. As well, Jeezy and Jadakiss are artists who have definitely taken from Notorious B.I.G's style. Hip-Hop was growing thanks to artists who were willing to stray away from the negativity.
Pop was one of the many ways that artists could express themselves all while remaining clean and commercially successful. Some rappers would go completely into pop and get some of the biggest hits of their career: Outkast's Andre 3000 did it with "Hey Ya!". But most would feature on many pop tracks as promotion before a project, which would include people like Jay Z, Lil Wayne and others.
However, what makes it difficult for any historian is the sheer growth of the culture. The Old School was contained to the city of New York, while the Golden Age is bicoastal. However, the Silver Age has artists that come from every corner of the United States, like Detroit's finest Eminem and St Louis's Nelly. It's a nationwide thing that is growing internationally as well: reggaeton is taking a hold of radio stations in the summer while international artists such as K-Maro are creating hubs in their own countries. Trying to evaluate all of the new streams of Hip-Hop History is nearly impossible.
The Silver Age grew out of the ashes of the Golden Age. It wouldn't shake the death of its biggest stars until the end of the era. The power of the artists in this era helped propel Hip-Hop out of the media purgatory that it was in at the turn of the millennium. It's why Eminem is the biggest rapper of the period. His commercial success and controversial attitude towards the media and people in general was what the culture needed to take itself out of the rut that it was in. It arguably came out of it better than when it came in: it was going well commercially and on the brink of international success by 2008.