![]() ![]() These competing ideas of persona gave his work an unpredictable energy and consistency. While Redman's work had the macho swagger and aggression common to the era, it was animated by a more exuberant, manic vibe. By the time of his debut, Whut? Thee Album two years later, Redman was an explosive, charismatic presence. Relative to his later work, he sounded reserved, tentative even. In 1990, he opened EPMD's Business as Usual with his "Brothers On My Jock" verse verse over a "Nautilus" loop. ![]() Appropriately enough, Redman debuted on wax at the decade's dawn. Complete creativity meant absurd flights of fancy ( "Soopaman Luva") to stoner buddy comedy everyman ( "How High" and the entirety of Blackout!). There was no sense of dumbing it down, because that was the point. If a single word could describe his output, it was fun. What Ludacris became for the new millennium, Redman was for the 1990s: The decade's premier party rapper, the ultimate realization of the potential of "Rapper's Delight" for the aesthetic revolutions of the genre's second decade. Think about it: did any artist on this list so effortlessly transition from East Coast hip-hop's subterranean early '90s to its broadly comedic, commercial late '90s peak? His style, which could vascillate from seriously lyrical lyricism to ignorant humor on the drop of a dime, was so effective because of his flow, that rubbery delivery that seemed to snap with tension and joie de vivre. No rapper on this list was as consistent throughout the decade as Redman. Group Albums: El Nino (1998) with Def Squad, Blackout! (1999) with Method Manīiggest Hits: "Funkorama" (1995), "How High" with Method Man (1995), "Whateva Man" f/ Erick Sermon (1996) With that in mind, we took a look back at the best rappers of the '90s. But the '90s rappers matured the form, modernizing rap to the style that’s still prevalent today. Though the era was marred by controversy, violence, arrests, coastal rivalries, and finally tragedy, the '90s stand as the heyday of the greatest, most impactful, influential artists rap has ever produced. Maybe '90s rappers weren’t as revolutionary as their '80s counterparts, the forefathers who laid the groundwork for hip-hop. By the end of the decade, it was a full-on commercial monster, a dominant force- the dominant force-in pop music. Artists like Ice Cube, Method Man, A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, and De La Soul were shaping youth culture worldwide. In the early part of the decade, the genre was ushering in its platinum era. Still, the '90s really were a golden age for rap. Lest y'all forget, for every Doggystyle, there's a Doggfather. But there’s nothing more dangerous than being blinded by nostalgia. There’s no denying that the '90s yielded a huge amount of top-shelf rap music. Here at Complex, we often go out of our way to catalog and defend the contemporary era because hey, we got now and we don’t care who got next. ![]() It’s fashionable to say that the ‘90s were better, especially when it comes to rap. This feature was originally published in 2013. ![]()
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