10 at the top of hip-hop: music trendsetters move genre closer to mainstream acceptance

Ebony, August, 1995

WITH So many hip-hop soloists and groups appearing on the scene at such rapid-fire rates of speed, trying to determine who's at the top of hip-hop at any given moment in music history is no easy task. A few artists, such as Queen Latifah, Naughty By Nature, Salt-N-Pepa and Heavy D, have earned their stripes as hip-hop legends and are hands-down inclusions.

At the same time, artists such as Mary J. Blige, BLACKstreet, Brown-stone, R. Kelly, TLC, and 69 Boyz with the release of debut and follow-up albums are jockeying for position on national record charts and are fast becoming household names.

But even if your teenagers are more familiar with their names than you are, you've almost certainly heard the music performed by the artists and groups presented on the following pages. Songs like "Whatta Man," the Salt-N-Pepa/ En Vogue collaboration featured on Salt-N-Pepa's triple-platinum CD Very Necessary, has been a must-have party favorite, as has the single "Shoop," since the CD debuted in 1993. The single, "None Of Your Business," won the group a 1995 Grummy Award for Best Rap Duo or Group Performance.

Very Necessary is the group's fourth CD and is a collection of 13 tracks of straight-up, in-your-face, undiluted rap that has been called the young woman's guide to surviving in the '90s. "What we go through I know millions of other women have gone through," Pepa has said. "We all get hurt at one time or another by a boyfriend or family or friends. And that's where the real raps come in. We aren't male-bashing. We are just getting in a little of the woman's point of view--how we feel."

Trendsetters and trailblazers in their field, Salt-N-Pepa--the first and only female rap group to earn platinum honors for each of their three previous albums--are undisputedly the biggest selling female rap group of all time.

Another popular tune blasting from boom boxes this summer is "Before I Let You Go," performed by New Jack Swing King Teddy Riley and his new crew, BLACKstreet. The group, comprised of Riley, who was formerly with the group Guy, David Hollister, Chauncey (Black) Hannibal and Levi Little, made their debut with the hit single "Baby Be Mine," which appeared on the soundtrack of the 1993 hip-hop motion picture, CB4.

Riley says that he "wanted the new group to take New Jack Swing to a new level by fusing hip-hop technology with old-school R&B, real singing and instrumentation. When I met these three guys, I knew that I had found the right combination."

The right combination of soulful old-school tempos and hip-hop's rock-your-body beats is also evident on Mary J. Blige's autobiographical CD, My Life. Released on the heels of her double-platinum 1991 debut, What's The 411, the CD features a wide array of uptempo singles such as its tide track "My Life," in addition to the singles "Be Happy" and "Be With You."

Blige's successful remixing of classic R&B tunes with contemporary hip-hop grooves--the CD's 13 tracks bring to mind classic R&B favorites that were popularized in the '70s--has established the talented singer as the reigning Queen of Hip-Hop Soul.

"This album has more of an old feeling," explains Blige. "It feels like the music I grew up on--Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Mavis Staples. I haven't lost the street vibe, but it was time for me to do this. It's more emotional to me."

The legendary hip-hop jam of 1993 was Naughty By Nature's single "Hip Hop Hooray," the big hit from the group's second CD Nineteen Naughty III. This summer Treach, DJ Kay Gee and Vinnie followed that collection of chart-topping singles with their third CD, Poverty's Paradise. While it features a couple of catchy dance times, such as "Feel Me Flow" and "Craziest," more serious subjects are represented as well.

Poverty's Paradise runs the gamet and presents cuts that are hard but mellow, such as "It's Workin'" and those that reflect the sometimes rough-and-tumble existence of living in the `hood, such as "Holdin Fort'" and "Chain Remains." Refreshingly, this CD also sidesteps the female-bashing featured on previous albums.

In the minds of many people, hip-hop has nearly always been associated with rap--much of it of the hard core/ female-bashing/language-your-parents-love-to-hate variety. Consequently, a significant portion of the over-35 listening public didn't seem too interested in either.

But the lines between hip-hop and rap have increasingly become blurred as artists like Teddy Riley, Mary J. Blige and other performers borrow more and more often from yesterday's classics to create today's hip-hop hits. And as a result--even if you're too sheepish to admit it--the teenagers in the house aren't the only ones blasting the boom box and rockin' their bodies to hip-hop's jammin' beats.