20th
Hipster Hip Hop Timeline
1982
Lil Wayne Born
1983-1987
Nothing of consequence happens
1988
NWA brings a new level of authenticity and danger to rap, and pisses off white parents;
Public Enemy move into the realm of sonic genius due to their innovative approach to dissonance; piss off even more white parents with their militant, anti-white politics
1989
Beastie Boys drop Paul’s Boutique; hip hop officially becomes art music
1990
Vanilla Ice exhibits the depths of inauthentic white rap
1991-1992
Nothing of consequence happens
1993
Wu Tang begins to make cool music, t shirts
1994-1995
Nothing of consequence happens
1996
DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing raises the Beasties’ bar and becomes the first example of hip hop as “true” art music; hip hop production now respectable in indie rock circles
1997-1998
Nothing of consequence happens
1999
Eminem immediately becomes the greatest rap lyricist ever: he is the first rapper to be ironic, funny, and self-deprecating, and he acknowledges that poor whites are just as marginalized and oppressed as their black counterparts;
MF Doom releases Operation: Doomsday, a creative masterwork blending 80s easy listening R& B, monster movies, and cartoons. And he does it all while donning a metal mask as part of his character’s back story. He’s essentially doing ghetto performance art!
Jay-Z declares himself the greatest rapper alive; draws parallels between the corner drug dealer and the corporate maven; transcends the ghetto niche with witty lyrics and pop beats.
2000
Wu Tang falls off: their fans are all suburban wiggers and old “keep it real” types
Outkast channels Funkadelic and broadens hip hop’s palette: they’re from the South, one of them dresses funny, they experiment with electronic music
Record labels Def Jux, Anticon move hip hop out of the ghetto, expanding boundaries by making cerebral hip hop that’s more like indie rock in its approach
2001
Missy Elliott breaks through hip hop’s glass ceiling with her electronic beats, girl-power lyrics, colorful videos, robust figure, and lack of a Y chromosome.
Buzz builds around 50 Cent, a NY rapper who embodies primal black aggression and sexuality; plus, he was really shot 9 times. How authentic!
2002
Eminem’s music becomes stale when he starts to hang around with 50 Cent and pretends to be all “gangsta;” Plus, he won an Oscar and white suburban teens love him a little too much.
Caushun, the first openly gay rapper, starts getting national publicity
2003
Mashups, an entirely new thing in which vocals from song are placed over the music of a song from an entirely different genre, are all the rage
Def Jux, Anticon become too white and corny; not in touch with what’s going on with real people
2004
Outkast falls off: their songs start showing up on Kidzbop records
For the first time in hip hop’s history, Kanye West presents a complex black persona—no longer do rappers have to be either thugs or preachy conscious artists.
Critics in the know realize that Camron and Dipset are Dadaist geniuses.
Dangermouse hits the postmodern critical jackpot by blending the music from The Beatles’ White Album with the vocals from Jay Z’s Black Album to make The Grey Album
Lil Wayne drops The Carter, which is really fucking great!
Wu Tang is back! Well, Ghostface is, at least
Common is the antichrist: he dresses strangely and panders to a pseudo-intellectual, racially insecure fan base
The Streets, MIA, Dizzee Rascal wow music fans. The UK is the future of hip hop
2005
Advances in Cool Edit Pro and FruityLoops empower anyone to DJ and make hip hop music!
MF Doom, Dangermouse become corporate shills and drop a shitty album for Cartoon Network
Lil Wayne, The Clipse deliver the 2 greatest mixtapes ever (of the 3 we’ve heard)
Lil Wayne drops The Carter II, which instantly becomes the greatest rap album ever
UGK puts Texas rap on the map
Several great rappers emerge from New Orleans, Miami, Houston, Memphis. The American South is the new UK!
It’s officially OK for white people to say “nigga” as long as they’re ironic and not really racist
2006
fratboys, white indie rock critics, teenage high school dropouts, and Lil Wayne agree: Lil Wayne is the greatest rapper alive
With Kingdom Come, Jay-Z abandons the “realness” of the hood and becomes an elitist corporate shill. He starts to suck
By declaring hip hop dead, Nas snatches the hip hop antichrist mantle from Common
2007
Lupe Fiasco strikes a blow against true school hip hop fascists who think that fans need to have knowledge of a “canon” of songs that came out prior to 2000.
A record number of black people (5) show up to the Pitchfork Music Festival. They are cordial and honor most people’s requests to take pictures with them.
The Cool Kids bring a fresh, retro approach to a stagnant hip hop landscape
Unfortunately, Caushun revealed to be a hoax
2008
Lil Wayne drops The Carter III, which instantly becomes the greatest rap album ever
Race, gender, region, skill, access to equipment no longer barriers to rap success; knowledge of rap no longer a barrier to writing hip hop music criticism. Hip hop finally becomes the embodiment of the democratic ideal!
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