'Yo remember back in the dayz when everything was all smooth and calm?.. everything was lovely'

It's been five years almost to the month since the album which restabilised east coast hip hop as a power broker in the rap industry, Nas's classic Illmatic hit the streets. In mid 1994 no one would have expected a hardcore NYC underground artist could have been awarded 5 mics in the source, why you ask?, Simply because before mid 1995 everyone was firmly stuck on the dicks of the west coast and more specifically Death Row Records. However a untold fact that exists is that the east coast was not as powerful in 1990-94 as it is now and it was the artists that came out in 1994 and 1995 from the east coast that had the greatest effect on bring hip hop power back to East.

If many of you are honest with yourself about when you started listening to East Coast hip hop, it wouldn’t have been till about 1996. In 1994 you guys would have been 12, 13 or 14 and not listening to the hardcore and raw and as a result you don’t seem to understand the significance of 1994/95 on reshaping east coast hip hop and more specifically NYC rap. Before mid 1994 the East Coast scene was almost dead, I think it was King Just who best summed it up when he said that the West had turn the rap game into a business and as a result they were making all the money and had all the power, respect and props. While in NY peeps where still trying to slang the rocks and do armed robberies while trying to rap cause there was no money in the industry. NY rappers simply didn’t have any chance to get outta the game because the big label weren’t signing NYC rappers, simply because the albums weren’t selling. In 1993 the Dr Dre's the Chronic alone sold more copies than the 7 best selling East Coast albums.

1994 changed all this with the debut of 4 specific artists

-Nas
-Biggie Smalls
-Wu-Tang Clan
-Gravediggaz

and two record labels
-Loud
-Bad Boy

These six entities alone can be created with the resurgence of NYC rap. Biggies album was the first East Coast hardcore album to go double platinum in a year, The Wu tang clan and Gravediggaz highlighted the diversity and dirtiness that artists from NY could bring, while Loud and Nas showed just how real the streets of NY can be. With these six entities there would never have been the creation of dance rap and the explosion of NY hip hop from a past time pleasure of a select few into the most profitable and powerful music industry in America at the moment.

Without the resurgence of 1994 and early 1995 many artists that have come out recently with mad skills would have never have had a chance to get put on, examples include Cormega, Cappadonna, Killarmy, most of the Wu fam, Foxy Brown etc etc. Back in 1994 artists like Mobb Deep, who are unquestionably the most talented and consistent group in Hip Hop at the moment, where struggling to get signed by a major label. It was a little underground label distributed by BMG, called Loud Records which had only had two albums out before, Enter The 36 Chambers and Cost II Coast that signed the Mobb. At this time they had only shipped 385,000 units, something Mobb Deeps 'The Infamous' did in 3 months. This emergence of the Wu Tang Clan lead to 4 solo albums in 1995, putting NYC back on the map. However what was more important with the emergence of Loud Wu Tang, Bag Boy etc was that the business aspects of the West Coast can to the East, and since then the game has never been the same.

For better or for worse 1994/95 was the year that reshaped the was in new NYC hip hop. Without it we wouldn’t be listening to all the crazy joints that are coming out, But then again we would be listening to all this commercial crap, while we wait two years for a artist to release a decent album.