Truly slept on, the album was steeped in science and mathematics, Pan-Africanism ideologies, and street aesthetics. His 1990 solo debut, Intelligent Hoodlum-put together following a two-year bid-was on another level. One of the most underrated MCs out of the borough, the Queensbridge OG and Juice Crew affiliate actually hit the scene in 1985-the same year the Bridge Wars started-in a duo named Super Kids. If you asked the average hip-hop fan who should be in the pantheon of rappers hailing from Queens, N.Y., you might be hard pressed to find someone willing to toss out Tragedy. Some consider MM their only shining moment, and that’s just nuts. Though never considered elite lyricists, the Beats-who also helped usher in the Latin rap movement in NYC-had a style of their own.
Ironically, Musical Massacre (1999) might be their least impressive output of the decade, but it wound up being the group’s biggest commercial success with help from the aforementioned, Billboard-charting “Watch Out Now.” Follow-up studio LPs Street Level in 1994 and Stone Crazy in 1997 were even more solid.
They broke out on the scene with their 1993 EP, Intoxicated Demons, with then-member Fashion (Al Tariq), which consisted of a mix of raunchy humor over a colorful sound palette. While the mainstream might consider them one song away from making the cut for an episode of VH1’s One-Hit Wonders, the Beatnuts deserve way more props. When all is said and done, the Beatnuts (Psycho Les and Juju) will be remembered for their 1999 hit “Watch Out Now” and the 1997 Big Pun and Cuban Link collab “Off the Books.” The two singles were two of the most well-known rap tracks from their respective years. Here are some incredibly underrated artists from the golden era of rap. Maybe it’s our fault as listeners for failing to recognize their greatness when they were riding that wave-sometimes, that’s the breaks. For one reason or another, several rappers who should have been just as big as their platinum-selling contemporaries slipped through the cracks of critical acclaim from the mainstream.
Times were different.īut the advances of today’s technology aren’t totally to blame. Mind you, this was before everyone on the planet had access to the Internet and every human being over the age of 10 was walking around with an iPhone stitched to their palm. In a decade that was teeming with originality, lyricism, social commentary, classic albums, and iconic MCs, it was almost easy for even some of the dopest artists not to get their proper shine in the limelight. While the late ’70s and ’80s were the age of discovery, building the framework for both future production techniques and lyrical execution, hip-hop was hitting on all cylinders in the 10 years leading up to Y2K. Despite what your favorite millennial rapper thinks, the rap game in the ’90s was unequivocally amazing.
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