2001 Hip-Hop In A Coma: The True Beef

It was on January 1st, 2001, New Year's Day, that a tragic accident had left father rap dead and his son Hip-Hop in a coma... Starting in 2001 & in years to follow Hip-Hop began to see a resurgence of "Beefs"; But those were just major distractions to what the true beef was - this may be the actual issue behind the Tupac Biggie East Coast West Coast Beef.- mainstream versus underground. Up until the 99 & the 2000's, rappers used the underground scene as a way to get into the record industry in order to achieve mainstream success. In short, the underground scene was a road to the mainstream success. The underground rappers were also looking forward to creating independent record labels like they had began to see mainstream rappers do. During this time period of 1999-2000, what was thought to be mainstream success was rapidly changing & evolving into something undesirable to the underground scene. Over this time period, Hip-Hop music would go from underground & mainstream being seen as a bridge to success, to underground & mainstream being seen as a table that divides Hip-Hop artist by what they define as success.

I would have to look back and say, that by end of 2001, the term mainstream had been transformed into commercial. Before that time, the goal of the underground rapper was to go mainstream not to become a "commercial rapper". To break this down a little, in short, going mainstream meant that you would be able to expand your audience. I have to briefly explain that the initial "underground rap" idea was to make Hip-Hop similar to how professional sports work; with the underground circuit being like the college sports association of "mainstream rap". I will even compare open mics & rap battles to high school sports & traveling youth sports teams. The basic idea was to use open mics & rap battles to bring rappers into the underground circuit. The rapper would make an underground album & tour the underground circuit with aspirations of getting some form of attention or entrance into mainstream Hip-Hop. The goal was not to obtain women, jewelry, cars, & endorsement deals - it was to be able to get more fans & sell more albums, therefore being able to make real money. With that in mind, during the year 2001, it had become clear that, if you aspired to be a mainstream rapper, you would have to be a commercial rapper.

The true beef was that, to become a commercial rapper would mean the rapper has to transform his subject matter to rapping predominantly about trends, fads, mentioning certain products & promoting a certain type of lifestyle. Of course, most, if not all, of those things would be contrary or the total opposite of how they were in the underground circuit. The unspoken truth is that the major record labels were not the ones behind pushing the commercial rapper agenda; It was the sublabels, that went after the endorsements & started promoting a certain type of lifestyle in order to take advantage of the artist by offering them women, jewelry & cars so that they could keep larger portions of the money that would be coming into their sublabel. FYI: sublabels would be an "Independent" label that is ran/controlled/funded by a major label. A truer form of an independent label would be when the major label is used predominately for distribution of music.

The underground rappers took a hard stance that they would be noncommercial and use the underground circuit as a road to start independent labels. In opposition, the mainstream rappers made it clear that mainstream rap was commercial rap & would make underground rap seem obsolete. The mainstream rappers held a view that they were just evolving with the times & that this was how rappers get real money in the 21st century. The underground rappers were determined to show that you can still be underground and make real money as an independent artist & did not view the commercialization of Hip-Hop as evolution but as a bastardization of the art form. The underground was completely ignored by the mainstream. In return, the underground used that as a way to discredit the mainstream & obtain supportive fans for independent Hip-Hop artist. On the other hand, the mainstream rappers started beefs with one another, in order to make that appear to be what the tension in Hip-Hop was about. An even bigger slap in the face of the underground rappers were mainstream rappers making their beefs appear to be about "what real Hip-Hop was". This all made it seem as if it was not an independent underground rapper vs mainstream commercial rapper thing but about who the current rappers of the future, of that time, are, all while leaving the underground rapper & rap scene out of the equation.

Now during the 9-9 & the 2000, there was an underground rapper that had made his way to the mainstream to become one of the most popular rappers out. This rapper was to show that the road to Hip-Hop stardom is by going through the open mic, battle rap, underground, to mainstream path to rap success. This was to, supposedly, set the standard for what a real rap lyricist should consist of; A way of making it through the ranks to prove your skill & add legitimacy to the title of a being considered a "major rap artist". The true issue was that this underground to mainstream rapper was not commercially acceptable, which could lead to mainstream rappers not being viewed as prospects for endorsements & sponsorship in the future. The true beef being the feeling that in the 21st century the transition of going mainstream was to be a transition into being a commercial rapper, oppose to the feeling that the 21st century rap artist would come from the underground as a stamp of authenticity representing what is the up & coming of Hip-Hop. To break it down further, the issue was, is the rapper the trend versus does the rapper set the trend - should rappers that come from the underground circuit be the trend or should a mainstream artist lifestyle set the trend. So the underground put the middle finger up to the mainstream vowing to never compromise their music by becoming a commercial rapper, putting their focus on becoming independent rap artists. In response, the mainstream rappers would go on to use beefs to create controversy to draw attention to mainstream Hip-Hop music. Then they would bring on talented rappers to the mainstream knowing that this would keep their music from being heard since they would not want to do the "commercial rapper thing". The talented rappers would never get their music released by the mainstream labels & that eliminated most of the opposition to commercial rap - this narrowed the spectrum of Hip-Hop music & artist.

What it really did was leave the underground market wide open because it seemed so undesirable; But that also made the underground circuit available for the many people who were pushed aside by mainstream & commercial rap. A whole new fan base entered the underground circuit as well as different financial opportunities for underground rappers. In my opinion, the underground circuit took advantage of having, arguably, the best rapper out at that time stand up against the commercialization of Hip-Hop by being everything the mainstream was not. Meanwhile, the mainstream rappers, & the newly formed rap industry, had a war over which type of commercial rapper would get the endorsements. That spewed over into the following two years (2002-2003) where the battle was the "soft rappers" versus the "street rappers". In short, the victory was won by the mainstream commercial rappers that were considered to be "street" or "hood" - this is why showing some sort of street credibility is all but required for a rapper to enter mainstream Hip-Hop even  today, 20 years later. Marketers, advertisers, sponsors & endorsers had made a decision to use Hip-Hop as a major part of their industry back in 2000 & were going to start using rap & Hip-Hop regardless of who the rappers were. It was the rappers of that time (2000-2003), not the record industry, that were determined to have all the rappers considered "street" (also to make people think street/hood/thug was the same as underground). If I have not made it clear I will right now, the big rap beef of that 2002-2003 timeframe was really about mainstream rappers not missing out on the new money being poured into Hip-Hop because they were not commercially acceptable - like that popular underground rapper, who took over Hip-Hop, that I mentioned in the prior paragraph. Mainstream rappers wanted all the rappers seen as a not commercially acceptable so that there was no preference of the rapper based on the type of music they made & thinking back you should remember how rappers "went soft" in 2001-2002 & then when the war was over in 2003 they all went to "thug rap". I'm not naming names but I will say that groups like 'The Nappy Roots', 'St Lunatics' & 'Smiles & South Star' were "softer", more commercially acceptable & newer mainstream rappers that were starting to get the endorsements over the more popular names of that time. I point that out to say that those groups and type of rappers had the money snatched away from them because of the soft rappers vs street rappers beef.

So what happened with the new underground rap? Well in turn, all of that actually stopped the shift to more friendly & positive Hip-Hop music that started in 2000 & early 2001. The underground scene greatly benefitted from the mainstream beefing. It became the place where rappers could be whatever type of artist the wanted to be & find their audience by being authentic. This has resulted in underground rappers making the real money from selling music & merchandise at shows without the need of a record label, sponsors or endorsements. They also started independent record labels that had their own recording studios - so where the mainstream shut the underground out is where they did things on their own, without a record label controlling their music, message or image. To contrast, the underground rappers did not have to make music in order to pay back for expenses incurred making & performing music & money that was loaned to them; The mainstream rappers had to accept the fact, whether they liked it or not, that they had to make a certain type of music & display a certain image in order to be part of the newly formed rap industry. Again, this new rap industry was formed by they popular rappers & producers of that timeframe of 2001-2004. It was sort of an NWO of Hip-Hop where the thug style rappers took over & made everyone join them or leave. This was all the rappers except for the clear losers of the war & that popular rapper that came from the underground circuit. 

To Be Continued...