Yes, I completely changed the rhyme about the Gunpowder Treason (what?) and Guy Fawkes (who?) for my own selfish purposes. Big whoop, wanna fight about it? Anyway, I came up with a plan of highlighting important points in hip-hop music history. I started off on a whim, but it is surprising how much happened this month. I may end up doing this every month, but we'll see if i feel like doing this much research in October.
Eazy-E debuts with Eazy-Duz-It on September 16, 1988, helping put the West Coast's gangsta rap in the mainstream, along with N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton, which was released a month prior.
-Big Daddy Kane releases It's a Big Daddy Thing, his most critically and commercially well-received album on September 15, 1989. Coincidentally, Big Daddy Kane and partner Kool G Rap from the Juice Crew were main influences on Jay-Z.
-Fellow Five Percenters of A Tribe Called Quest release Low End Theory on September 24th 1991, which ranks among the most highly praised rap albums of the early 1990s. Incidentally, Nirvana's Nevermind and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik are also released on same day.
-Lawrence Parker, also known as KRS-One, releases his first solo album, Return of the Boom Bap, on September 28, 1993. KRS worked heavily with DJ Premier on the album, which is best-known for "Sound of Da Police."
-Ready to Die, the Notorious B.I.G.'s first album, is released September 13, 1994. The album is one of the first East Coast rap CDs to achieve pop status through hardcore rap, and signified the return of the crown to New York. Ready to Die sold over four million copies. Two years, to the day after this album was released...
-Tupac dies. After being shot five times in his chest, hand, and leg, Tupac was in critical condition for nearly five-and-a-half days. He ultimately died in the University Medical Center in Las Vegas on September 13, 1996. Suge Knight is sentenced to nine years for his involvement in a fight earlier that evening that led to the shooting, effectively ending Death Row Records.
-OutKast takes Atlanta-based music to a new level with their critically acclaimed Aquemini album, released September 29, 1998. The album uses a variety of different elements, such as spoken word, reggae-influenced horns, rock 'n roll guitar, and George Clinton-inspired funk.
-Jay-Z, who released The Blueprint on September 11, 2001; this is arguably Jay-Z's best commercial and critically successful album. The original release date was apparently supposed to be the 18th, but Hov decided to push it up to prevent advanced leaking. The terrorist attacks ended up heavily overshadowing Blueprint, but it still ended up multi-platinum.
-Speakerboxx/The Love Below, a double disc album from OutKast, hits stores on September 23rd, 2003. The album dispelled rumors of the groups break-up, and experimented with different musical genres to great success, selling over 11 million units (5.5 million double discs), making it one of three rap albums to do so... the other two are Life After Death and... Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. It pains me to say it.
-Kanye West drops his Graduation album on September 11, 2007. 50 Cent's Curtis does the same, and the two have a contest to see which of them will sell the most albums in the first week. I'm not sure if it's the fact that people just didn't want Fiddy to win, or if they finally figured out that Get Rich or Die Tryin' was a one time thing; either way, Kanye wins by a landslide.
There are a few "Honorable Mention" events, like the murder of Scott La Rock (August 27, 1987), Snoop's arrest for murder (August 25, 1993), and Aaliyah's death (August 25, 2001), which occurred at the end of August. But they're important, and I hadn't thought to do this in August, so I'll mention them anyway.
September 5, 2008 at 9:50 PM
Interesting post...a lot of information here. Of course, I'm mostly just interested because I was born in September and I think it's the best month ever. I'm kidding...sorta. Good post.
September 7, 2008 at 2:42 AM
Check your facts, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was a double disc album - every copy they sold counted twice for RIAA numbers, meaning they only actually sold 1/2 the amount reported.
Otherwise good post.
September 7, 2008 at 2:51 PM
It still counts... sort of. The RIAA shows that Speakerboxx/The Love Below went Diamond, since they were two different CD's by technically two different artists, so it's not the same as Street's Disciple, for instance. It is somewhat questionable, as you can't actually buy one without the other. But for the record the Double Disc sold 5.5 million.