[Editor's note: We'd like to welcome Uncle Corey to our band of brothers here at the Stranger Dance. Besides being a certifiable life-long music lover and all-around brown-bear-cub-like nice guy, he also spent the better part of his 20s working for a host of newspapers across Washington and California, so he'll hopefully bring some kind of journalistic credibility to what we do here.]

It always bugs me out when I’m talking about music to someone younger – especially a music lover – and I ask if they like a band from 10-15 years ago and, in return, get a blank stare: “I’ve never heard of them.” It’s weird, especially since I grew up in an era where I grew up on my parent’s music (’60s and early ’70s rock), was weened off of that (’80s pop radio – but only for a year or two), then branched off on my own (thank you Run D.M.C.). Apparently the time-lined introduction to music doesn’t happen anymore.

So, before I digress too much more and end up yelling at those young punks to get off my lawn, I’ll get to the point. I love rap (or hip-hop, whatever your Hipster Dialect-o-Tron 3000 requires you say), I have since lo, that fateful day in 1985, when I heard Run D.M.C.’s “King of Rock” and had my first “Holy shit!” moment with music that didn’t involve Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I’ve loved it ever since, in all it’s twist, turns and incarnations. Old-school, basic shit? Fuck, and yeah. Pop rap? “Summertime” was a great song and fuck you if you’re too cool to recognize it. Black militant rap? Let me dig out my red, yellow and green Africa pendent. Gangsta rap? The fuck you looking at, bitch? Point is, unless it’s total bullshit, I can handle it.

My question, though, is when was the golden era of rap? Join me, won’t you, after the jump and we can discuss.

The way I see it, there are three distinct eras of rap: The Golden Years, The Mid-Nineties Revolution and The Big Business Era. Each of these eras have their own distinct style and theme and each represent a distinct step in the evolution (and sometimes de-evolution) of rap. And a disclaimer here, I came up with these names in about 20 seconds, so they’re by no means me trying to apply authoritative descriptions, but more like bullshit I came up with while trying not to sound too nerdy. Mission accomplished? … No? Err … anyway, onward.

Let’s look at the three eras:

The Golden Years

When: 1984-1989
Glorious beginning: Run D.M.C’s King of Rock
Unceremonious ending: Vanilla Ice
Essential listening: Run D.M.C’s King of Rock and Raising Hell; anything by Eric B. & Rakim; Boogie Down Production’s Criminal Minded and By Any Means Necessary; Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet
Slept on: EPMD, D-Nice, MC Lyte, “Self Destruction” (see below) by the Stop the Violence Movement – listen to Chuck D rhyme off beat (in 1989!) and Kool Mo Dee: “I ain’t never, ever ran from the Ku Klux Klan and I shouldn’t have to run from a black man.” Word.
Sorely missed: Dookie chains, high-top fades

Stop the Violence Movement – “Self Destruction”

What can you say about this era? Amazing. It was the beginning – the era when rap became a part of American culture, though still a fringe element. It was like a turkey with all the trimmings: It was innovative, new, fresh, the music pushed community, pride and fun. You can’t get much better than this. I fell in love immediately, but unlike Common, we never broke up.

The Mid-Nineties Revolution

When: 1992-1995
Glorious beginning: A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory
Unceremonious ending: Notorious B.I.G.’s “Unbelievable” (”Your life is played out like Kwamé, and them fuckin’ polka-dots” Ouch, that one line killed this era dead in it’s tracks.)
Essential listening: A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders; The Pharcyde’s Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde; Dr. Dre’s The Chronic; Digable Planets’ Blowout Comb; Wu Tang Clan’s Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers); Method Man’s Tical; Beastie Boys’ Check Your Head and Ill Communication; Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die
Slept on: Digable Planets, Digital Underground (go listen to Sex Packets and tell me that it’s not a classic), GangStarr, Craig Mack (Puffy started out so well …)
Sorely missed: Making good albums instead of singles, a sense of humor, in-check egos

Craig Mack – “New Flavor in Ya Ear”

Another amazing era. Everything had progressed exponentially – rappers were more skillful and producers supplanted DJs as the creative genius behind the music, providing much more texture to the music. This was the era of the super album. I’ve listened to Midnight Marauders and Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde easily more than 1,000 times each, and they still sound fresh and incredible. Biggie plays an important role in this era too, because he was a huge part of it and, ultimately, the death of it – at least the so-called “conscious” wing of it, anyway. When Biggie spoke, everyone listened, and when he called out Kwamé, it instantly killed the career of anyone who didn’t rap about money, cash and hoes.

The Big Business Era, or, The Age of the Producer

When: 2000-2005
Glorious beginning: Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’”
Unceremonious ending: 50 Cent’s ridiculously inflated ego
Essential listening: Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’”, The Blueprint, The Black Album; 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”; OutKast’s Stankonia; Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP, “Lose Yourself”; Missy Elliott “Work It”, Shyne “Niggas Gonna Die”
Slept on: Too many to count. The late 90s and early 2000s churned and burned through too many one-hit wonders that were actually really good to count. Among them: Clipse, Dizzee Rascal and Wu-Tang Clan members Ghostface Killah and GZA (This is arguable, since most people know who they are, but I’d argue that most people don’t have Supreme Clientele or Liquid Swords and, therefore, don’t know either one).
Sorely missed: Eminem’s ferocity (what the fuck happened to him?), Jay-Z’s brilliance on The Blueprint (see below for both), The Neptunes’ non-synth, spare beat period (see Lord Willin’ by Clipse)

Jay-Z and Eminem – “Renegade”

This era is notable for so many things – rap’s move to become the mainstream of American music and pop culture, the emergence of superstar rappers led by Jay-Z, which in turn, led to balloon-like egos masquerading as rappers (looking at you 50 Cent…). Rap’s biggest evolution during this period was the emergence of superstar producers: Timbaland, The Neptunes, Dr. Dre., Kanye West. Dr. Dre actually started the whole trend as the in-house producer for Death Row, but Timbaland and The Neptunes took the enterprise to the next level by producing for anyone with $250K to spend. The result? An era of incredible singles and generally shitty albums. The bi-polar era of rap – take the most talented MCs ever and combine them with the most progressive music in the history of the genre… but only for one or two tracks. The rest of the album is just filler around the two or three pieces of brilliance.

So, what’s the best era? It’s hard to say. Each have their distinct qualities and annoyances, and no era sucked. For my money, the Mid-Nineties Revolution was the best, but so much of that is a product of my age. I was in my late teens, early 20s, so that music was the soundtrack to me sitting on a couch in front of a smoking three-foot Graphix bong… good times. Who knows what’s ahead. The industry (and 50 Cent’s ego) is going through a well-needed downturn, which will result in rappers having to really bring it to sell records and get popular. That, hopefully is a good thing for the future.