The term Mount Rushmore, most literally referring to the carved mountainside in Keystone, South Dakota, has been derived to mean the top four or pinnacle in instances outside of United States Presidents. For example, the Mount Rushmore of the Boston Celtics is Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Bob Cousy and Larry Bird.
HipHopDX has taken this idea and used it for the last two decades of Hip Hop music. In an effort to document the ever changing landscape of the art form, we have done this in four five-year installments which will be released on a weekly basis for the next month. Without further ado, here is Hip Hop’s Mount Rushmore between 1995 and 1999.
The Rundown
Harkening back to one of the best five-year stretches a musical genre has ever had, there was a plethora of fantastic Hip Hop coming out across the country in the last five years of the 20th century. Los Angeles and New York still ran the game, but their influence began to spread to other locales. In what many consider Hip Hop’s “Golden Age,” creativity and artistry were married to commercial viability and cultural relevance like never before. It is no surprise that this inaugural Mount Rushmore is a list of first ballot hall-of-famers and perhaps the most significant list of the whole series. They continued to make significant contributions to the music and culture, parlaying their previous clout and creating while the spotlight was on. For an era punctuated by a battle-rap-spirit, it is no surprise that out of the four heads on Mount Rushmore for these years one’s beef ended in tragedy and the other, despite a hot beginning, never really materialized.
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Jay Z
Album(s): Reasonable Doubt, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, In My Lifetime, Vol. 2, In My Lifetime, Vol. 3
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Sales: 10X Platinum between these albums
In 1996, the rap world was introduced to a personality that would redefine just how large a part of the cultural zeitgeist a rapper could become. But at that time in 1996, he was just an emcee from Marcy Projects who came out with an impressive debut album that featured jazzy beats and confidence on wax that seemed way beyond his experience. While some still debate whether Reasonable Doubt is the greatest Jay-Z album of all time, that was just the start of his run during this span. He would go on to follow-up his platinum debut with an album per year for the rest of the millennium, his three-volume series highlighted by Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life. Going two for four on number one albums and four for four on platinum releases is about as strong a resume as one can have in a 5-year span. The fact that some of his best work was still ahead is a testament to how great HOV was for that timeline.
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Tupac
Album(s): Me Against The Word, All Eyez On Me, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
Sales: 16X Platinum between these albums
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The greatest rapper to ever emerge from the notorious Death Row Records, Tupac began his ascent in the first half of the 90s. On the back end of the decade he would hit a pinnacle amongst the highest heights ever achieved by a Hip Hop artist with the back to back releases of Me Against the World in 1995 and the first Hip Hop double album ever All Eyez on Me in 1996. His cultural contributions in those first two years of this half decade were so significant that his death in late 1996 simply cannot possibly remove him from this list. His name would go on three more albums before the turn of the millennium and seven albums total. Despite a handful of solid unreleased tracks, these releases felt more like a money grab than an artistic endeavor. Nonetheless what Tupac Shakur was able to achieve in his short-lived career would continue to be relevant to the culture years after his untimely death.
The Notorious B.I.G.
Album(s): Life After Death
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Sales: 10X Platinum
The other end of the east coast/west coast feud and Brooklyn’s Finest, The Notorious B.I.G. would only release two formal albums before his death in 1997. Those two releases would propel him to any conversation about the greatest rapper of all time let alone in the time span when his releases took place. Ready to Die and later Life After Death would be enough to make thousands of Hip Hop fans wonder what could have been and easily place B.I.G. in the ranks for the late 90s.
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DMX
Album(s): It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot, Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood, And Then There Was X
Sales: 12X Platinum between these albums
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With everything that has happened since this era, it is tough to believe just how strong this stretch was for Dark Man X. With his distinct deep growling voice and heavy beats he created anthems that followed melodic chord structures but with booming bass that was unmistakable horrorcore, Hip Hop. He also managed a feat only done by Tupac in which he released two number one albums in a single year with It’s Dark and Hell is Hot and Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood in 1998. After this pinnacle, he would release a couple strong albums and singles but it wouldn’t be long until substance abuse and legal troubles would derail what was a historically successful career early on.
Honorable Mention: OutKast, Nas
As for OutKast, they had just begun to garner some buzz with ATLiens and Aquemini but this was not the last we would hear from Andre 3000 and Big Boi as they were on the verge of historic creative output in the coming years. As for Nas, with Illmatic in 1994’s hazy past, this 5-year run featured It Was Written… a gem that many insist is the best Nas’ album. Unfortunately, his work after he went mafioso did not live up to his genius. Whether it was Columbia fumbling his projects or Nas himself, something always got in the way.
