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.
Jay Z
Album(s): Reasonable Doubt, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, In My Lifetime, Vol. 2, In My Lifetime, Vol. 3
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.
Tupac
Album(s): Me Against The Word, All Eyez On Me, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
Sales: 16X Platinum between these albums
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
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.
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
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.
2pac sales > all the rest. And the albums were better too. End of discussion
The list is a lil bias and analized in a sexist view….lauryn hill should be there, her miseducation album was one the biggest albums those years, plus she was part of the fugees wich was the biggest group hiphop or not between those years…she won more awards and sold more singles….lauryn should not be considered one of the top female rap artist, she is one of the top hiphop artist of all time, and one of the best artist period.
I think that album was the GOAT, for any genre. She needs to be there…… For that time period at the leadt
jay z, eminem, 50cent and 2pac
50 Cent wasn’t in mainstream rap between ’95-’99
@fanssy ezekiel: u probably 13 years old
Jay z should be on every timeline
I would argue about definitely DMX, and probably Jay-Z… at a bare minimum you would have to put Method Man up there considering he was on everyone/anyone’s album and typically killed his verse…and u neglected Scarface…sad and disappointing…
There are no honorable mentions when playing Mt. Rushmore. That’s the whole point…
1-Biggie
2-Biggie
3-Biggie
4-Biggie
1. 2-pac 2.Eminem 3.Nas 4.Dr Dre. these are the BEST!! rapper.
Biggie Dont Rap! He sing,talk u knw tht!!
Jay-Z hadn’t sold 10 million records during that period. Those records might of sold that now, but stop trying to rewrite history.
Yes
2pac is the most influential rapper of all time
obviously tupac is number 1 but what about nas’s it was written, I am and the firm album
or illmatic. cmon now
top 3
pac
rakim
nas
Congratulations…pointless, but well done
Replace X with Nas n you have the top 4 all-time
pac died in 1996, biggie died in 97. pointless article.
Yes
Six number one albums, imagine that
Cats is sick, cause dog got his swagger back
very weak article..you guys running out of content? damn..
Those albums had a harder sound aswell. lyrics or beats..reasonable doubt had a smooth sound but jigga was vivid with the flow u listen 2 shit now. Its all trap snap bubblegum rap lol
wht abt Eminem. He is the great rapper ever!!!
The article said 90’s man. Eminem’s run was Early 2000’s Slim shady LP was late 1999 and Marshall mathers LP was 2000. thats why its call part one. which is the 90’s when they get to 2000’s Eminem will be involved.
Em’s first album was in 1999. He’ll be on the next list.
I
To you he is the greatest, Not to us.
eat a dick.
Nas isn’t in the top four? Hell no.. where’s big L at
– salty ny nigga
Do the research DX… got damn… the first double album in hip hop was actually down south hustlers… prove me wrong
SO HIP-HOP STARTED IN 1995?
when mention nas or shawn carter you HAVE to mention DMX who is top 5. his career got cut short bc of bad decisions he made but the dog affected people in a way like pac or Em did. on the deepest possible level and he rarely gets the props he has earned.
Mobb Deep are fucking kings.
Regarding 2pac: “Despite a handful of solid unreleased tracks, these releases felt more like a money grab than an artistic endeavor.” — what exactly is your reasoning? Some of his best tracks were released after his death. They were 100% an artistic endeavor. I mean, he made them. And the word cash-grab is being thrown around a lot (is your job a cash-grab? After all, you’re doing it to grab cash.) … R U Still Down (1997) contained mostly songs that were very near to their original form (they just tweaked and cleaned for a large portion of them). That was actually very faithful to the songs, not that 2pac ever insisted on keeping the beats the same (he told his producers to do what they needed to do ‘after the rappers leave’). Until the end of time was a great album, it had some amazing songs on it. Better dayz was the last great album, then they messed up. But even Still I Rise with the Outlawz in 99 was a solid record with artistic integrity. I don’t know anymore, this site doesn’t represent right. There’s no top 4 of that era. ‘Top X’ doesn’t even make sense for rap, everyone has their own preferences, it’s not just sales. Other genres never talk about ‘Top 5’ or this and that, it just dumbs down our culture to try and fit so much talent into a list and start arguments because of worthy names that were left out. Author always has bias too. Anyway, point is, you don’t know about 2pac and therefore I didn’t care to read the rest of your summaries, you know nothing about the subject.
It should be BIG, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Jay-Z.
BIG because who can Rhyme better than BIG.
Eazy-E He started this gangsta shit. AKA the godfather of gangsta rap.
Cube because He wrote the songs that help started this gangsta shit. Though Cube did sell out I could respect him more if he did it like Ice T.
Jay-Z because out of all the rappers that have come out of the early 90’s He is the only one that can still go platinum even though it’s not his best work as of late. He did kill it with Kanye on watch the Thrown. Though that Magna Carta Holy Grail album was garbage. Two song that were good.
Now if you name me 1 other rapper that can drop an album now from back then and can go platinum or multi-platinum then they can go up there. NaS? NO. Wu-Tang? NO. Mobb Deep (if they ain’t dissing each other) NO. Puff? NO. Now if you say lil wayne sorry no, he only got big with that lolly pop bull shit in 2000 something. Dre maybe but that nigga only drops albums once a decade. Crack man X? NO.
Gblaze… I’m glad these clowns were smart enough not to include Nas, Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep and Puff. Nas really only has 2 classic albums (Illmatic and It Was Written), the rest of his albums were mediocre at best. Wu-Tang only has one classic (36 Chambers). The Wu-Forever double disc wasn’t all that great. Too much filler but I feel it would have been a potential classic if it was a single disc album. I’m a big fan of Mobb Deep, but only Infamous and Hell On Earth are classic albums. Murda Muzik wasn’t nearly as good and I think it sold copies because of the hype and Quiet Storm. Puff is and always will be garbage.
What about Raekwon & Ghostface Killah? Is this soley based on sales?
my vote would be Big L is missing…..period
HHDX CAN EAT A DICK ONCE AGAIN FOR THIS BULLSHIT
(NO NAS WTF?)
poor journalism, horrible article,……in between Jay z was biting styles