Word: rapping
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There's an oft heard phrase in the record business that could apply to the career span of many a young rapper: "Here today, gone later today." It's easy to understand why. Rap fans are among the most demanding and ruthlessly trendy. After three or four albums, even the music's hottest stars--remember Hammer and Tone Loc?--fade away as fans move on to tomorrow's new hip flavor...
...Cool J something remarkable. At 29 the New York City rapper (born James Todd Smith) has just released his eighth album, Phenomenon, and done what no other rapper has: remained at the top of the charts for more than a decade. LL's career spans virtually the entire rap...
...secret of his longevity rests in his musical roots. He cut his teeth in the early 1980s, when rap was still largely playful entertainment--an intricate mix of bare rhythms, verbal acrobatics and sharp humor. As rap's agenda grew more urgent--the thundering political nationalism of Public Enemy, the corrosive social critiques of gangsta rappers like N.W.A.--LL continued to build his career on the genre's original foundations. The approach worked. Since his first record, I Need A Beat, appeared in 1984, five of his subsequent seven albums have gone platinum...
...missteps, 1993's 14 Shots to the Dome, was an unfortunate foray into gangsta rap and a poor fit with LL's good-guy image. It was a lesson he did not ignore. "Now, no matter how the tide is going," he says, "I try to keep my ship on my own course...
Midnite Lover is not a hard-core rap CD intent upon making a social or political commentary, nor is it the work of a master crooner doing his imitation of early '90s Boys to Men. Midnite Lover is simply Shaggy doing what he does best--entertaining. The songs are mostly good, some great and some, like "Peace of My Heart," absolutely detestable. Shaggy has become rich off of his ability to promote his sexuality and appeal to the ladies and my guess is that he will be doing it for years to come...