nwa ice t ice cube..were all dope back then.. in fact there was so much diversity.. personaly i dont like gangsta rap..i didnt grow up in the hood so i cant relate..but there is something for everyone out there if you are into pop/rap gansta rap/concious rap/party rap/etc etc..all different styles..thats why they had tours with LL Cool J/whodini/epmd/public enemy/jazzy jeff & fresh prince..i dont see that today though..its all pretty much the same..and hardly any of it is creative
and the whole thing about jazzy jeff and fresh prince growing up in "the suburbs" is rubbish..everyone should check out this article i compiled together
http://www.jazzyjefffreshprince.com/jjfp-jjfprealdeal.htm
Jeff: I think there's a big misconception with who Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince are. We faced just as much trauma and tragedy and ups and downs as any urban teen-ager. You see the shootings, the killings. You see the good with the bad. But we just don't choose to talk about it. I mean, we'll sit down and have a conversation that will be just like a Public Enemy record. But we don't choose to do that in our music. I believe that people want to be entertained. You don't go to a show to be preached to.
Will: There are things that have happened in our lives that are no different than any other urban teen-ager. I mean, I've probably seen more people murdered than anybody in the city.
Seriously?
Will: I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, all the time.
Jeff: In the beginning of Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, it was always ''the suburban rap group." Then I'd come home from a tour, and I'd sit on the corner on top of the mailbox with all my friends. And they're pulling out beer and all the rest of this. And when you grow up like this, you don't push your friends aside, no matter what they do, 'cause this is all I knew growing up.
Will: I made a decision not to sell drugs.
Jeff: Exactly.
Will: I made a decision not to carry a gun. I made a decision not to do drugs and not to fight, you know. It's not that I lived in such a great neighborhood and that stuff wasn't there. No. I'm a better person than those people. I have better parents, maybe, than those people have. It's not geographically where I was located. It's intellectually where I was someplace else.
Jeff: There's nobody in this world that can't tell me that Will and I weren't hip-hop. I mean, from doing the housing projects, doing the shows, me being a well-known DJ in Philly. Will being someone who could free-style. Putting out "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" (1989 on Jive) and it blowing up at hip-hop clubs. People were loving it, going crazy.
Girls and Parents Just Don't Understand" were just as popular as "Eric B For President" (Eric B and Rakim) in B-boy hip-hop circles then. In those simple old days we would be doing tours with Public Enemy, Kid 'N' Play, Heavy D and the Boyz and Run DMC it wasn't a big deal. They would come check us and vice versa and we would be digging each other. The funny thing was that the criticism didn't come from our peers, it was definitely a media vibe. You guys aren't hard enough; you guys are from the suburbs. It was like Damn. I grew up in 57th & Ratmer Street, West Philadelphia and I'm from the suburbs (sighs) and I'm looking around and thinking you don't know anything about me. Yet some folks figured that being liked by three million people meant it had to be suburban," rants Jeff in one breath. "It was true to the extent that white kids suddenly dug hip-hop. We created hip-hop crossover. I wanted everyone -- black and white -- to enjoy themselves. I didn't know whether to defend myself [from that suburban' label] or give in."
