2 Busy Saying Yeah - Ninety-Now: East Coast Indie Raps Pt. 1
For most of the 1990s, I followed east coast rap about as closely as any not-yet-internet-savvy person living in Cali could. I listened to every record I could find, read everything that I could and prized any dub of radio shows by Stretch & Bobbito, Mayhem, Riz, Eclipse, etc. that came my way. During that era, I made it to New York about once a year and would spend every free minute combing stores that might have rap records I couldn’t get in the Bay, like Bobbito’s Footwork, Rock & Soul, Beat Street in Brooklyn, etc.
Once Fat Beats opened, it was easily the best of them. The store changed the landscape for rap music in New York, creating not just an outlet but also a focal point for a certain style of underground rap. Or maybe several styles of underground rap, since the scene seemed to embrace a range of non-commercial NYC-centric styles, from arty downtown rappers to outer-borough knockoffs of Nas & the Wu-Tang Clan.
NYC raps filtered through West Coast sensibilities. Leave the backpack at home, though.
