1990

• Return of the B-Boy in the UK. B-Boys are back. There is massive interest in the dance form within British Hip-Hop culture. The revival here is led by crews such as Born To Rock, UK Rock Steady Crew and Second To None.
• DJ Stretch Armstong and Bobbito” show launches from 1990 -’98 on WKCR 89.9FM in New York.
• Controversy over 2 Live Crew’s ‘As Nasty as they Wanna Be’ gets a Florida record store owner and Luther Campbell arrested (both trials eventually end with acquittals).
• 2Pac joins Digital Underground as a roadie and dancer.
• Schoolly D appears on the Phil Donahue Show to talk about ‘Money & Rap music’.

1991

• Busta Rhymes appears on A Tribe Called Quest’s classic “Scenario”, his style and voice is so outrageous and wild, making a new eccentric delivery in lyricism.
• KDAY is sold, and its All-Rap format ends.
• DJ David (Germany) wins the DMC World DJ Championship two years in a row (‘90 and ‘91).
• N.W.A’s follow-up record, 1991’s “Niggaz4Life,” sold 954,000 copies in its first weeks of release to become the first hardcore rap album to hit No. 1 on the charts, despite being banned by some record stores and seized by English authorities as obscene.
• Cypress Hill released its self-titled debut ‘Cypress Hill’. The members B-Real, DJ Muggs and Sen Dog became supporters of hemp legalization and official musical spokesmen for the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws.

1992

• The Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hoprisy record “Language of Violence,” the first anti-gay-bashing rap.
• Rock Steady DJs (DJ Qbert, DJ Apollo and Mix Master Mike (USA) take DMC World. (Apollo credited for inventing team battling)

1993

• Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” goes multi-platinum and starts a gangsta bandwagon.
• Wu Tang Clan drops the platinum debut album Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Staten Island’s Wu-warriors: Prince (The RZA) Rakeem, Raekwon, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Ghost Face Killah, Genius (GZA), U-God, Master Killa and Inspectah Deck.
• The Dream Team (DJ Qbert and MixMaster Mike aka Invisible Skratch Piklz) win World DJ Championship.
• HOT 97 switches from a dance format to become “Where Hip Hop Lives”, heralding the coming of DJ Funkmaster Flex.
• Cypress Hill released its second album, Black Sunday, which debuts at #1 in Billboard.
• Mobb Deep members Prodigy and Havoc (Queens, NYC) released their debut album, Juvenile Hell, on the 4th & Broadway label.

1994

• Common (aka Common Sense) releases “Resurrection” pure hip-hop is resurrected; Common is acclaimed as one the best lyricists of all time.
• Del’s “No Need for Alarm” is released in December; he used multi-syllabisms, which soon start a whole new form of rhymes in the underground community.
• November: Tupac shot in a New York recording studio 5 times and robbed of $40,000 worth of Jewlery Sentenced to prison where he served 8 months in New York Rikers Island.
• NAS aka Nassir Jones went Gold with his first album “Illmatic” but it was “If I Ruled the World” with vocals by Lauryn Hill that pushed him into the hip-hop mainstream spotlight.
• Warren G aka Warren Griffen (half brother of Dr Dre) debut album “Regulate – G-Funk Era” sold over 4 million copies. “Regulate” appeared on the Above the Rim soundtrack and hit number 2 on the music charts.

1995

• First B-Boy Summit that is documented is held in San Diego, CA hosted by AsiaOne, RSC.
• Rawkus becomes one the biggest underground label ever with groups like Company Flow, and BlackStar; they release several prolific album like “Funcrusher’s Plus” (which later with formation of Def Jux starts a whole new underground movement) and “BlackStar” which shoots hip-hop commercially. Co. Flow eventually leaves Rawkus; Rawkus signs with MCA and closes the doors.
• Indie label Fondle Em records formed by Bobitto features Cenobites (Godfather Don and Kool Keith). Later to sign Company Flow.
• Queen Latifah won a Grammy Award in the category of best rap solo performance for her hit “UNITY”.
• Suge Knight posts Tupac’s $1.4 million bail, Tupac signs with Death Row Records.
• Eazy-E (aka Eric Wright) of NWA passed away of AIDS on the 20th of March at age 31. He entered LA’s Cedars-Sinai hospital on 24 February for a lung problem. He was the first rapper ever to admit having full-blown AIDS.
• Legendary Beatboxer Darren “Buff the Human Beat Box” Robinson of the Fat Boys died of a heart attack on Dec 10, 1995 in Rosedale, NY. (RIP)
• Christopher Wallace aka Notorious B.I.G is featured in the “Unsigned Hype” column of The Source magazine. Former Source editor, Matty C, played Biggie’s tape for Puffy and the rest is history. His single “One More Chance” from the debut album “Ready To Die” went straight to number 1 in the US while the album went multi-platinum.
• Blaze Battle Face-Off 2000 World Championship airs on HBO, Eyedea won the contest’s Micman trophy and an official Blaze Battle leather jacket.

1996

• The original Dr. Octagon album, “Dr Octagonecologyst”, re-launched Kool Keith in the late ninties and made a star of its producer, Dan The Automator. The album production pioneers a new form of sampling never heard before.
• On September 7th, 1996, 2Pac was shot in Las Vegas, NV after watching a Mike Tyson fight. On Sept 13th he died at 4:03pm. (RIP)
• First DMC World DJ Champion – DJ Cheese (USA).
• Bone Thugs-N-Harmony break the record for fastest rising single with their hit “Tha Crossroads”, the spot was previously held by The Beatles for “Can’t Buy Me Love”.

1997

• Scribble Jam (which started in ’96) becomes a successful underground event displaying stars such as Slug, Dose One, Eminem, Sage Francis and others.
• On March 9, 1997, Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls, whose legal name was Christopher Wallace) was gunned down while he was leaving a star-studded Vibe magazine party after the Soul Train Music Awards. (Sean “Puffy” Combs was riding in the vehicle ahead of him.) (RIP)
• Missy “Misdeanor” Elliott won 2 Billboard Video Music Awards for Best Rap Clip and Best New Rap Artist Clip (“The Rain”).

1998

• Dr. Dre signs Eminem to his Aftermath label after hearing the rapper freestyling on a Los Angeles radio station. The Slim Shady LP is released on Feb. 23, 1999 and hits No. 2 on the Billboard charts within weeks.
• People included Lauryn Hill as one of the “25 Most Intriguing People of 1998.”
• Interscope Records, parent company of Death Row Records, severs ties with Death Row. Dr Dre, founder, president and producer leaves months before the announcement.

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1999

• Anticon releases “Music for the Advancement of Hip-Hop”; hip-hop music involves into a new form.
• Lauryn Hill was the first woman to nominated for 10 awards in Grammy history, and won 5 of them, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (“Doo Wop”), Best New Artist, Best R&B Album and Best R&B Song (songwriter).
• On Dec. 27, 1999, at the Club New York in Manhattan, shots that injured three people were fired after a patron reportedly threw money in Combs’ face.
• Big L (aka Lamont Coleman), was shot and killed Feb. 15 near his home in Harlem. (RIP)

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