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The Wu-Tang Clan were something else altogether – led by RZA, they came from Staten Island and conjured their own cinematic mythology. He'd lived a life before the album had come out.' “For someone so young, it felt like he'd been rapping for 20 years. 'When Illmatic dropped it really felt like all the planets had aligned,” triple j Hip Hop Show host and Koolism MC Hau Latukefu said. That entire record could be a Scorsese movie, you can see and smell the streets when you listen to it.' 'Great music is a snapshot of a person's history and their culture. 'Nas gave an accurate, descriptive, literate version of his life and his environment,” the Beautiful Girls' Mat McHugh explained. He could paint a picture of the ghetto's grim realities without ever losing hope. But, the ‘East Coast Renaissance', as it became known, was spearheaded by artists like the Wu-Tang Clan, Biggie Smalls and Nas.ĭespite only being 20-years-old, the release of Nas's 1994 debut Illmatic signalled the arrival of one of hip hop's greatest poets. Public Enemy aside, in the early-90s, it was the west coast scene that was dominant. When Chuck D put it so plain and clear, it made people look at the press differently.” But when Chuck D and Public Enemy came out with ‘Don't Believe the Hype', it was giving us an alternative to what we always thought. “They've been able to turn us against each other. “The media in America has had so much influence over black people,” Ice Cube told triple j's Richard Kingsmill in 1994. It helped to create another level of awareness for the rap audience and it was very significant because it changed the way a lot of people made records.” Public Enemy talked about the state of black America and every black kid in America was a public enemy. “Public Enemy was significant for a lot of reasons,” Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons explained. For many, they're still the definitive hip hop group. They were controversial, uncompromising, and super-influential. Led by the socially aware Chuck D and outrageous hype man Flavour Flav, Public Enemy ripped up the hip hop rulebook. And none did it better than Long Island's Public Enemy. It was from their style and stories that the east coast quickly became known for its lyrical raps and aggressive sound. It was the beats and rhymes, dreamed up in the five boroughs, that changed music, and the world, forever.Īll rap's most important early innovators were based in the New York area - artists like Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Afrika Bambaataa, The Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B and Rakim.

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