Jeru had already made himself known during the early ’90s as an affiliate of Gan g S tarr, the legendary duo comprised of Keith “Guru” Elam and Chris “DJ Premier” Martin. In 1996, Kendrick “Jeru the Damaja” Davis waded into the fray. Hip-hop music looked like it was becoming an unstoppable force, but with the combination of rampant materialism and bloodshed on record, was it happening at the cost of its soul? Rap music was on its way to becoming the highest selling musical genre. MTV and daytime radio were beginning to welcome rappers into the fold. Death Row Records, ruled by Suge Knight, was synonymous with gangsta-ism on wax.ĭuring this era, Soundscan numbers were king. Bad Boy, following the lead of its founder Puff Daddy, essentially created the “shiny suit rap” genre: lyrical bottle-popping over easily recognizable samples from past pop records. For all intents and purposes, there were two “faces” of hip-hop music during this period: the New York-based Bad Boy Records and the Los Angeles based Death Row Records. These cries were perhaps the loudest in the mid-’90s, as the larger record labels were figuring out just how much money they could make selling hip-hop music. Don’t compromise artistic integrity for the sake of record sales. The tenets remain the same throughout the years. Since the first rap was recorded, there have always been those who fought to keep the musical art form “pure” in the face of the corrupting influence of big money and the record industry. Someone is always battling for the “soul” of hip-hop. Happy 25th Anniversary to Jeru the Damaja’s Wrath of the Math, originally released October 15, 1996.
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