i've been listening to some kurtis blow lately. and really have been thinking about how lovebug starski's album was just really choice and excellent. i was really into 90s rap as a teenager. i think the sound and style of a lot of that was amazing. i see 90s rappers age into the 2010s/2020s pretty well sometimes. i think now that the ethics around language are getting more legitimate cultural conversations it gets harder to listen to older stuff sometimes. i find the distinction between rap and hip hop as more important as i get older too, and i think hip hop in some ways was more musical. but maybe thats a false perspective, but i think when you hear old tapes of the cold crush brothers and really slick rap styles that you could tell were more about emceeing to the party theres something magical about that that the action novel rap story and character format of rap doesnt really capture even though obviously theres so many rappers paying homage to and building on that original hip hop style that its basically pointless to consider "old hip hop" better than "slightly less old rap" and just know that theres so much amazing shit out there that you couldnt listen to it all in a hundred lifetimes and you should just enjoy it while youre listening and to keep going and discovering moreĀ