1991
Welcome the first annual New Jack Hip Hop Awards!
And what is the New Jack Hip Hop Awards?
Well early in 1991, everyone on alt.rap and the funky-music mailing list was bitchin' about how lame the Grammy's were in general, and especially how weak they were when it came to rap and hiphop.
Thus was born the New Jack Hip Hop Awards.
You decide on the categories. You nominate. You vote. All we do is count and give out the Jacks. You can't blame us.
Nastiness was counted for us by ntmtv!hart who writes with his toes.
Dopest Nasty Group
| 41.8% | Geto Boys |
| 34.3% | N.W.A |
| 23.9% | Black Sheep |
Geto Boys and NWA fought long and hard on this one, going back and forth, until the very end.
Dopest Nasty Male Rapper
| 29.9% | Too $hort |
| 20.9% | Dres |
| 11.9% | Scarface |
| 10.4% | Tim Dogg |
| 9.0% | Bushwick Bill |
| 7.4% | Schooly D |
| 6.0% | DJ Quik |
| 1.5% | Ice-T |
| 1.5% | Ice Cube |
| 1.5% | Willie D |
The big fight was for third on this one, with fighting among some of the Geto Boys, Tim Dogg, Schooly D and (somewhat) Dj Quik. The Ice pair lagged with Willie D. That Too $hort won is not a big surprise, given his name recognition after "The Ghetto" but Dres (of Black Sheep, natch) is the out-of-nowhere upstart in this group. I guess that's for doz that slept.
Dopest Nasty Female Rapper
| 78.4% | Nikki D |
| 21.6% | Choice |
As with some of the other female categories, some folks did not vote on this one, but enough did to give the more recognizable Nikki D a nice margin over Choice.
Dopest Nasty Single
| 43.5% | "Look Who's Burnin'", Ice Cube |
| 30.6% | "Just Don't Bite It", N.W.A |
| 17.7% | "On That Other Level", Geto Boys |
| 6.5% | "Black Pussy", DJ Quik |
| 1.6% | "Saturday Nights", Schooly D |
A fairly open race it was until the very end, but Cube beat his estranged pals from Compton. Geto Boys hid in the middle of pack and held a nice lead over the two stragglers.
Dopest Nasty Album
| 44.6% | EFIL4ZAGGIN, N.W.A |
| 43.1% | We Can't Be Stopped, Geto Boys |
| 12.3% | DJ Quik, DJ Quik |
Geto Boys and NWA went head to head again but this time, Compton's most notorious came out ahead. DJ Quik played gadfly. Obvious in their absence, of course, was 2 Live Crew. Ice-T got a write-in for both Power and "LGBNAF".
Dopest Gangsta Group
| 40.5% | Geto Boys |
| 31.0% | N.W.A |
| 17.9% | Cypress Hill |
| 4.8% | Above The Law |
| 2.4% | OG Style |
| 2.4% | 2 Black 2 Strong |
| 1.2% | Compton's Most Wanted |
Probably helped by their still-being-played smash "Mind's Playin' Trix On Me," Geto Boys took this by a nice healthy margin, beating out Compton bad boys N.W.A who did well considerign what looked like a decline in popularity on alt.rap. Cypress Hill made a respectable third while everyone else just brought up the rear.
Dopest Gangsta Male Rapper
| 49.5% | Ice Cube |
| 41.1% | Ice-T |
| 6.3% | Scarface |
| 3.1% | MC Ren |
Ice Cube began his trek with a huge lead, but apparently lots of folks pulled out OG: Original Gangsta near the end of the voting because Ice-T closed the gap. Scarface and MC Ren showed up long enough to get token votes.
Dopest Gangsta Female
| 57.0% | YoYo |
| 35.4% | MC Lyte |
| 7.6% | Nikki D |
YoYo pulled off one of these rare majority wins quite successfully despite concern from some voters that she wasn't really a gangsta rapper. Of course, there was concern that none of these three were gangstas, but you know, if they aren't then what female is?
Dopest Gangsta Rap Single
| 38.7% | "Mind Playin' Trix On Me", Geto Boys |
| 29.0% | "How To Survive In South Central", Ice Cube |
| 20.4% | "O.G.", Ice-T |
| 8.6% | "Midnight", Ice-T |
| 3.2% | "Mr Scarface, part 2", Scarface |
Geto Boys' much-played single got over big time, but faced some early competition from Ice Cube's never-played unofficial theme song from John Singleton's Boyz N The Hood. Ice-T took the next two spots, but might have been better served if he had only one single up for votes to prevent splitting. Scarface of the Geto Boys showed up, but, well that's how the story goes.
Dopest Gangsta Rap Album
| 37.8% | Death Certificate, Ice Cube |
| 32.2% | OG: Origial Gangsta, Ice-T |
| 14.4% | EFIL4ZAGGIN, N.W.A |
| 10.0% | We Can't Be Stopped, Geto Boys |
| 5.6% | Mr Scarface Is Back, Scarface |
Ice Cube snatched the title from Ice-T once again but not without a hard fight. Some voters seemed to feel that Ice-T's latest was all that, but Ice Cube's was all that and then some. No shame in losing to the Cube. N.W.A fell in the middle of the curve, beating out Geto Boys who (some say) produced a few good singles but not a great album. Mr Scarface's relatively new album got a few props.
The following categories were counted by the Homeboy From Hell.
Dopest Short Form Video
| 36.1% | "Can't Truss It", Public Enemy |
| 24.1% | "Shut 'Em Down", Public Enemy |
| 20.5% | "Mind Playin' Trix On Me", Geto Boys |
| 19.3% | "Pop Goes The Weasel", 3rd Bass |
It's a Public Enemy world. PE took both top slots. There was never really a contest for first, but it looked like the well-received 3rd Bass anti-Vanilla Wafer track was going to take second place until the very end when "Shut 'Em Down" got almost all the votes and Geto Boys rode a last-day surge to just barely beat our estranged Brooklyn team.
Dopest Hip Hop Video Show
| 34.2% | Yo! MTV Raps with Dr Dre and Ed Lover |
| 29.0% | Yo! MTV Raps with Fab Five Freddy |
| 26.3% | Pump It Up! with Dee Barnes |
| 10.5% | Rap City with Chris Thomas |
To no one's surprise, The MTV show took top honors as it is seen almost everywhere. Less people seem to have access to BET to catch Chris Thomas and even less people can catch the syndicated Pump It Up!. Still, Dee "I sued Dr Dre" Barnes gave a good fight until the last day. Some voters voted for her show just for the opening which is a hype way to start a rap show.
Biggest Sellout (for the suckas that go pop)
| 56.8% | Vanilla Ice for being himself |
| 31.8% | MC Hammer for "2 Legit 2 Quit" |
| 11.4% | Big Daddy Kane for Prince of Darkness |
Undaunted by the fact that Vanilla Extract had never been down in the first place and so could not have gone pop by definition, voters declared him the king of suckas by a large enough margin
Whackest Rapper (for the weakest but most visible rappers)
| 61.5% | Vanilla Ice |
| 24.2% | Marky Mark |
| 14.3% | MC Hammer |
Again undaunted by the fact that what Vanilla Ice Cream Cone does isn't really rap as much as it is a mutant form of getting rid of waste, the voters crowned him king of whackness and by another majority vote. Newcomer Marky Mark got diggum smack anti-props because (as someone said) he can pick a nice sound but he loses once he opens his mouth. MC Household Tool who earlier decided to forget the MC handle because of a false advertsinign suit made a respectable third.
Dopest Political Group
| 98.9% | Public Enemy |
| 1.1% | Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy |
Damn. I'm not sure what to say, so I won't.
Dopest Political Male Rapper
| 53.3% | Chuck D |
| 13.3% | KRS-One |
| 12.2% | Ice-T |
| 11.1% | Paris |
| 10.1% | Ice Cube |
Damn, again. Chuck took a big, tough field by a nice majority. KRS-One took second, such as it was, beating out Ice-T the political gangsta who finally beat out Ice Cube. Paris avoided last place... barely.
Dopest Political Female Rapper
| 70.9% | Queen Latifah |
| 29.1% | Sister Souljah |
Somebody out there must have heard Queen Latifah (who is now chalking up her second win) say something political, 'cause she won this one. Or maybe it's just thatno one really liked Sister Souljah's "Slavery Is Back In Effect."
Dopest Political Single
| 53.3% | "Can't Truss It", Public Enemy |
| 20.0% | "By The Time I GetTo Arizona", Public Enemy |
| 20.0% | "Shut 'Em Down", Public Enemy |
| 5.6% | "Television", Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy |
| 1.1% | "The Devil Made Me Do It", Paris |
Damn. PE took the top three spots and it wasn't ever a contest. "Can't Truss It" got a majority win and the other two crushed the competition. Damn.
Dopest Political Album
| 68.9% | Apocalypse '91: The Enemy Strikes Black, Public Enemy |
| 13.3% | Death Dertificate, Ice Cube |
| 10.0% | OG: Original Gangsta, Ice-T |
| 7.8% | Devil Made Me Do It, Paris |
PE did the majority win thing. It's a PE world. Ice-T took a backseat to Cube once again and Paris brought up the rear.
This final set was again counted by the Homeboy From hell.
Provider of Dopest Sample
| 45.8% | James Brown |
| 22.9% | Parliament |
| 15.7% | Public Enemy |
| 12.1% | Funkadelic |
| 3.5% | Parliament-Funkadelic |
James Brown who, along with Clyde Stubblefield, provided us with the funky drummer won this category. Even if you're one of those people who think PFunk is one group, James Brown still got more votes, so he won. Parliament was more popular than Funkadelic as was PE. By the way, Booker T and the MG's and Steve Miller Band got write-ins.
Hall of Fame
This winner of this award will be the first entered into our Hall of
Fame for dopeness above and beyond the call of hip hop. As such
s/t/he/y will not be eligible next year.
The nominees are:
Public Enemy
Run-DMC
Sugar Hill Gang
Grandmaster Flash (and the Furious Five)
The flat file please...
| 36.7% | Public Enemy |
| 30.0% | Grandmaster Flash |
| 18.9% | Run-DMC |
| 14.4% | Sugar Hill Gang |
It was a Grandmaster Flash world at the beginning but Public Enemy fans decided that they wanted someone new. Kids today, tsk tsk, no respect for history.
Public Enemy, as we all know, recently released Apocalypse '91: The Enemy Strikes Black, their fourth album. Like Run-DMC in 1983, Public Enemy completed changed the face of rap with their second album It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back which is already considered a classic. Attracting a diverse group of music fans, including hard rock fans, PE has helped to bring Real Hip Hop(tm) to the larger mainstream without being forced to water themselves down to the the diluted level of many content-free popish artists.
Dopest Rap Single of 1991
The nominees are:
"Can't Truss It", Public Enemy
"Mind's Playin' Trix On Me", Geto Boys
"Wrong Nigga Ta Fuck Wit", Ice Cube
"Buggin' Out/We Got The Jazz", A Tribe Called Quest
The bytes please...
| 47.2% | "Can't Truss It", Public Enemy |
| 22.5% | "Buggin' Out/We Got The Jazz", A Tribe Called Quest |
| 22.5% | "Mind's Playin' Trix On Me", Geto Boys |
| 7.8% | "Wrong Nigga Ta Fuck Wit", Ice Cube |
No surprise here at the end, but Quest lead for a little while there, going back and forth with Public Enemy. In the middle of the voting, Geto Boys got enough votes to make it look like a three-way tie and like with ever other category PE fans made the difference.
Dopest Rap Album of 1991
The nominees are:
Apocalypse '91: The Enemy Strikes Black, Public Enemy
Death Certificate, Ice Cube
OG: Original Gangsta, Ice-T
Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest
Bazerk, Bazerk, Bazerk, Son of Bazerk
And the winners....
| 42.4% | Apocalypse '91: The Enemy Strikes Black, Public Enemy |
| 24.7% | Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest |
| 15.3% | Death Certificate, Ice Cube |
| 12.9% | OG: Original Gangsta, Ice-T |
| 4.7% | Bazerk, Bazerk, Bazerk, Son of Bazerk |
It's a Black planet, apparently, and PE runs it. Despite barely making the nomination, Quest got dope props and made second place. Ice Cube took third from the original gangsta and newcomer Son of Bazerk showed up long enough to get a few sympathy votes.
Well, that's it. The big winners were Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest. Even more importantly, majority wins were rare, reflecting the strong fields and diverse opinions.
I'm outta here like last year. See you at the end of 1992.