1994
What is the New Jack Hip Hop Awards?
A few years ago, 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.
Let's see what's the shiznit and what's not.
Phattest Short Form Video
Award for the phattest video.
| 25.4% | "Natural Born Killaz" by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre |
| 22.2% | "Sabotage" by The Beastie Boys |
| 15.9% | "Can't Stop The Prophet" by Jeru The Damaja |
| 9.5% | "Give It Up" by Public Enemy |
| 9.5% | "Flavor In Ya Ear" by Craig Mack |
| 8.7% | "Never Seen A Man Cry" by Scarface |
| 4.8% | "Light Sleeper" by Saafir |
| 4.0% | "Strange" by The Boogiemonsters |
And the first Jack of the day goes to the Ice Cube and Dr Dre effort. "Sabotage" just barely made the voting form but almost managed to grab it away from them. "NBK" managed to cause a little bit of controversy here and there (it was featured on a local news station here in sunny Boston) but was more notorious among Hip Hop fans for being the first indication that maybe, maybe Helter Skelter really, truly will come out.
Smif-n-Wessun managed a write-in.
Phattest Long Form Video
Award for phattest long video release
| 44.6% | Sabotage by The Beastie Boys |
| 31.7% | Murder Was The Case by Snoop Doggy Dogg |
| 23.7% | Enemy Strikes Live by Public Enemy |
And this was pretty clear from day one. The only real surprise was that somehow we let Enemy Strikes Live in the final form this year despite that fact that it's older than dirt (it won the 1991 Jack for best long form video with over 70% of the vote). Whatever. Fans still voted for it in droves (hmmmm, it was a good tape).
Phattest Hip Hop Video Show
Award for the phattest video show (or was this obvious?).
| 54.1% | Rap City (on BET) with Big Les & Joe Clark |
| 26.5% | Yo! MTV Raps! (Friday) with Dr. Dre and Ed Lover |
| 10.2% | Yo! MTV Raps! (Friday) with Fab Five Freddy |
| 6.1% | Hip Hop Fridays on California Music Channel with Andy Kawanami |
| 3.1% | Yo! (MTV daily) with Dr. Dre and Ed Lover |
And Rap City takes it for the second year in a row--with authority, I might add--finally ending the dynasty of Yo!. Hmmm, much props to Hip Hop Fridays for doing pretty damn well, all things considered. I'll have to give it a peep when I'm California way.
Best live performance/tour/live album
Award for, well, what it says.
| 57.6% | De La Soul/A Tribe Called Quest (various tours) |
| 32.3% | KRS-One (various tours) |
| 10.1% | Organized Konfusion/Artifacts/Rass Kass (various tours) |
Yes, well. Yes, well. I guess De La ripped it up elsewhere as they did in Boston. They win.
Biggest Sellout
For the suckas that go pop. Should have been at least vaguely
hip-hop in the first place.
| 40.6% | Hammer |
| 19.8% | Dr Dre |
| 17.9% | Warren G |
| 15.1% | Eazy E |
| 6.6% | Nice & Smooth |
And this one went exactly like the nominations.
Anyway, Hammer ought to be ashamed of himself for that last album. He actually managed to copy every single selling trend of the last two years. I usually let Household Tool slide on these things, but it was just plain silly listening to him try to convince the Hip Hop Nation that he was harder than all the other MCs in the world.
Damn, he played himself like solitare.
Whackest Rapper
The weakest, but visible, whackster of the year.
| 31.1% | Vanilla "I can be hard too" Ice |
| 17.0% | Snoop Doggy Dogg |
| 14.2% | Da Brat |
| 13.2% | Shaq |
| 12.3% | Hammer |
| 8.5% | Warren G |
| 3.8% | Nice & Smooth |
So, anyway, Vanilla Ice Cream Cone actually produced an album last year; he was sporting something like dreds and he may have even been acting like he was smokin' some weed.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
He deserves everything he gets.
Biggest Disappointment
This is different than the biggest sellout. Sometimes old
favorites just plain fall off without even getting the money for
selling out.
| 38.2% | PMD |
| 14.7% | Big Daddy Kane |
| 14.7% | Public Enemy |
| 12.7% | Black Sheep |
| 12.7% | Ice Cube |
| 7.0% | Nice & Smooth |
Well. If someone's keeping score, it looks Eric Sermon has come out of the EPMD break up ahead of his estranged partner.
Cough, cough.
Um. Well, a special nod goes to Kane. At least this year he didn't end up in both the whackest and sellout categories. No half steppin' here.
And, of course, I have to say something about Public Enemy. I liked the album, but I guess some other folks didn't. Will PE ever live down It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back?
Anyway, Black Sheep(!) and Ice Cube(!) tie for fourth while Nice & Smooth hit the bottom... in this case, of course, that's good.
A lot of big names this year.
Most Overrated Rapper
Yet another bit of semantic subtlety. Now there are whack rappers
in hip-pop and we know who they are. But sometimes we get rappers
who produce a strong split in The Underground. Who gets all these
mad props but shouldn't?
| 48.2% | Snoop Doggy Dogg |
| 14.5% | Warren G. |
| 13.7% | The Notorious BIG (Biggie Smalls) |
| 12.8% | Da Brat |
| 4.5% | Nas |
| 3.6% | Craig Mack |
| 2.7% | Keith Murray |
Almost a real majority win. This Snoop and Dre backlash is in full effect. No one else even came close... not mega-played Craig Mack nor Warren "every-other-video" G.
Hmmm. What's up with that?
Best Comeback
On the good side, sometimes folks we had written off as dead, come
back like hard.
| 27.4% | Public Enemy |
| 26.3% | Slick Rick |
| 17.9% | Black Sheep |
| 16.8% | Rza |
| 8.4% | Dougie Fresh |
| 3.2% | Hammer |
And Public Enemy fans speak out. It's worth noting that Slick Rick had this one all the way until the very last batch. Looks like PE still has a strong base somewhere.
Now, someone want to explain two things to me: 1) where Rza cameback from? and 2) how did Hammer get in here?
Hardest and Ugliest Dis'
Award for the hardest most diggum-smack dis of the year--the one
that made you screw up your face and go "damn!"
| 66.7% | "Don't get mad; UPS is hiring" (Flava remix) by The Notorious BIG |
| 23.2% | "Dollars & Sense" by DJ Quik |
| 10.1% | "The Wake Up Show" by Saafir |
This year's batch of disses are a bit different since we don't really have head-to-head battle records competing here (like the Cube v NWA battles), but it doesn't much matter. The Notorious BIG gets a rare majority win.
Saafir did pretty well, too, considering that he's still pretty much way underground.
La Tondra--Tondar the barbarian to her friends--counted these up.
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Rap Group
| 37.4% | A Tribe Called Quest |
| 26.0% | Digable Planets |
| 20.6% | The Roots |
| 9.1% | De La Soul |
| 6.9% | Fugees |
Let's see. That'd be A Tribe Called Quest... again. They've won it every single year since the New Jack Awards were started (they won it when we called it Bohemian Rap).
But the margin is getting smaller.
I think Q-Tip et al had better look out for up-and-comers The Roots....
In the meantime they can revel in their clear-cut victory over their once-dominating cousins De La Soul. They did pretty badly, just barely topping The Fugees and the Souls of Mischief write-in.
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Male Rapper
| 44.6% | Q-Tip |
| 20.1% | Guru |
| 12.9% | MC Solaar |
| 11.5% | Jeru tha Damaja |
| 9.4% | CL Smooth |
| 1.5% | Prince Paul |
Prince Paul?
Anyway, Q-Tip does it again. Only Guru has ever stopped Q-Tip in this category and then only last year (and then just barely). I think Q-Tip has gotten his revenge.
Speaking of Guru, MC Solaar should definitely be thanking him for making him such a visible and recognizable presence. I'm sure that had it not been for his guest appearance on Guru's jazz-rap solo effort, he'd've never had a chance against Jeru.
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Female Rapper
| 44.5% | Ladybug Mecca |
| 27.3% | Me'Shell NdegeOcello |
| 19.5% | Lauryn Hill |
| 8.7% | Simple E |
And Ladybug Digs her way to an easy first place... followed by the anti-alternative hip hop singer Me'Shell NdegeOcello.
Ladybug is definitely becoming a staple in this category (she won last year, too).
Alone in the basement is Simple E, playin' wit her funk. And where's Queen Latifah?
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Rap Single
| 30.5% | "9th Wonder" by Digable Planets |
| 24.4% | "Distortion to Static" by The Roots |
| 19.8% | "Oh My God" by A Tribe Called Quest |
| 13.7% | "Got a Love" by Pete Rock and CL Smooth |
| 11.6% | "Stress" by Organized Konfusion |
And The Digables take it again following up on last year's singles victory. But this time, there wasn't quite the struggle. This is a solid victory.
Phattest Progressive/Jazz Rap Album
| 55.7% | Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest |
| 26.7% | Blowout Comb by Digable Planets |
| 17.6% | The Main Ingredient by Pete Rock and CL Smooth |
And ATCQ wins with Midnight Marauders which came out some twenty years ago, but still got airplay last year. And it's an ugly win, one of those majority wins. They regin supreme.
William David Haas counted this one up for us.
Phattest Gangsta Group
| 62.1% | Wu-Tang Clan |
| 18.5% | Outkast |
| 17.7% | The Dogg Pound |
| 1.7% | South Central Cartel |
And the Wu-Tang style defeats, well, everyone else with a stunning majority win despite protest from the crowd that they ain't gangstas. Oh, well, I bow to the will of the people on this one.
Hmmm. Let's move on.
Phattest Gangsta Male Rapper
| 48.1% | Ice Cube |
| 20.6% | Snoop Doggy Dogg |
| 19.1% | MC Eiht |
| 12.2% | Scarface |
Ice Cube takes this one convincingly. The comeback kid in this category was Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose fans got together at the last second to help him take second over a slightly surprised MC Eiht. Scarface rounds out the pack ahead of write-ins Spice One and Big Boi.
Phattest Gangsta Female Rapper
| 40.5% | Rage |
| 31.6% | BO$$ |
| 27.9% | Yo-Yo |
Rage took it from the giddy-up while Bo$$ and Yo-Yo fought it out for second. Bo$$ wins that battle over the veteran lady gangsta.
Phattest Gangsta Rap Single
| 27.8% | "I Never Seen a Man Cry" by Scarface |
| 27.0% | "Natural Born Killers" by Ice Cube and Dr Dre |
| 12.7% | "Really Doe" by Ice Cube |
| 11.1% | "Murder Was the Case" by Snoop Doggy Dogg |
| 8.7% | "Gin and Juice" by Snoop Doggy Dogg |
| 7.9% | "All For the Money" by M.C. Eiht |
| 4.8% | "Game Recognize Game" by JT the Bigga Figga |
It looked like Ice Cube and Dre were going to pull it off towards the end, but Scarface held on to his slim lead, thus redeeming himself after coming in last in the male category. Snoop manages to fall behind Ice Cube again and takes fourth and fifth.
Phattest Gangsta Rap Album
| 35.1% | DoggyStyle by Snoop Doggy Dogg |
| 33.3% | Lethal Injection by Ice Cube |
| 16.2% | Bootlegs and B-Sides by Ice Cube |
| 15.4% | The Diary by Scarface |
Those Snoop fans managed to make a big difference. Despite the fact that Ice Cube's Lethal Injection seemed to have it wrapped up by a narrow margin, Snoop pulls it out with the last batch of votes. An upset!
And it's a hard one to take since if some of those Cube fans who voted for Bootlegs and B-Sides had instead voted for Lethal Injection... but that's not what happened. Snoop wins the Jack.
Who counted? That Jamaican knockin' out Ja-fakin's: mass@theory.lcs.mit.edu, of course.
Phattest Political Group
| 42.6% | Public Enemy |
| 19.1% | The Coup |
| 14.7% | Fugees |
| 11.0% | Organized Konfusion |
| 9.6% | Digable Planets |
| 3.0% | The Goats |
It went pretty much like the nominations. Well, at least this time Public Enemy actually released something during the year in question. Oddly, this time, their usual majority win did not materialize.
Given that it was Public Enemy they were up against, The Coup, that mad phat mau-mau posse from Oakland, did pretty well by securing a strong second place showing. Meanwhile, the even-more-political-for-94 Digable Planets got squished by the Fugees and OK but did better than cult-faves The Goats.
Phattest Political Male Rapper
| 23.9% | KRS-ONE |
| 23.2% | Chuck D. |
| 13.8% | Ice Cube |
| 13.8% | Jeru The Damaja |
| 13.0% | Paris |
| 12.3% | Boots (from The Coup) |
And with a last-minute surge, Hip Hop Elder Statesman KRS-ONE, manages to snatch the Jack from Chuck D. Things were much tighter for KRS-ONE this time around than for last year when he rode Return of the Boom Bap to massive victories.
The race for third was interesting as Ice Cube came from out of absolutely nowhere to steal the sun from Jeru. Meanwhile, Paris and Boots round out the list with respectable showings.
Phattest Political Female Rapper
| 49.2% | Lauryn (from the Fugees) |
| 42.6% | Queen Latifah |
| 8.2% | Nefertiti |
It looks closer than it was. Only Queen Latifah's last-minute surge makes this look like a contest. Lauryn has it from the first vote.
Phattest Political Rap Single
| 36.1% | "Can't Stop The Prophet" by Jeru The Damaja |
| 27.1% | "Give It Up" by Public Enemy |
| 19.5% | "So Whatcha Gone Do?" by Public Enemy |
| 10.5% | "Takin' These" by The Coup |
| 6.8% | "Guerilla Funk" by Paris |
I dunno. Looks like Jeru benefitted from the split in the PE vote this time around. Head to head, he might have lost.
Phattest Political Rap Album
| 35.5% | Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age by Public Enemy |
| 32.3% | The Sun Rises In The East Jeru The Damaja |
| 25.0% | Genocide and Juice by The Coup |
| 7.2% | Guerilla Funk by Paris |
And it looks like that really might have been the case. Despite a late tie and the momentum, Jeru fell before the mack truck that is Public Enemy. Meanwhile The Coup did a solid third place.
Most Unfairly Slept On Album
Ever year some artist comes off proper but is ignored by the
community. Here we remedy that.
The nominees are:
Resurrection by Common Sense
Genocide and Juice by The Coup
Stress: The Extinction Agenda by Organized Konfusion
Muse Sick n Hour Mess Age by Public Enemy
Between a Rock and a Hard Place by The Artifacts
Riders of the Storm by The Boogiemonsters
And the results are:
| 30.4% | Muse Sick n Hour Mess Age by Public Enemy |
| 17.9% | Genocide and Juice by The Coup |
| 17.0% | Stress: The Extinction Agenda by Organized Konfusion |
| 15.2% | Resurrection by Common Sense |
| 13.3% | Riders of the Storm by The Boogiemonsters |
| 6.2% | Between a Rock and a Hard Place by The Artifacts |
There were many frustrated Public Enemy fans on alt.rap since many posters there decided that they were unimpressed with the newest PE joint. Those frustrated fans have made it clear that they think this is unfair and that ya'll ought to give them another chance.
Supporters of The Coup's newer brand of political stylin' have also made their recommendations known (and I have to admit that I agree with them: The Coup is all that and a Thanksgiving dinner like your grandmomma used to make) just a bit louder than fans of the newest OK effort.
Are you going to listen?
Phattest New Hip Hopster
The best New Jack to arrive on the scene this year.
The nominees are:
Illmatic by Nas
Project: Funk Da World by Craig Mack
Ready To Die by The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls)
The Sun Rises in the East by Jeru the Damaja
The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World by Keith Murray
Boxcar Sessions by Saafir
And the winner?
| 38.3% | Illmatic by Nas |
| 20.9% | The Sun Rises in the East by Jeru the Damaja |
| 13.9% | Project: Funk Da World by Craig Mack |
| 12.2% | The Most Beautifullest... by Keith Murray |
| 9.6% | Ready To Die by The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls) |
| 5.1% | Boxcar Sessions by Saafir |
No contest. Nas' had first and Jeru had second from the get-go. And that was that. The only race was between Craig Mack and Keith Murray and Craig took that one... again.
Hall of Fame
Award for that person or persons who managed to make hip hop history
and has/have stood the test of time. We're talking about those
back in the day who helped make our current dopeness possible.
Note: Public Enemy, Run-DMC and KRS-One/Boogie Down Productions,
our 1991-1993 winners, were ineligible this year.
Our nominees were:
Ice Cube
Eric B and Rakim
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Slick Rick
A Tribe Called Quest
and our winner was:
| 29.9% | Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five |
| 24.1% | Eric B and Rakim |
| 23.4% | A Tribe Called Quest |
| 13.8% | Slick Rick |
| 8.8% | Ice Cube |
About damn time. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five--responsible for such great singles as "New York, New York" and "The Message"--represent hip hop history as well as hip hop greatness. Despite being a distant fourth last year, they managed to jog the memories of enough hip hop heads to make it in this time around.
This race wins the award for biggest surprise. Slick Rick actually lead the way for the first few batches of votes. It was only in the last week that ATCQ, Eric B and Rakim and, finally, G5 managed to pull ahead.
There were a few other surprises: noticeably absent is a nomination for George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic. They've been pretty much a staple of this category ever since the beginning.
And next year? Well these things never seem to be predictive, but it looks like the fight next year might be between Eric B and Rakim and A Tribe Called Quest.
Album Hall of Fame
Award for that album that has managed to make hip hop history
and has stood the test of time. This is for the best and most
influential hip hop albums ever.
The nominees:
It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back by Public Enemy
Criminal Minded by Boogie Down Productions
By All Means Necessary by Boogie Down Productions
Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A
3 Feet High And Rising De La Soul
Paid In Full by Eric B & Rakim
AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted by Ice Cube
And the first inductee is:
| 39.1% | It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back by Public Enemy |
| 14.1% | Criminal Minded by Boogie Down Productions |
| 13.3% | By All Means Necessary by Boogie Down Productions |
| 10.2% | Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A |
| 12.5% | 3 Feet High And Rising De La Soul |
| 7.8% | Paid In Full by Eric B & Rakim |
| 3.0% | AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted by Ice Cube |
As if you're surprised.
It probably would have made more sense to just declare this an automatic inductee and vote on the second album instead.
This was never even a contest. This is not only everyone's favorite Public Enemy album, it's on everyone's top ten list. Nations had the first vote and the last.
At this point I'd explain to all of you readers just what this album is and tell you of it's enormous impact on Hip Hop when it dropped in 1988, but why bother? You all own it.
I have to give special dap to both second and third. Perhaps next year the race will be between Boogie Down Productions and BDP. Or maybe not. I get the feeling that Eric B and Rakim will be in the mix next time as many of their fans seemed torn between them and PE. And maybe we'll see this year's write-ins--EPMD and 3rd Bass--give it a run.
We'll see.
Phattest Rap Single
Phattest single to drop last year. Period.
The nominees:
"Flava in Your Ear" by Craig Mack
"I Used To Love HER" by Common Sense
"The World Is Yours" by Nas
"Give It Up" by Public Enemy
"Stress" by Organized Konfusion
"I Got Cha Opin" by Black Moon
And the winners?
| 26.2% | "Flava in Your Ear" by Craig Mack |
| 21.4% | "I Used To Love HER" by Common Sense |
| 18.3% | "The World Is Yours" by Nas |
| 15.9% | "Give It Up" by Public Enemy |
| 12.6% | "I Got Cha Opin" by Black Moon |
| 5.6% | "Stress" by Organized Konfusion |
This one came down to the wire. At first it was Craig Mack... then Common Sense... then Mack... then CS... back and forth, forth and back. But finally Craig Mack won the day with his muchly played summer jam single (now ask me what people thought of the album).
I guess that was a foregone conclusion, but is anyone as surprised as I am with the strong showing of Common Sense's nostaligic criticism of the current state of affairs in rap? And over "The World Is Yours" no less?
What does this bode?
Hmmmmmm.
Well, before we go to the last award, let me mention the write-ins: "Goin' Down" by Scareface, "Code of the Streets" by Gangstarr and "Put Em on The Glass" by Sir Mix a Lot.
That's done. Now for our last award:
Phattest Rap Album
The award for the phattest Album. Period. No more, no less.
Our nominees for this year are:
Illmatic by Nas
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik by Outkast
The Sun Rises in the East by Jeru the Damaja
Hard to Earn by Gangstarr
Blowout Comb by Digable Planets
Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age by Public Enemy
And the winner?
| 29.7% | Illmatic by Nas |
| 16.1% | Blowout Comb by Digable Planets |
| 16.1% | Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age by Public Enemy |
| 15.2% | Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik by Outkast |
| 12.7% | The Sun Rises in the East by Jeru the Damaja |
| 10.2% | Hard to Earn by Gangstarr |
And I'm happy! Why? Because now I get to say:
And it looks like the world is Nas'!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Oh, I'm hilarious. Get it? Get it? Who's world is this? It's Nas'! HA HA HA!
And it was no contest. This was clear from the first vote cast.
But this year was a bit different. Usually it's very clear who's second, who's third and so on, but this time everyone is actually pretty close. And, in fact, The Nas win is by no means particularly large for this category. A Tribe Called Quest had a bigger shut out for first last year and Ice Cube's The Predator completely devestated the competition in the 1992 awards.
The big surprise for me was Blowout Comb. It got very little video time as far as I could tell and not too many folks talked about it on the netwaves, but whoot, there it is tied for second.
And, overall, the trend hinted at last year seems to be getting stronger. I don't see too many gangstas nominated this time around. No real presence by Dr Dre and even Ice Cube did kind of poorly compared to his usual showing.
Maybe the "I used to love HER" crowd are getting ready for a coup?
We'll see next year.
I'm out of here like last year.
Peace ya'll.