Vince Staples Still Says Rappers Weren't As Big in The 90's

wwetvsports21
Jun 22, 2016
2 min read

Vince Staples offended some long time hip hop fans with his thoughts on 1990's hip hop which were contrary to popular belief it was a magical time in the genre's history. He stated not understanding the love and praise that 90's hip hop receives.

The 22-year-old Def Jam recording artist faced some backlash when he told Time that he didn’t understand why 1990’s Hip Hop gets a lot of credit. Vince doubled down on his controversial comments.

“In the 90’s you have Biggie, 2Pac, all that. But I said, ‘Name one rapper that was bigger than the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, or NSYNC,'” Staples argues. “Before Eminem, a rapper was never the biggest sh-t. They weren’t playing no f-cking stadiums like that.”

He continued, “You were not that important back then. It’s just the truth. It was small. It was brand new.”

The comments clearly show a lack of understanding pop culture in the 1990's. For instance anyone and everyone knows that the east coast-west coast beef betweeen Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur was indeed one of the biggest stories of the 90's. It made headline news everywhere when both the legends passed away before their time.

The government tried to stop hip hop stars, but actually made them more popular and relevant with society. The NWA and 2 Live Crew come to mind on artists who are responsible for the content warning stickers on albums. Hollywood even saw stars out of the hip hop world such as Ice Cube in the classic "Boyz In Da Hood". Will Smith was very popular which led him to getting his own tv series on NBC and that was after being nominated for a Grammy which was almost unheard of at the time. Lauryn Hill had the first hip hop album to win a Grammy in 1999 with "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill".

MC Hammer's "Please Don't Hurt 'Em went Diamond (10 million units) in 1990 and ranked as a best selling album over "The Backstreet Boys", "NSYNC", and "Spice Girls" in the decade.

Some people may have forgotten that Biggie Smalls even contested the iconic Michael Jackson on the charts with "One More Chance tying "Scream" which had Michael Jackson and his sister Janet. It was the Hott 100's highest debut at the time in history. Tupac Shakur went 4 times platinum, while Notorius B.I.G. went certified Diamond (10 million units).