Roger Porter
June 13, 2011
Today I was doing work around the house while listening to my favorite oldies station when I had a rather ill chain of thought. It started with me appreciated all the outstanding groups that used to put out nothing but hits back in the day like; The Four Tops, The Chi-Lites, and The Temptations. Then I began wondering what groups will be played on oldies stations when my daughter is all grown up. After that I thought about which hip-hop groups would be worthy of having their records played on the radio 20 years from now. Then finally I asked myself who is the greatest hip-hop group of all time. Hmmmm.
I hate to judge artists by saying one is better than the other but it is simply inevitable. Therefore I mulled over the question until the answer became very clear. There is only one group in rap history who put their entire state on the map, changed the lyrical speed of the genre—literally, did songs with both The Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur, and not only did they rap but they harmonized as well….of course I’m talking about Bone Thugs and Harmony.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0PB4o9GH2A]
In addition to providing a soundtrack to my junior high school experience, Bone-Thugs also made one of the greatest videos of all time with Tha Crossroads. The video is still visually stunning to this day even though the once cutting edge special effects are now over 15 years old (can you believe it?).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMYAEHE2GrM]
So if any rap group deserves to be played on oldies station 2 decades from now it’s the one consisting of Lazy, Crazy, Busy, Wish, and Flesh. Oh yeah and Cleveland’s definitely in the house, lol.