06/17/2026
https://soundcloud.com/8ballposseofficial/raps-that-raised-me-late-90s-and-back-era-edition
This is the third installment in my series, The Raps That Raised Me.
This one takes it mostly into the mid to late 90s. Late 90s underground. Backpack era stuff. Tracks that came at a real turning point for me in hip-hop.
This was when I started to actually form my own taste. My own preferences. My own favorite artists.
Before this, I was listening to some pop rap. Whatever was on the radio or what somebody else introduced to me when I was a pre-teen. But this gets me into high school, where I really started digging into what I liked.
A lot of that came from The Source magazine. A lot of it came from BMG and Columbia House. The 12 CDs for one cent scam. I was using multiple names and getting so many CDs in the mail. So many albums that shaped my musical taste.
Some of these tracks bring me right back to high school.
Discovering early Eminem on Rawkus Records.
Getting into skateboarding in ’95 and having the Beastie Boys’ Check Your Head album become huge for me.
Finding out about PJAYS Recordings and the Undependent Hip-Hop CD featuring United Kingdom and others from a 411 Video Magazine. It was the DC Europe tour, and there was a song in it that I loved so much I went to my local record store and had them special order the CD for me. That was probably the first time I ever really dug for something. Years before I was digging for records. Before I was digging for albums. Just that feeling of hearing something, needing to find it, searching for it, and somehow getting it in a way I didn’t even know was possible.
Heather B, “If Headz Only Knew.” Real World season one. Eric from The Grind. Kevin Powell, the journalist. That whole era.
KRS-One was my favorite rapper for years and years. I collected all of his CDs. I moved to Chicago to go to college and specifically to write graffiti, and I went to see KRS-One at Joe’s on W**d Street by myself. I didn’t know anybody in the city yet. KRS-One put on his classic show with the tennis balls and taking off his jackets. Just an amazing time.
A couple tracks on here came from DJ Premier’s New York Reality Check 101, put out by Haze Clothing. Just classic underground New York hip-hop.
A big portion of this mix comes from that late 90s backpack era when I discovered Lyricist Lounge, Rawkus Records, Cage, Non Phixion. That stuff really rocked my world. It ruled my taste for the longest time. And almost anytime I see a Rawkus record out, I pick it up. Sometimes now I’ve got doubles and triples, but I just pick it up just to have it.
Redman’s Muddy Waters is still one of my top five albums of all time. A percy top five right there.
There’s some earlier 90s stuff in here too. House of Pain. Cypress Hill. Naughty by Nature. Those were big records for me in the early 90s, and I had to put them in here because I didn’t want to forget them.
Sir Mix-a-Lot on the Trespass soundtrack. There’s a story there too. When I was ordering CDs from BMG, they would come in the mail and I would try to hide them. One day my dad found some CDs that came in with parental advisory stickers on them, and he told me I had to send them back the next day. So I had this old stereo system from the 70s. Double cassette deck. A little portable Discman connected to it. I remember dubbing the Trespass soundtrack and the Da Lench Mob album overnight before I had to send them back.
I had those tapes forever. I might still have them to this day.
So there it is.
The Raps That Raised Me. Late 90s and backpack era.
This mix takes me down memory lane. Late nights. Mind-altering substances. Watching the sunrise while listening to the Soundbombing II soundtrack. Driving through sunsets on Iowa country roads with the windows down in an old beat-up Buick Regal. Rap music on tape. Hip-hop on tape. We were the farthest thing from urban hip-hop, but we just loved it so fu***ng much.
Traveling to the nearest city to see the Word of Mouth tour with Dilated Peoples, Supernatural, and the World Famous Beat Junkies.
Man.
Hip-hop and skateboarding directed my life in ways I could never have imagined.
I’m grateful I found it. Grateful I dug into it. Grateful for everything this music has meant to me, and to everybody out there who found themselves in it too.
Hope you enjoy.
https://soundcloud.com/8ballposseofficial/raps-that-raised-me-late-90s-and-back-era-edition
This is the third installment in my series, The Raps That Raised Me. This one takes it into the mid to late 90s. Late 90s underground. Backpack era stuff. A real turning point for me in hip-hop. Thi
