Friday, February 27, 2009

From the Vault: Tha Dogg Pound - "New York, New York"

It was early 1996... I was skipping school quite often, eating brown sugar and cinnamon pop tarts for breakfast each day and I really wanted Tha Dogg Pound "Dogg Food" CD...namely for the song "New York, New York". Death Row records had just signed 2pac "fresh out of jail" and they were poised to be the biggest thing the rap music industry had ever seen.

Kurupt was to Death Row records what Tony Kukoc was to the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls: that stellar piece of the team you never really noticed then, but certainly take notice now that you look back. This video reminds me of how interesting the mid 90's were for rap music: rappers had legitimate beefs that did not fade after two months of radio interviews. Death Row not only made a song mocking the mecca of east coast rap, but they went there and filmed it too!

By the end of 1996, 2pac was dead and Biggie didn't have much longer before he met his demise. It is great to look back at a time in the genre when things were going as good as they possibly could be. Tha Dogg Pound eventually dissolved along with the Death Row empire and songs like "New York, New York" now serve only as a reminder of their work.

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