As far as the most legendary release dates in rap go — we’re not talking seminal dates in general like, 50 years ago on Aug. 11, 1973 when Kool Herc is credited with creating the basic art form — a few instantly come to mind.
There’s Sept. 16, 1979, when the Sugarhill Gang released the fledgling genre’s first widely distributed single, “Rapper’s Delight.” There’s June 28, 1988, when both Public Enemy (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back) and Big Daddy Kane (Long Live the Kane) dropped groundbreaking works. And then of course there’s the widely celebrated Nov. 9, 1993, when Wu-Tang Clan burst onto the scene with Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) the same day A Tribe Called Quest stirred up another all-time classic, Midnight Marauders.
But 25 years ago today came one of the most impressive release dates in rap history: Tuesday, Sept. 29, 1998 brought about the debuts of Jay-Z’s Hard Knock Life, Outkast’s Aquemini, Black Star’s Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star, Brand Nubian’s Foundation and A Tribe Called Quest’s The Love Movement. (Yes, It was far from Tribe’s best album; but any Tribe release was monumental from this corner.)
Bill Clinton was still president, Google was only three weeks old, a roided up Mark McGwire was basking in the glow of breaking Roger Maris’s single season home run record and hip-hop was in a state of transition. The genre’s quote-unquote golden era was nearing its final act, and the South was waiting in the wings to take over. (Also released on 9/29/98: No Limit Records’s Mean Green compilation featuring Master P, Mystikal, UGK and more just as the label began to explode.)
But what a day it was for “old school rap,” if you insist on calling it that and making us there to witness it feel elderly. Here’s a breakdown of the five albums that made Sept. 29, 1998 one of rap’s great dates.
Jay-Z: Vol. 2… A Hard Knock Life
Some personal context: I was a sophomore in college at Arizona State, and you couldn’t go to a single party all fall semester without hearing the hard rattling basslines of that Annie-flipping title track. (Lesson learned as an adult: Your kids may love Annie, and Jay-Z, but better seek out the clean version.)
Shawn Carter had already cemented himself as one of the game’s top lyricists by the time fall of ’98 had rolled around — going toe-to-toe with Biggie (on Reasonable Doubt’s “Brooklyn’s Finest” in 1996) and taking the crown soon after his death (with 1997’s In My Lifetime: Vol. 1) will do that — but he launched into a whole new stratosphere with the more commercially viable Vol. 2… A Hard Knock Life.
Initially buoyed by the first single “Can I Get A…” (featuring the fast-rising Ja Rule and Amil) and beats from Swizz Beatz, Timbaland and Jermaine Dupri, Hard Knock Life became Jay’s first album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, where it spent five consecutive weeks.
It’d ultimately become Jay’s most successful album of all time, with over six million albums sold. It also kicked off one of his favorite pastimes: telling people he’s retiring. He told MTV News at one point it would be his last album. (Narrator’s voice: It wasn’t. He’s released 10 since, not counting four collaborative albums.)
A Hard Knock Life won the Grammy for Best Rap Album in 1999, but Carter didn’t attend. He boycotted because the award show still wasn’t televising the rap category, and — among many others in the hip-hop community — felt the organization continued to shortchange the genre.
Outkast: Aquemini
Atlanta’s most dynamic duo since Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine was smack-dab in the middle of a historic decade-long, five-album stretch (which I wrote about last week with the 20th anniversary of its climax, 2003’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below; late-September has been good to them) when they dropped the genre-bending, funk-filled Aquemini, its title an amalgamation of rhymesayers Big Boi’s (Aquarius) and André 3000’s (Gemini) Zodiac signs.
Their arc was strikingly similar to Jay-Z’s, having already become major players from releasing two heavily acclaimed albums (1994’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and 1996’s ATLiens) when their third LP torpedoed them into the mainstream.
And like Jay’s Hard Knock Life, it was the second single from Aquemini, not the first (the Raekwon-featuring “Skew It on the Bar-B”) that pulled the pin. “Rosa Parks,” the hip-hop hoedown with its infectious multi-instrumentation and “Huss that fuss!” hook, instantly became the group’s biggest hit to date. (The Civil Rights hero the song was named after, however, was not impressed. Parks sued Outkast in 1999 for using her name without permission and defamation; the case was eventually settled amicably just months before she died in 2005.)
The singles, which also included “Da Art of Storytellin’ (Pt. 1),” were golden, but so were the b-sides (“SpottieOttieDopaliciscious,” “Liberation” featuring Cee-Lo and Erykah Badu).
Aquemini debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 — behind, what else, Hard Knock Life.
Critically, however, it performed better. AllMusic called it “a stroke of brilliance,” “a virtuosic masterpiece,” and “a landmark hip-hop album of the late ’90s.” Entertainment Weekly called it the rap album of the year. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it #500 on “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” but updated their list in 2020 — when it jumped all the way to #46.
Black Star: Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star
While André 3000 and Big Boi were marathoning in perfect stride by ’98, Mos Def and Talib Kweli were just forming their relay.
Mos Def (now known as Yaasin Bey) had been on the come up since a pair of memorable features in 1996, on Da Bush Babees’s favorite “The Love Song” and De La Soul’s fittingly labeled “Big Brother Beat,” not to mention his own breakout single, 1997’s “Universal Magnetic.” Kweli was more of an enigma.
Both delayed planned solo albums so they could collaborate as a unit. Together — over production laid down by Cincinnati producer Hi-Tek — the Brooklynites immediately proved one of the formidable new groups on hip-hop as the sing-songy gravitas of Bey meshed perfectly with the lyrically complex poetics of Kweli.
Nowhere is it more apparent than on its two singles: the all-time party starter “Definition,” its merciless drums and bass combined with a dancehall-influenced hook that lamented the recent killings of Biggie and Tupac, and the hard-scrabble portrait of New York painted on the evocative and soulful “Respiration” featuring Common.
The album peaked at 53 on the Billboard 200, but you’ll find plenty of hip-hop heads (this one included) who would tell you it’s the single best album released on 9/29/98.
While Bey and Kweli continued to carve out fruitful solo careers, they wouldn’t make another album together until 2022’s disappointing No Fear of Time.
Brand Nubian: Foundation
Brand Nubian made an instant impact on the culture with the release of 1990’s One for All, spawned oft-scratched, funk break-laced 12″ plates like “Brand Nubian,” “Slow Down” and the title track. But the popularity of the group of hip-hop circles didn’t necessarily slate into album sales.
That might be why it took founding members Grand Puba, Sadat X, Lord Jamar and DJ Alamo another eight years to reunite for Foundation.
Oddly, though, while none of Foundation’s singles seemed to capture the rap zeitgeist like One for All’s (or even 1993’s “Punks Jump Up to Get Down”), the group still scored their greatest commercial coup.
The second single “Don’t Let It Go To Your Head” made its way onto the Billboard Hot 100 (and was remixed by the Neptunes as they began their meteoric rise) while becoming Nubian’s single biggest hit.
A Tribe Called Quest: The Love Movement
Again: I’m not disputing that The Love Movement is the probably the weakest (I couldn’t possibly say “worst”) of all Tribe albums. Even Phife Dawg acknowledged as much on his the title track from his 2022 album Forever. “Bad vibes, hence the reason last two albums took a straight nose dive,” he mourned in a clear reference to 1996’s Beats, Rhymes & Life and 1998’s The Love Movement while recalling strife with his longtime partner in rhyme, Q-Tip.
But The Love Movement is still severely underrated. It’s a more mature Tribe album, and while not everyone loved the evolution of the group’s sound, from the classic boom-bap of Midnight Marauders and Beats, Rhymes to more ethereal soundscapes, it’s got plenty of gems.
There’s “Find a Way,” the Towa Tei and Bebel Gilberto-sampling plea-for-love groove. There’s the similarly affectionate “Against the World,” with Phife and Tip trading bars as smoothly as only they can. And there’s what’s maybe one of Tribe’s all time most underappreciated tracks, the melodically charged Queens anthem “Give Me” featuring N.O.R.E.
But admittedly, it was the first Tribe album that didn’t feel fully cohesive, despite its romantic themes.
Love for Tribe at the time though still boosted it to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 – behind, as established above, Hard Knock Life and Aquemini.
The cruelest irony about The Love Movement, though? The group broke up a month before its release.
They eventually reunited for festivals and tours in the 2010s, and their masterful 2016 swan song, We Got It From Here… Thank You for Your Service — released eight months after the death of Phife Dawg at age 45.
