I admittedly retain a fondness for nostalgic rapping despite having recently fired a few salvos at fans and artists for remaining stuck in the past. Even songs that dally with maudlin excess¹  possess an undeniable charm. Many famously wistful rap songs  are actually quite artful and stimulating; rappers typically muse on several  different imaginary pasts in the course of a single song. These archetypes include sanitized accounts of hip hop’s earlier days;² urban coming of age vignettes³; myth-making accounts of the rapper’s life prior to attaining stardom; and an improbably tranquil era prior to the rise of crack cocaine and its attendant ills. (more…)

1. Nas’ nearly intolerable “Can’t Forget About You” comes to mind immediately. For a hilarious parody of this type of song, check Party Fun Action Committee’s “Back N Da Dais.” [↩]
2. It is typically suggested that rap music once existed in an innocent form that was subsequently corrupted by commerce and plagued by diminishing artistic/ethical standards; Common Sense’s uncomfortably earnest “I Used To Love H.E.R.” is perhaps the best known example. This kind of narrative deviates from the rap origin myths espoused by MC Shan, Boogie Down Productions, and Just-Ice, which describe an early park jam scene marred by frequent violence and set against a larger urban backdrop of social disorder. [↩]
3. I analyzed three poignant examples here. [↩]