Music Banter - Hi, I'm Wasthereonce. Came from Reddit to get more in-depth conversations.

My musical journey started with listening to hip hop, but now I'm listening to many different genres including progressive metal, 90s house music, R&B, and pop music from the 2000s and early 2010s. But this post I typed up explains my journey through hip hop.

Introduction: My Story

I started listening to hip hop around 2009-2010: I was a 12 year kid who needed something to help me stay up late and do homework. I turned to the radio, where I found a station called Kube 93.3. They were playing the newest songs from artists such as Lil Wayne, Eminem, Kanye West, and T.I. back then. I heard a few songs that I loved, such as No Love, Monster, 6 Foot 7 Foot, and many others. While I was completing my grueling math homework, I got introduced to some of the best songs I had ever heard. Before this, I never even listened to music.

After a while, I was listening to other artists I had heard featured. One that stuck with me for some reason was Rick Ross. His vocals were something I had never heard before, and his delivery was amazing to me. I learned that he had a label called Maybach Music Group (MMG) and I started following the young careers of artists like Meek Mill and Wale. The first album I really listened to was Self Made Vol. 1, a compilation album by MMG. Some of my favorites from the album were Self Made, Rise, That Way, and of course Ima Boss. Those songs, and that album, were my first taste of hip hop and how spectacular it can be. Some other albums that I enjoyed were Self Made Vol. 2, Jesus Piece, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Quality Street Music and many others from that 2010-2013 era. This was a more pure hip hop era because of how the sound was more individualistic before the mainstream influence of the overall sound shifted by the popularity of DJ Mustard and later the group Migos.

I was absorbing a lot of the mainstream artists and many of their songs that did not gain traction: and I was loving it. From mixtapes to obscure features, I was constantly digging for new music and listening to it all. But I soon found that I was running out of new songs to listen to, so I turned to older hip hop: specifically 90s hip hop and I fell in love with the music again. From The Notorious B.I.G. to Big Pun to more unheard of artists like Percee P and Pudgee the Phat Bastard, I was having a blast doing the same thing for old artists that I had previously done to today's artists: digging and listening almost obsessively. Then I found the underground artists and did the same thing again. Even though my interest in today's hip hop has waned, I really want to get back into it. I do hear a lot of similar songs from different artists, but I know there are some gems in there.

My taste for hip hop is so broad it certainly is not just represented by just one album alone. I've heard at least a part of most mainstream albums that have release since the late 90s/early 2000s, but I'm always open to more recommendations.

I went through this 11-year history of mine to say that I love all kinds of hip hop. I got the opportunity to moderate a Reddit community called Hip Hop 101 (subreddit is r/hiphop101) because of a post I made, and now I've been branching out into exploring different genres. If you ever want to casually discuss hip hop or even make a detailed post to share your knowledge, that's another good place to do it. But I hope to share my musical knowledge and introduce others to some awesome music! Thanks for reading if you did!