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Dre and Jay-Z emerged as the new leaders of their respective coasts-and, unlike their predecessors, willing collaborative partners. Join us as we travel back 20 years to explore a fascinating time in pop music In April ’99, Mase quit Bad Boy to become a pastor, and Sean “Puffy” Combs’s grip on radio playlists was loosening. Dre left Death Row in 1996 to start his own Aftermath Entertainment two years later, Snoop Dogg fled to No Limit Records. The deaths of Pac and Big set off an exodus of artists. As those record labels waned, so too did any lingering beef. West Coast conflict was mostly gone by 1999-truthfully, the coastal rancor of the mid-’90s was always more of a Bad Boy vs. 3 that highlight where rap was 20 years ago and also where it was going. Here, then, is a selection of songs from Vol. 3 provides a perfect time capsule of rap as it headed into the new millennium. From his very first words on the album- Yeah, I know you just ripped the packaging off your CD-to the bootlegged songs that were left off the final cut, Vol. Jay observed the terrain and adapted accordingly. And hip-hop in general was on the verge of going fully mainstream. 3 isn’t regarded as Jay’s best album-that accolade is reserved for his debut or 2001’s The Blueprint-it does have a wide-ranging aesthetic that reveals the expansive kingdom that Jay-Z oversaw when he first assumed power. And he was ruthlessly competitive, on and off the mic, which only added to his longevity.

He hewed his sound to adapt to radio trends and collaborated with the right people at the right time. Beyond his transcendent skill, Jay’s nimbleness and ambition would become the hallmarks of a long-running monarchy. 1, as did all nine of his subsequent solo releases. As the pall cast by the deaths of Pac and Biggie cleared, Jay snatched the crown in 1999. Into this power vacuum stepped Jay-Z, who had already built momentum from his own no. We’re celebrating that by definitively ranking its top songs and albums, 20 years later. The Ringer’s 40 Best Singles and Albums of 1999ġ999 was one of the most interesting music years ever. Meanwhile, Hill’s first solo album would also be her last. For all his bark, X was a little too one-dimensional to keep in step with rap’s evolution. Either he or Hill could reasonably claim the throne that year, but their reigns weren’t built to last. The following year, chart-topping debuts from DMX and Lauryn Hill were game-changers X released a second album at the end of ’98 that also went no. Two of the previous kings of hip-hop had been slain: 2Pac in Las Vegas in September 1996, and the Notorious B.I.G. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. 3 dropped in late December, Jay-Z was rap’s undisputed ruler. (Hov always did love a good metaphor.) He was now above the competition-in his home borough, in New York City, and in hip-hop. Carter depicted the rapper flanked by skyscrapers, peering downward. Fittingly, the blown-up cover image for Vol. In the fall of 1999, Def Jam posted a billboard atop the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb avenues in downtown Brooklyn to advertise Jay-Z’s new album.

Join us as we count down the best singles and albums of the year, remember the days of scrubs and the girls who wear Abercrombie & Fitch, and argue about which albums stood above the rest. Welcome to 1999 Music Week, a celebration of one of the most interesting, vivid, varied music years ever.