Summary: November of 1993 might have brought us Wu-Tang Clan's groundbreaking debut Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, but there was still plenty going on in hip hop in the hot summer months leading up to it. There was Tag Team's "Whoomp There It Is," a certified radio hit, and the Bay Area was a hotbed for hip hop artists. On the East Coast, a rapper going by the name of Biggie Smalls debuted with "Party and Bullshit." Meanwhile, lesser-known but no-less influential hip hop albums dropped in ’93 including Digable Planets' Reachin' (A New Refutation Of Time And Space). Not only was the sound of hip hop changing, but the media landscape was changing as well, with MTV introducing more hip hop videos and radio formats embracing the new sound. NPR Music editor Frannie Kelley, who's been doing extensive coverage of hip hop's Golden Year, tells us about these artists and more in the world of hip hop during this year.
