How do you define "Old School"?

I was thinking and noticed people have different ways of defining "old school" hip hop. And wondered how you define it? Is it's a sound or a time period?

For me the way I see it is there is the four different regions of the U.S. and then foreign and alt. hip hop. So it breaks down like this...

U.S. Region - Midwest, Dirty South, East Coast, West Coast
World - Can go under the language spoken or the country of origin.
Alt. Hip Hop - Trip Hop, Horrorcore, Crunk and all the left field type stuff and more specific

So to me old school is a sound not a time period. To me Golden age is a time period.

Damn you caught me at the right time....to be honest Old School should be defined as the period where Hip-Hop music began up until 86, but as Hip-Hop is getting older old school tends to get thrown around loosely. People calling Pac, Cube, & Biggie old school gets a :? from me.

That term needs to be re-defined on the real.

The normal definition is usually anything pre-1986 and then Golden Age was after that.

But I feel that old school is relative to what is new school at the time. Melle Mel, Caz, Kool Moe Dee, and Kurtis Blow were old school when Rakim, Kane, G Rap, and KRS hit the scene.... then Rakim, Kane, and KRS became the old school when Pac, Jay, BIG, and Nas hit the scene and so on.

KRS-One and Soulja Boy were being interviewed the other day about what is old school and Soulja Boy said old school to him was 50 Cent because he was a youngin when 50 first came on the scene... while KRS was talking about old school to him was Busy Bee Starski because that was when he was a youngin and they both agreed upon that. So my answer is that old school is relative to what is new school at the time.

We call rappers like Blu, Saigon, and Lupe new school rappers, but they aren't gonna be new school forever. When the next set of new rappers come along either, they'll become old school eventually too.

Yeah old school would be like Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, Schooly D, Ice-T, Big Daddy Kane, Eric B. and Rakim, etc.

Pac, Big, Dre, Snoop, Wu-Tang, Nas, etc. = 90's hip-hop

For me "old school" applies to all the pre-Run-DMC artists. Cold Crush Brothers, GMF & The Furious Five, Sugarhill Gang, Treacherous Three etc.

You could apply old school to anything not contemporary but there are other labels like new school, Golden Age, East Coast Renaissance etc. that apply to these areas as well. But I don't really think about labels and categories that much anymore.

I agree with Orlandofat_rob

The normal definition is usually anything pre-1986 and then Golden Age was after that.

But I feel that old school is relative to what is new school at the time. Melle Mel, Caz, Kool Moe Dee, and Kurtis Blow were old school when Rakim, Kane, G Rap, and KRS hit the scene.... then Rakim, Kane, and KRS became the old school when Pac, Jay, BIG, and Nas hit the scene and so on.

KRS-One and Soulja Boy were being interviewed the other day about what is old school and Soulja Boy said old school to him was 50 Cent because he was a youngin when 50 first came on the scene... while KRS was talking about old school to him was Busy Bee Starski because that was when he was a youngin and they both agreed upon that. So my answer is that old school is relative to what is new school at the time.

We call rappers like Blu, Saigon, and Lupe new school rappers, but they aren't gonna be new school forever. When the next set of new rappers come along either, they'll become old school eventually too.

Orlando_Magic

See I have always felt it's a sound that goes with a time period. Since like I was saying take the last Gang Starr album it has a real old school sound if you ask me but people act as if it can't be old school since it wasn't made from 1979–1984. Which I find to be a bunch of crap since that's saying unless you made music within' these set years you can't be given that title. Another example I can think of is 1990's "You Can't Fade Me" by Ice Cube where at the start Cube says "Drop a old school beat" and the beat is fairly different then the other songs on the record.

So what I'm trying to get at is the people who think of first when someone says "old school" should always be Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, The Sugarhill Gang. and so on. But if someone uses that old school sound of vinyl scratching and sampling and just has that sound to it then I call it modern old school.

See I have always felt it's a sound that goes with a time period. Since like I was saying take the last Gang Starr album it has a real old school sound if you ask me but people act as if it can't be old school since it wasn't made from 1979–1984. Which I find to be a bunch of crap since that's saying unless you made music within' these set years you can't be given that title. Another example I can think of is 1990's "You Can't Fade Me" by Ice Cube where at the start Cube says "Drop a old school beat" and the beat is fairly different then the other songs on the record.

So what I'm trying to get at is the people who think of first when someone says "old school" should always be Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, The Sugarhill Gang. and so on. But if someone uses that old school sound of vinyl scratching and sampling and just has that sound to it then I call it modern old school.

nirvana563

[QUOTE="nirvana563"]

See I have always felt it's a sound that goes with a time period. Since like I was saying take the last Gang Starr album it has a real old school sound if you ask me but people act as if it can't be old school since it wasn't made from 1979–1984. Which I find to be a bunch of crap since that's saying unless you made music within' these set years you can't be given that title. Another example I can think of is 1990's "You Can't Fade Me" by Ice Cube where at the start Cube says "Drop a old school beat" and the beat is fairly different then the other songs on the record.

So what I'm trying to get at is the people who think of first when someone says "old school" should always be Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, The Sugarhill Gang. and so on. But if someone uses that old school sound of vinyl scratching and sampling and just has that sound to it then I call it modern old school.

iHeartCali

I disagree with that new school makes every thing else old school mindset. I know people think like that but I don't think that's right.

[QUOTE="iHeartCali"][QUOTE="nirvana563"]

See I have always felt it's a sound that goes with a time period. Since like I was saying take the last Gang Starr album it has a real old school sound if you ask me but people act as if it can't be old school since it wasn't made from 1979–1984. Which I find to be a bunch of crap since that's saying unless you made music within' these set years you can't be given that title. Another example I can think of is 1990's "You Can't Fade Me" by Ice Cube where at the start Cube says "Drop a old school beat" and the beat is fairly different then the other songs on the record.

So what I'm trying to get at is the people who think of first when someone says "old school" should always be Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, The Sugarhill Gang. and so on. But if someone uses that old school sound of vinyl scratching and sampling and just has that sound to it then I call it modern old school.

nirvana563

I disagree with that new school makes every thing else old school mindset. I know people think like that but I don't think that's right.

[QUOTE="nirvana563"][QUOTE="iHeartCali"][QUOTE="nirvana563"]

See I have always felt it's a sound that goes with a time period. Since like I was saying take the last Gang Starr album it has a real old school sound if you ask me but people act as if it can't be old school since it wasn't made from 1979–1984. Which I find to be a bunch of crap since that's saying unless you made music within' these set years you can't be given that title. Another example I can think of is 1990's "You Can't Fade Me" by Ice Cube where at the start Cube says "Drop a old school beat" and the beat is fairly different then the other songs on the record.

So what I'm trying to get at is the people who think of first when someone says "old school" should always be Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, The Sugarhill Gang. and so on. But if someone uses that old school sound of vinyl scratching and sampling and just has that sound to it then I call it modern old school.

iHeartCali

I disagree with that new school makes every thing else old school mindset. I know people think like that but I don't think that's right.

Wait what? Your wording lost me.

To me new school is just whatever is new and old school is that real traditional ****of scratching and sampling and whatnot.

Wait what? Your wording lost me.

To me new school is just whatever is new and old school is that real traditional ****of scratching and sampling and whatnot.nirvana563

Yesterday I was watching Channel V (Australian music channel) and they had a "top 50 old school rap" countdown.

Roc Boys was number 2, so according to Channel V, anything thats not from this year is old school.