Rewind – Fifteen Important Rap Videos from 1990

Saddam Hussein’s army in Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait in 1990, kicking off what would ultimately lead to the U.S. lead coalition of the first Iraq War. That was just one of many monumental events in 1990, which included (but are not limited to) Nelson Mandela being freed from prison after 28 years, East and West Germany formally reuniting into one country, Boris Yeltsin becoming the President of Russia, and the Hubble telescope being put into orbit.

On a significant and personal note for me, 1990 was the year Tim Berners-Lee published his revised proposal for the world wide web, and the first web page came into existence. Thank you Tim. Without your vision and personal effort, the means by which you are reading my words right now would not be available, nor would I have had the medium to make my living from the time I graduated college until the present day. It hasn’t always been a great living (but as always your support is greatly appreciated) but it has always been fun, interesting, and worthwhile to me. As a writer there’s no better way to write for a living than to be able to share your thoughts with a global audience. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to check out what I and the crew of RapReviews.com have to say about hip-hop music and culture.

Now without further adieu let’s check out my personal selection of ten rap videos from 1990, a very important year for me personally and for hip-hop as a global movement. I see it as no coincidence that the internet’s continuing expansion into our daily lives throughout the 90’s was directly reflected by hip-hop’s adoption in far flung places never imagined on August 11th, 1973 at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.

1.) Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – “Streets of New York”