![]() Maybe not right on their heels - the Brooklyn emcee took his time recording and finalizing the LP, releasing it five years after Supastar. Price’s first post-40 album, Mic Tyson came on the heels of underground classics Monkey Barz and Jesus Price Supastar. That both of them had turned 40 on the year is a happy coincidence that Undun reflects a lifetime of honed skills isn’t. While the album initially grew out of an idea by the band’s late manager Richard Nichols, it became a reality due to Questlove and Black Thought’s two decades’ worth of chemistry. The Roots’ 10th studio LP was their most ambitious project to date, a concept album chronicling the life and death of fictional character Redford Stevens - and told in reverse order. In chronological order, of course.(Disclaimer: If it were solely up to me, this list would include every single Bumpy Knuckles release past 2009.) The Roots, Undun (2011) By now, any ceiling has been long destroyed - and all that’s left to do is enjoy the results. Hip-hop itself turned 40 Paul Iannacchino’s 2015 documentary Adult Rappers documented the rise of the grown-ass emcee rappers like Jay-Z and E-40 turned 50, and continued making relevant, compelling music. ![]() Over the following decade, change kept coming. Read more: Who’s Having the Best Rap Career After 40? By the time the 2010s rolled around, a 40-year-old rapper wasn’t just a possibility it was a promise. As time went on, more and more veteran rappers leveraged those countless hours of practice not just to create quality music, but to stay relevant to mainstream audiences. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell theorized that it takes at least 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to truly master one’s craft. Summer 2020: Oh, how things have changed. In a youth culture like hip-hop, the idea of a 30-year-old rapper doesn’t seem feasible. Kurtis Blow, the undisputed king of the early ’80s, is on his way out - and he’s barely past 25. They, too, average out to less than 18 years old. Summer 1986: The first golden era spins up, and with it a new triumvirate of greats in Rakim, Kool G Rap, and Big Daddy Kane. ![]() Among the first triumvirate of greats - Grandmaster Caz, Grandmaster Melle Mel, and Kool Moe Dee - the average age is just under 16 years old. ![]()
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