The most surprising part of Sunday night’s American Music Awards wasn’t Ke$ha’s obnoxious, opulent performance or Justin Bieber thanking his “haters” during an acceptance speech. Every potentially shocking moment could have been, and probably was, predicted by plenty of viewers.
But no one could have been ready for the appearance by a guy whose last veritable hit came in 1991.
Scheduling South Korean artist PSY to perform his worldwide hit, “Gangnam Style,” to close out the show made sense for the AMA’s organizers. “Style” is easily the song of the year and will likely be the song everyone looks to in the future when trying to define 2012. But the performance’s most head-scratchingly awesome moment came when PSY pulled rapper MC Hammer onstage to perform a mashup of “Style” and Hammer’s 1991 hit “2 Legit 2 Quit.”
It was a surreal moment for music fans. One of the biggest one-hit-wonders of all time was sharing the stage with a guy who will probably be the punchline of every 2012-related joke 10 years from now.
The Twitterverse lit up with mentions of Hammer performing, and fans loved it. I’ll admit, the songs came together surprisingly well. As odd as the appearance was, it made sense that PSY, an artist whose quirkiness made him famous, would be the one to bring MC Hammer back into the public eye.
Hammer’s performance is one that’s indicative of a 2012 trend that I, as a huge hip-hop fan, can’t get enough of. 2012 has become the year of ‘90s rap nostalgia.
One of the biggest stories in music earlier this year was the appearance of the Tupac hologram at Coachella. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg — excuse me — Snoop Lion, resurrected the rap demigod during their performance at the California music festival.
The simple fact that Dre and Snoop were headlining a show together was enough to bring back memories of the ‘90s. The two had some of their biggest hits together in that decade, such as “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” and “What’s My Name?”
Tupac was the piece that pulled the nostalgic performance together. Fans were polarized, with some claiming it was a dishonor to a legend, while others said it was a classy tribute put together by two of the deceased rapper’s best friends.
Over on the East Coast, it was a relatively big year for another ‘90s icon, Mase. Relatively is the operative word here, because for a guy who faded into obscurity after having two of the biggest hits of the late ‘90s, being featured on a Kanye West album in 2012 is a big deal.
For the uninitiated, Mase was the brains behind the 1997 hit “Feel So Good.” He also guested on a number of Sean “Diddy” Comb’s songs, back when Combs was known as Puff Daddy. But he’s most well-known for delivering the opening verse of one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time, The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money Mo Problems.”
After retiring and becoming a born-again Christian, Mase staged an unsuccessful 2004 comeback. He’s since had numerous disagreements with Combs and dropped off just about everyone’s radar.
So it made perfect sense for West to call Mase up for a guest verse on GOOD Music’s recent collaborative album, “Cruel Summer.” Mase delivered a decent verse on a decent song on a less-than-decent album. According to Mase himself, he’s poised for yet another comeback, one that hopefully won’t fail as spectacularly as his last.
It’s hard to pick one cultural phenomenon to define a year. In fact, it’s just about impossible. But the resurgence of ‘90s hip-hop stars has my vote for 2012’s cultural quirk. Let’s just hope the comeback craze stops before Vanilla Ice gets word of it.
This columnist’s views do not represent those of The Daily Reveille.
