Like Quest many groups enjoyed Mainstream success this year, when you think of what hip hop charted both sides of the atlantic in 1998 is both an achievment (that its finally getting recognition) and a strike against the artform(Its being watered down for radio). When i think about commercial success this year its gotta be Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz with 'Deja vu' that was originally a white label doing the underground for about 5 months before every kid on the street was yelling 'Uptown baby', but its just proof that you don't need that rap and bullshit element to your music to make it popular. Then theres the spawned bastard child of rap, Jay-Z, not content with his commercial accolades so far he releases the annoying 'Hard knock life' sampling the annie song, don't tell me this wasn't meant to be appealing to the lil teenybopper kids, you can only sell out to a certain point, hes making hammer look hardcore again. Busta Rhymes held it down chartwise as usual but you gotta give him props, hes still hardcore and original and to me he ain't sold out. Puffy and bad boy did the usual but 'Victory' just got tired (and so did the video), there was 'Come with me' which wasn't too bad for Puffys standards but it would have been better with someone who was more lyrically apt. But the biggest cross over this year is the annoying as F**k, 'Ghetto Supastar'( it was never gonna be an underground banger was it?), if that hasn't wanted you to rip your hair out everytime it came on the radio then your either braindead or your a closet backstreet boys fan, i dunno why ODB even appeared on here in the first place cos on most of the radio edits his verse was cut out.

Pras took things to the next level by actually wanting to become a ghetto supastar but in the end we all just got bored of it. Wyclef was everywhere, from destroying a promising Canibus's debut, Reworking an old queen song to working with Earth, Wind and Fire for Sunz of Man's version of 'Shining star' some were hits, some misses but Clef take some advice and just take a break til the Fugees reunion album.Of all the temporarily dispanded fugee members Lauryn Hill stood out in a less glitzy way, the album was just what we expected even if there was a lot of rnb songs on there, it was a quality album and one of the best of the year.

On the other side of the coin the Independent scene went from strength to strength, Rawkus still rode the Company Flow wave from the previous year and released some nice stuff from Scaramanga, Mike Zoot & Shabaam Sahdeeq but their main gearing was with Mos Def and Talib Kweli as Blackstar, that album sold mad units but didn't quite live up to everyones expectations, still a solid debut. Elsewhere DITC still dropped gems independently along with Show & AG's incredible 'Full Scale' e.p.. The hottest kid on the block, Slim Shady, Eminem came through with his E.P. to mass appreciation as well as stealing the show on a few cameos here and there. Jurassic 5 got tons of recognition for their debut album and are now known as the new Tribe in some circles. Hottest indy of the year though goes to Missin Linx(Al tariq, Problemz and Black Attak) with their MIA 12". An E.P. is about to drop and I heard a rumor they been signed to loud so keep your eyes and ears open for this dream team.

Def Jam Records really went on an onslaught of releases in 1998, to begin the year they started a limited edition bonus CD campaign known as 'Survival of the Illest', there were 3 volumes, each containing new exclusive material from Def Jam artists, for example, LL Cool J's 'The Ripper Strikes Back', and Method Man's 'Grid Iron Rap', each volume became available on a new Def Jam relase. Volume 1 came free with Onyx's 'Shut Em' Down', volume 2 was bundled with DMX's debut album 'It's Dark and Hell Is Hot', the third and final volume accompanied the dope album from Def Squad, El Nino. Other albums during the year included Public Enemy's 'He Got Game', DJ Clue?'s 'The Professional', Method Man's 'Tical 2000: Judgement Day', Redman's 'Docs Da Name 2000', and DMX's second album (in less that 10 months), 'Flesh of my Flesh, Blood of my Blood', not forgetting the 'Belly' and 'Rush Hour' soundtracks. There was also some controversy involving the Public Enemy official website, where the new PE remix album 'Bring The Noise 2000' was posted in MP3 format, the album was immediately pulled from the web. More albums are to be expected from Def Jam, including new material from Foxy Brown, Keith Murray, Cormega and even Slick Rick, all expected early 1999.

Death Row, the label that brought you some of hip hop's classics including; Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic' and Snoop Doggy Dogg's 'Doggystyle' basically seems to have come to an end this year. At the beginning of the year Nate Dogg left the label, quickly followed by DPG member Kurupt and soon after the airwaves flooded with rumours about Snoop leaving and soon enough, Snoop left Death Row and joined Master P's No Limit Records. The main man that stayed was Daz Dillinger (DPG), he stayed and released a solo album with the Row but it still all seemed to be going down as at the very end of this year Daz left and created his own label 'Mobstyle Records.' The label whos CEO is serving about another 10 years seems to have very little left to offer, YGD the Top Dawg and Michel'le are the only artists that come to mind left there. I doubt even the Lady Of Rage will stay much longer.

Wu were ever present with a slew of albums by affiliates in the first half of 98. There was the OK releases from Cappadonna and Killah Priest plus the pretty damn good compilation, 'The Swarm'. Killarmy came with their second album in less than a year, not as good as the first in my opinion but still worth checking out. The second half saw the long awaited Tical 2000 by Method Man finally hitting stores and RZA became Comic book hero Bobby Digital but we all know he can do better. Some of the real Wu-gems were hidden in their countless amount of cameos, whether its Deck on 'Above the clouds' with Gangstarr, Ghostface with Charli Baltimore, Meth with Heltah Skeltah on 'Gunz N Onez', RZA with Ras Kass on 'The End' or the cuban linx of the clan Raekwon and the unusual pairing with Outkast on 'Skew it on the bar-b', they showed they can bring life to any artist out there, don't forget the Texas hook up for meth and rza on 'Say what you want'. What will 1999 have in store for the Wu?

Thankfully, Hip-Hop music is slowly becoming less connected with crime and more connected with the music itself, but unfortunately, Hip-Hop artists in 98 still had their fair share of run-ins with the law. Numerous artists were brought up on criminal charges during 1998, but a few in particular stood out from the rest: