Why Black Boy Joy And Lil Uzi Vert's Melancholy Are All The Rage

"Introduce the melancholy / I've felt since last I saw you." — P.M. Dawn, "The Ways of the Wind"

The year was 1993 and Prince Be was everything rap was not supposed to be. While Snoop and Dre were indoctrinating Middle America in the chronic fundamentals of a "G Thang," the P.M. Dawn lead represented a much softer strain. He rhymed about unrequited love with a delicate lilt. He wore silky flowing garments and his dreads in an updo. He sampled British new wave band Spandau Ballet, of all things, to become the first black rap act atop the Billboard 100 with "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss."

Then, he met the wrath of the Blast Master.

During a P.M. Dawn concert at Manhattan's Sound Factory, KRS-One bumrushed the show and pushed Prince Be off the stage. The catalyst had come weeks earlier when magazine quoted Prince Be saying, "KRS-One wants to be a teacher, but a teacher of what?" But KRS's response, as the self-proclaimed purveyor of hip-hop, was also viewed as a repudiation of P.M. Dawn's sappy aesthetic. Prince Be was, in that moment, reduced to a humorous footnote