What was life like in the 90s? Vol. Old heads chime in

[laced navajo]

Niketown was the coolest store ever. Bo Knows plastered billboards, Agassi and fab 5 memes on the walls like you were in some theater

Damn Niketown was so dope!
I rememberWorld Footlocker and I can’t remember the name but there was a hoop and court in the store

 

[sooperhooper]

Damn Niketown was so dope!
I rememberWorld Footlocker and I can’t remember the name but there was a hoop and court in the store

Just for feet.

 

[KHUFU]

NYC perspective,

You could go through an airport without first tossing a bottle of lotion.
You could go directly to the passport office in Rockefeller Center, and then renew.
Night clubs were a thing where you might see Prince, D'Angelo Phyllis Hyman playing live onstage for a 20 dollar cover at Chaz and Wilson's, or Nell's nightclub on 14th street.
People still dressed sharp. (sartorial snob here)
You could fly to Jamaica for the day, 100 bucks. Hang on the beach of your choice in Montego Bay with a pass, eat, then fly back that night.

Sneakers were still made from real leather.

Just a few...

 

[aepps20]

Born in 84 and I echo what everyone is saying in here. 90s were great. I remember being able just to hop on my bike and ride around the neighborhood hanging out with friends. Spent so much time outside even though we had video games.

 

[paranoidantroyd]

I see a lot of comments talking about music and not 1 mention of the giant cardboard sleeves that CDs used to come in...

 

[aepps20]

I'd add that I miss when you left your house and no one could reach you on a cell phone. Less pressure somehow.

 

[sooperhooper]

Something else that's way different is the culture of being offended for attention wasn't as prevalent. Nowadays it's like a contest of who can get offended by what and get whoever fired for it. Even this site 10 years ago was way way different. I can't imagine how wild it would've been in the 90s.

 

[danikerhino]

Something else that's way different is the culture of being offended for attention wasn't as prevalent. Nowadays it's like a contest of who can get offended by what and get whoever fired for it. Even this site 10 years ago was way way different. I can't imagine how wild it would've been in the 90s.

Yeah half of the members and almost all of the female members transitioned into social media. My 90s self would've laughed at the thought of "likes". Now that's the main goal for everyone on social media, even on here.

 

[wayniac211]

Damn Niketown was so dope!
I rememberWorld Footlocker and I can’t remember the name but there was a hoop and court in the store

Witnessed NIKEs movement early in the game via Beaverton to salmon & 6th.. we wouldn’t be on this site if it weren’t for their branding style.

I see a lot of comments talking about music and not 1 mention of the giant cardboard sleeves that CDs used to come in...

Shout outs and sneak disses lol

 

[marikomorose]

A lot of sad cases of sad, blinded by nostalgia in here. However, I do miss that balance between social media and real life the late 00's & early 10's provided.

 

[jape]

A lot of sad cases of sad, blinded by nostalgia in here. However, I do miss that balance between social media and real life the late 00's & early 10's provided.

what year were you born?

 

[wayniac211]

Don’t think I knew any one that had dogs in the house lol.. now they sleep on the bed.

 

[TURBO UNO]

The difference in relationship dynamics between now and then could be a thread of it's own. People breaking up over somebody liking someone's post it sounds SO ridiculous bc now "liking" something is tangible instead of mysterious. I've legit heard the following convo:
Guy: I posted a picture of my newborn niece.
Lady: yeah I saw it on Facebook
Guy: oh... You didn't like it.
Lady: yes I did. I loved it. *shows phone*
Stuff is just so weird nowadays.

I heard my upstairs neighbors last night arguing until 1:30 am about him calling her a hypocrite on social media over a post she made

Anyways, born in 1980 so I did all my teen years in the 90’s. Simpler times and I enjoyed every minute of it.

 

[vood99]

NYC perspective,

You could go through an airport without first tossing a bottle of lotion.
You could go directly to the passport office in Rockefeller Center, and then renew.
Night clubs were a thing where you might see Prince, D'Angelo Phyllis Hyman playing live onstage for a 20 dollar cover at Chaz and Wilson's, or Nell's nightclub on 14th street.
People still dressed sharp. (sartorial snob here)
You could fly to Jamaica for the day, 100 bucks. Hang on the beach of your choice in Montego Bay with a pass, eat, then fly back that night.

Sneakers were still made from real leather.

Just a few...

This is NT, KHUFU with the main thing missing from the '90s.

 

[feeninlikejodeci]

I was listening to 2003 Ludacris and he made a comment about being "the new phenomenon like white women with mass". Had they been around all along? (just not gjven a spotlight in the culture) or was it the result of deliberate practice? My boy whos a gym fanatic says its a combination of yoga, squats + the hormones in the chicken.

Speaking of Food i remember alot less fat americans in the 90s. There wasnt no UberEata, Doordash or GrubHub the only thing you could get delivered was a Pizza. Any other type a food you had to physically go to the restaurant. Or make it yourself in the kitchen, alot more ppl cooked in the 90s.

Piggybacking off the white women mass subject, Wet Wipes had just been invented and werent a common household item. This is why "eating the booty" didnt go mainstream till the mid 2010s. Hygiene was really primitive, it was the combination of cleaner, white butts being pushed into popular culture that made it a trend to be reckoned with.

It seemed like there was alot less homeless people in the 90s cause of how many hustles existed. You could bootleg cassette tapes/CDs and make good money. You could shoplift out of stores and do return scams.

Life was also alot more dangerous (particularly in the hood). There were no ring doorbell cameras, nothing. One time i walking home, a guy sucker punched me from behind and snatched my walkman out of my hands. It took me about 2 or 3 minutes to make it to a payphone and call the police, dude was long gone by then.

 

[sooperhooper]

I heard my upstairs neighbors last night arguing until 1:30 am about him calling her a hypocrite on social media over a post she made

Anyways, born in 1980 so I did all my teen years in the 90’s. Simpler times and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Oh yeah. A lot of women are one sided on that dynamic. They can be fully nude on ig for the likes and attention and it's "just the internet, it's not that serious", but when a dude likes a another girl's pic, it's all of a sudden disrespectful.

 

[DCAllAfrican]

Piggybacking off the white women mass subject, Wet Wipes had just been invented and werent a common household item. This is why "eating the booty" didnt go mainstream till the mid 2010s. Hygiene was really primitive, it was the combination of cleaner, white butts being pushed into popular culture that made it a trend to be reckoned with.

 

[sooperhooper]

I was listening to 2003 Ludacris and he made a comment about being "the new phenomenon like white women with mass". Had they been around all along? (just not gjven a spotlight in the culture) or was it the result of deliberate practice? My boy whos a gym fanatic says its a combination of yoga, squats + the hormones in the chicken.

Speaking of Food i remember alot less fat americans in the 90s. There wasnt no UberEata, Doordash or GrubHub the only thing you could get delivered was a Pizza. Any other type a food you had to physically go to the restaurant. Or make it yourself in the kitchen, alot more ppl cooked in the 90s.

Piggybacking off the white women mass subject, Wet Wipes had just been invented and werent a common household item. This is why "eating the booty" didnt go mainstream till the mid 2010s. Hygiene was really primitive, it was the combination of cleaner, white butts being pushed into popular culture that made it a trend to be reckoned with.

It seemed like there was alot less homeless people in the 90s cause of how many hustles existed. You could bootleg cassette tapes/CDs and make good money. You could shoplift out of stores and do return scams.

Life was also alot more dangerous (particularly in the hood). There were no ring doorbell cameras, nothing. One time i walking home, a guy sucker punched me from behind and snatched my walkman out of my hands. It took me about 2 or 3 minutes to make it to a payphone and call the police, dude was long gone by then.

White women always had mass it's just that they concealed it more in the 90s because it wasn't fashionable, and white dudes considered that fat. Enter the Kardashians making curvy desirable for European women. Couple that with revealing, form fitting clothes becoming more acceptable and voila, you notice more curvy Becky's. The gym and hormone theory just makes the numbers multiply.
I swear these ig chicks work hard to get these bodies (natural or surgery) just to complain about the attention that they secretly love and call men creeps. Even though they're the one naked on the internet.

 

[sooperhooper]

Yeah buddy wild for that theory. I didn't even want to touch that one.

 

[wayniac211]

If you were bald in the 90s you were crazy or ll cool j.

 

[MakeNTGreatAgain]

The middle class still existed. Seemed like my parents had way more money then and things were a bit cheaper. Same amount of children then too.

Music was better then; rap and r&b. Action movies were in their golden age.

Don't get it twisted though. Racists were still super racist. It wasn't in your face racism but it was status quo. Black ppl still getting piled in to prison on bs drug charges. Cops still killing black men all crazy.

Thread title made me feel old. Then I realized the 90s was anywhere from 30 to 22 years ago

Yeah that is definitely extinct nowadays, the wealth gap has people trying to survive when back then you can be a shoesalesman and provide for ur family word to al bundy

Born in 83 so my childhood was in the 90s. Stuff was just simpler. Kids outside playing. Everyone on one accord to discuss a tv show bc we had to watch it at the same time. Being with a group of people and everyone felt present instead of having their attention fragmented.

Delayed gratification was a thing. In school, it was so exciting to get the yearbook. Now there are 30 apps that take the place of a yearbook.

Music was consumed differently. An album was more of an event. Now it's just a throwaway moment. It's crazy bc artists work hard just for us to stream it for a few days and forget about it.

Dating was less complicated. Now people have more access to 10x the options, making commitment more unclear.

It's like we have too much of what we want, instantly.

Me and my boy sometimes joke that the world really did end in 2000.

Bingo, we literally are disgusting consumers. every second of the day there is an option to consume whether its food, content or anything. it has kind of blinded us in a sense

Best way to put it is the 90's was probably the last stage where you....had to wait.

You liked new music? Had to wait to hear it again on the radio. You liked that movie in the theater? Had to wait for it to come out on DVD.
You had to wait to check your phone messages when you got home. You got a girl's phone number? You had to wait to call her at home.
You had to wait to even catch sports scores and stats, usually the next morning in the newspaper.

Aside from the fashion, the kicks, the good times, and the time when Nirvana changed the entire world (everyone wanted to be depressed, music changed, and every girl wore oversized flannels and Docs), I'll always remember that era as really the last time we had to have a little patience and your brain was able to relax a bit.

yep we weren't being bombarded by content

NYC was a lot more dangerous. There was more open gang activity, however some were very local gangs who sort of protected their area and not necessarily just to sell drugs. At least that’s how the locals gang in my neighborhood was. There were parts of my neighborhood you wouldn’t venture during night time unless you knew certain people or were a local to that area of the neighborhood

the part I miss is the larger diversity of the city as there were more fresh immigrants and thus more authentic home foods you could find. Not this refined high dining variations we have today.

Each neighborhood had its own feel to it and atmosphere depending which ethic group was there.

I mean I was a kid during the 90s but I would play wiffle ball and street 2 hand touch football with some of the old heads along with the local gang members and they would constantly tell me stories since they would hang out on my block. That sense of community is definitely gone which sucks.

Very true, I feel like my generation was the last to catch that, i started playing in the street and riding my bike with the neighborhood kids but once the ps2 dropped that stuff became less and less

Yeah kind of similar to what others have said the times were just much more genuine. We seemed to be much more present as a whole.

You had to have real confidence and there seemed to be more consequences for you actions. Which made you more thoughtful. We had to wait for things and because of it were less scatterbrained.

I have been trying to get back to the simple life but it is hard. Cell phones and the Paradox of Choice have really remapped our minds.

way more genuine, maybe a good idea would be to turn off the cell a couple hours a day

 

[MakeNTGreatAgain]

Speaking of Food i remember alot less fat americans in the 90s. There wasnt no UberEata, Doordash or GrubHub the only thing you could get delivered was a Pizza. Any other type a food you had to physically go to the restaurant. Or make it yourself in the kitchen, alot more ppl cooked in the 90s.

yep the instant accessability of food also is not good

if i have a craving at 11pm its so easy to satisfy it with junk, this is also self control but back then places weren't open that late cuz the employees were treated as people who could also have a life at home and not just working for a paycheck

 

[Nereyda Vuelve Por Dios]

Born in 88.

but from what people tell me, 90’s nyc was a zoo. Dont let them re-write history. I think theres a good stretch where the city murder count was 2k+ for yrs.

i lived in a Bubble
With friends and family. Didnt experience my surroundings until 2000.
Musically and culturally, i gravite to the lates 80’s and 90’s.

but dont wish to live during those times.

 

[sreggie101]

the knicks (and maybe the whole NBA) were built different.

hip hop hit different.

acura legends and grant hill Filas.

the PlayStation startup sound hit different.

clinton put up a budget surplus. got his mic checked and the wigs was tight (not that I cared back then, was too young).

was just a great decade. I'm sure there was a downside to growing up in nyc ( born in 88 ) but was insulated a bit from real life in its entirety i guess...

 

[frshstunna]

Neighborhoods that are poppin now were considered dead or no go zones

A good number of cities set their homicide records in the early part of the 90’s

Ppl used to spend a lot of times at malls, it was the place to be in alotta areas