His debut album was 1989's Just a Poet With a Soul, which won critical acclaim for sociopolitical lyrics and original beats. He was unable to live up to the expectations for his second album, however, and Soul Food, was a critical and commercial failure.Def Jef moved into production, working with Nas, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, among others, as well as appearing in films like Deep Cover in 1992 (see 1992 in film). He was featured on Shaquille O'Neal's 1993 top 40 single "(I Know I Got) Skillz". He produced the theme song for the Disney Sitcom "That's So Raven" in 2002 and remixed Kimberley Locke's "Supawoman" in 2005.Def Jef is currently working with Krayzie Bone and Thugline Records.
4-Tay made his debut on the Too $hort album Life Is...Too Short, but was arrested sometime after his 21st birthday on drug charges and served 8 months in prison. Upon his release from prison he issued Rappin' 4-Tay Is Back in 1992, and followed up in 1994 with Don't Fight the Feeling, recorded in West Oakland at Grafitti Tunes with producer/songwriter Cyrus Esteban. "Don't Fight the Feeling" produced the hits "Playaz Club" (which sampled the song "Private Number" by William Bell and Judy Clay and hit #36 on the Billboard Hot 100), the "Dank Season" featuring Seff Tha Gaffla and "I'll Be Around" (which hit #39 on the Billboard Hot 100). Rappin' 4-Tay's mainstream success has been scarce since then, but he was featured in 2Pac's All Eyez on Me album on the single "Only God Can Judge Me" in 1996 and Master P's West Coast Bad Boyz II compilation in 1997. 4-Tay was also an original member of Bay Area supergroup T.W.D.Y. in 1999. In 2003 Rappin' 4-Tay released the album Gangsta Gumbo with the single "Burning, Burning", followed up by the album That's What You Thought in 2007.
Anthony Ray (born August 12, 1963), better known by his stage name Sir Mix-a-Lot is a rapper and producer from Seattle, Washington. He is best known for his song "Baby Got Back". His first hit, released on Nastymix Records in 1988, was the single "Posse on Broadway" giving some the impression that he was a New Yorker. The reference was actually to the street of the same name on Seattle's Capitol Hill. The song contains a sample from David Bowie's 1975 hit "Fame". Other popular hits include "Buttermilk Biscuits" (1988), "Square Dance Rap" (1988), "Beepers" (1989), "My Hooptie" (1990) a song about a car in disrepair and "Jump On It" (1996). Sir Mix-a-Lot has tended to write, arrange, program, perform, and produce his own music. His best-known song is the Miami Bass styled song "Baby Got Back" (1992), a number one hit that won him fame and the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. The single has since been parodied many times and is usually played in irony, celebrated for its over-the-top nature. A hook from the title song of his 1988 release Swass is finding a new audience with the success of The Pussycat Dolls' "Don't Cha".
The group, originally comprised of then adolescent; Aqil Davidson, Brandon Mitchell, Markell Riley, and Keith "K.C." Hanns, was formed around 1988 as Wrecks-n-Effect. Their first release, an eponymous EP of six tracks for Atlantic Records, included the singles "Go For What You Know", "Let's Do It Again" (which sampled The Staple Singers hit song), and a self-titled track sampling Jimmy Castor's "Bertha Butt Boogie". They received little promotion from Atlantic however, and, with the help of one-time manager and alleged gangster Gene Griffin, jumped ship for Motown Records. When they released their self-titled debut album the following year, "K.C." had left and the group had become a trio. Wrecks-N-Effect was produced by producer/songwriter Teddy Riley (brother of Markell Riley), and rapper/producer Redhead Kingpin; reached #16 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #103 on The Billboard Top 200 chart, while its singles "Juicy" and "New Jack Swing" met a similar fate with the exception of "New Jack Swing" becoming a #1 single on the Billboard Rap chart. Tragically, Mitchell was killed in a shooting incident shortly after its release in 1990. The group, now a duo of Aqil Davison and Markell Riley, changed the spelling of their name from Wrecks-n-Effect to Wreckx-n-Effect (the "X" symbolizing the loss of Mitchell) and followed up their first self titled album with 1992's Hard or Smooth on MCA Records. Hard or Smooth fared far better than their debut, selling just under 2 million copies and reaching #9 on the Billboard Top 200 and #6 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
1. Rump Shaker 5:12
2. New Jack Swing II 4:50
3. Wreckx Shop 4:39
4. Knock-N-Boots 4:51
5. Here We Come 4:27
6. Tell Me How You Feel 4:59
7. My Cutie 4:07
8. Wreckx-N-Effect 3:53
9. Ez Come Ez Go (What Goes Up Must Come Down) 3:44
LL released Mama Said Knock You Out Album, generally leaning towards a tough street image. The record reestablished his reputation in the hip-hop community. It spawned three hit singles, "The Boomin' System," "Around the Way Girl," and the title track, which received special notice after LL Cool J's dynamic performance of it during an episode of MTV Unplugged. It was also featured in the film The Hard Way. The album included themes of police misconduct (Illegal Search), spirituality (Power of God), his career troubles ("Cheesy Rat Blues"), along with back-to-basics hip-hop party rocking and balladry ("Around the Way Girl"). Mama Said... eventually went on to sell over 2,700,000 copies. It marked the first of many self-reinventions LL Cool J would undergo to adapt to hip-hop's often changing atmosphere.
01. LL COOL J - Around the way girl (lp version)
02. LL COOL J - Around the way girl (untouchable remix)
03. LL COOL J - Around the way girl (new bass mix)
04. LL COOL J - Around the way girl (instrumental)
When he was 15, he started DJing in a mobile unit around London, before joining local pirate radio stations such as Kiss FM and LWR and finally starting his own station, WBLS (not to be confused with the radio station of the same name in New York). He joined Simon Harris' Music of Life as the closest thing they had to an A&R man. When a planned compilation of U.S. hip hop called Def Beats 1 (Music of Life, 1986) ran short of tracks, Boland stepped in to record a track called "Rock the Beat". He co-produced the track with Simon Harris, rapped on it under the pseudonym EZQ and also did his own DJing under the Derek B name. "Rock the Beat" (Music of Life, 1987) was released as a single, and followed by two more - the most successful of which was "Good Groove" (Music of Life, 1988) which reached number 16 in the UK Singles Chart, as well as "Bad Young Brother", which also reached number 16.
The Doggystyle album was released in November 1993 on Death Row Records and became the first debut album ever to enter the charts at #1, helping to fuel the ascendance of West Coast "g-funk" rap. The singles "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" and "Gin and Juice" reached the top ten most-played songs in the United States, and the album stayed on the Billboard charts for several months.[3] Gangsta rap became the center of arguments for censorship and labeling, with Snoop Dogg often used as an example of violent and misogynistic musicians.[6] Doggystyle, much like The Chronic, featured a host of rappers signed to or affiliated with the Death Row label including Daz Dillinger, Kurupt, Nate Dogg and others.
Stepping out from the freestyle trio TKA, the newly dubbed K7 (formerly Kayel) expanded on his group's signature sound and won a larger audience than ever. As freestyle began its long, painful death, dance-pop overtook the genre's audience and popularity. Swing Batta Swing cannily updates the artist for the new era without abandoning his roots or his core audience. The uproarious "Come Baby Come" is a straightforward dance-pop single sung in a bizarre drill sergeant voice, and along with "Zunga Zeng," it fit right in with the radio and club tracks of its era. But K7 has been in the business long enough to know to hedge his bets, and "I'll Make You Feel Good" and "Body Rock" are engineered to please even the most exacting freestyle fan.
Coolio's debut, It Takes a Thief, brought him immediate success, establishing his reputation as a hard-knock, gun-slinging gangster with a biting sense of humor. Maybe it was because of his appearance heavy eyelids and in-a-light-socket hairstyle or maybe it was because of his laid-back vocal delivery, but he never seemed quite as menacing as other West Coast rappers spitting verses about the same thuggery. Instead of trying to incite fear in his raps, he complained that he didn't like having to live that way, and noted that there wasn't really a choice in the matter. Practically all the songs on It Takes a Thief are about one of two things: gang-banging and robbing in the ghettos while trying to make ends meet, or about hard times as a crack addict on the streets. The whole journey is a fantastic and underrated juxtaposition between good times and bad times, and ultimately, even though his second album, Gangsta's Paradise, sold more copies, this debut represents Coolio at his finest.
Jason Lewis (born September 29, 1970 in Brooklyn, New York) better known by his stage name AMG, is a rapper from Cleveland, Ohio who later moved to Compton, California. He is known for his humor, sexually explicit lyrics, unorthodox style and most notably for songs like "Bitch Betta Have My Money", "Jiggable Pie" and "Tha Booty Up." The British electronica group Hardknox later sampled "Bitch Betta Have My Money" on their most famous single, "Who's Money?". In early 2007, AMG was in the process of recording an album with help from DJ Quik under the name "The Fixxers". They released a single through Interscope Records titled "Can U Werk Wit Dat".[1] The album was to be called Midnite Life and was scheduled to release mid to late 2007. However, in December of 2007, a business partner involved in the project tried to illegally sell bootlegs of the album over the internet, causing it to leak out to the general public, therefore the project was scrapped. DJ Quik confirmed the reports in an interview and was disappointed because he thought it would be AMG's time to shine in the spotlight again. As of 2008, The Fixxers no longer exist and have moved on to other projects.
"Helluva" (original/remix) was the song that placed them on charts back in 1992, if you like hard core or ass shakin hip hop then this is not for you. But if you like the mellow sounding hip hop like de la soul, tribe called quest, digable planets, then you'll enjoy this cd. "Miss Terry" was more so for the adolescent point-of-view of almost every male (or the opposite for the opposite) teenager at that age who, in essence, is excited (in a physical way) towards their female teacher.
Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1963 – March 26, 1995), better known by the stage name Eazy-E, was an American rapper, producer, and record executive from Compton, California. Eazy-E was a Kelly Park Compton Crip during his teen years, and he openly associated himself with other crips and crip sets. He sold drugs during his early teen years and then parlayed the money he made into a hip hop enterprise. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the gangsta rap sub-genre and initially rose to fame as the founder and member of the group N.W.A., but later achieved critical and commercial success as a solo artist. Eazy-E's vocal style was marked by his youthful, high-pitched voice and his lyrics focusing on the elements of urban street life such as guns, drugs, relations between residents and the police, and sexual activity. He had also for some time hosted a hip-hop radio show on Los Angeles-based radio station KKBT.
Father MC (born Timothy Brown) was a popular African American rapper for the Uptown Records label in the early 1990s. Discovered and signed by then-Uptown executive Sean "Puffy" Combs, he is best known for introducing the public to Uptown's successful R&B act Jodeci in the track, "Treat Them Like They Want To Be Treated" and Mary J. Blige. One of his most famous hits was "Lisa Baby", an upbeat, bouncy R&B hip hop crossover. Father MC straddled the line between hip-hop and new jack swing, which resulted in a number 20 hit, "I'll Do 4 U," from his debut album, Father's Day, in 1990. The backing track sampled from "Got to Be Real" by Cheryl Lynn. Singing back-up vocals on this track was no other than Mary J. Blige and this track was her first major record appereance and considered by many to be an important stepping stone to her career. Nearly two years after his debut, Father MC followed with "Close to You". Its success was almost guaranteed by Father MC's appearance on the CD, Uptown MTV Unplugged. Also he did a street lifestyle track "Pimp or Die" on Who's the Man? (original movie soundtrack). Father MC was formerly a dancehall reggae performer, and there was some reggae influence interspersed with the sentimental love lyrics and hip-hop production. After a four-year studio hiatus, he returned in 1999 with No Secrets, and another lengthy pause preceded. In the late 1990s, Father MC posed fully nude for Playgirl magazine.
Heavy D. maintained his high visibility in both the R&B and rap markets with his third album, Peaceful Journey. The title says a lot about Heavy's outlook -- he was never an inflammatory, confrontational rapper, and generally sought to entertain rather than challenge. While most of this melodic, very R&B-ish album (which includes his remake of the Gamble & Huff classic "Now That We've Found Love") is fun and escapist in nature, the self-proclaimed Overweight Lover shows himself to be a noteworthy and effective social commentator on the title song, "Letter to the Future" (which urges a teenage criminal to change his ways) and "Sister Sister" a salute to Black women clearly written in response to misogyny in rap. Whether being socio-political or simply aiming to entertain, Heavy still makes it clear that he has a lot of technique.
Though, Jason's Lyric wasn't in the theaters that long, the soundtrack did very well; hit number one on the R&B charts, and peaked at number 17 on the billboard hot 100 in 1994. The soundtrack contained three charted singles; "U Will Know," (A 20 year old D'Angelo wrote and produced the song) featuring vocals from D'Angelo, Tevin Campbell, R. Kelly, Gerald Levert, Tony Toni Tone, El DeBarge, Portrait, Christopher Williams, After 7, Intro, Joe, Brian McKnight, H-Town, Keith Sweat, DRS, Usher, Damion Hall, and Al B. Sure!, "If You Think You're Lonely Now," (a Bobby Womack cover) performed by a (solo) K-Ci Hailey, the soundtrack's finest moment, and the Brian McKnight number "Crazy Love." The soundtrack consists with many G-Funk moments; Twinz "First Round Draft Pick," Ahmad "That's How It Is," Spice-1 "Nigga Sings The Blues," and Five Footer Crew "Walk Away." The soundtrack gets bluesy with Buddy Guy's "This City Needs Help," and also contains a latino rap moment with LSD's "Love Is The Key." Tears For Fears product Oleta Adams contributes a Jimmy Cliff cover "Many Rivers To Cross," in one of the finer moments of the soundtrack, and Los Angeles based bad boys DRS contribute as well. Albert Collins and Mint Condition collaborate, followed up by the smokin' "Just Like My Papa," by Tony Toni Tone. Jason's Lyric is a fine example of a soundtrack that surpassed the film itself, and most artists that contribute never had a finer moment.
N.W.A. released Straight Outta Compton in 1988. With its famous opening salvo of three songs, the group reflected the rising anger of the urban youth ("Straight Outta Compton"), violently protested police brutality and racial profiling ("Fuck tha Police"), and painted the worldview of the inner-city youth ("Gangsta Gangsta"). While the group was later credited with pioneering the burgeoning subgenre of gangsta rap, N.W.A. in fact referred to their music as "reality rap". Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, as High Powered Productions, composed the beats for each song, with Dre making occasional rapping appearances. Ice Cube and, to a lesser extent, MC Ren, wrote the lyrics. "Fuck tha Police", perhaps the group's most notorious song, brought them into conflict with various law enforcement agencies. Under pressure from Focus on the Family, Milt Ahlerich, an assistant director of the FBI, sent a letter to Ruthless and its parent company Priority Records advising the rappers that "advocating violence and assault is wrong and we in the law enforcement community take exception to such action". This letter can still be seen at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Policemen refused to provide security for the group's concerts, hurting their plans to tour. Nonetheless, the FBI's letter only served to draw more publicity to the group. Straight Outta Compton was also one of the first albums to adhere to the new Parental Advisory label scheme, then in its early stages: the now-iconic label then only consisted of "WARNING: Moderate impact coarse language and/or themes". However, the taboo nature of N.W.A's music was the greatest part of its mass appeal. The media coverage compensated for N.W.A.'s virtual lack of airplay and their album eventually went double platinum.
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TRACKLIST
1. Straight Outta Compton 2. F**K Tha Police 3. Gangsta Gangsta 4. If It Ain't Ruff 5. Parental Discretion Iz Advised 6. 8 Ball - (remix) 7. Something Like That 8. Express Yourself 9. Compton's N the House - (remix) 10. I Ain't Tha 1 11. Dopeman - (remix) 12. Quiet on Tha Set 13. Something 2 Dance 2
Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. is the sophomore album released by rapper 2Pac. Similar to his debut, 2Pacalypse Now, the album contains many tracks emphasizing 2Pac's political and social views. The album was going to be named "Troublesome 21", the 21 referring to Shakur's age at the time.Debuting at #24 on the Billboard 200, this album saw more commercial success than its predecessor, and there are many noticeable differences in production. It spawned the hits "Keep Ya Head Up" and "I Get Around" and reached platinum status. Although the album was originally released on Interscope, the rights now belong to Amaru Entertainment, the label owned by Afeni Shakur, the rapper's mother. On vinyl, Side A (tracks 1-8) was labeled the "Black Side" and Side B (tracks 9-16) the "Dark Side".
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TRACKLIST
1 Holler If Ya Hear Me
2 Pac's Theme (Interlude)
3 Point the Finga
4 Something 2 Die 4 (Interlude) 5 Last Wordz
6 Souljah's Revenge 7 Peep Game 8 Strugglin' 9 Guess Who's Back 10 Representin' 93 11 Keep Ya Head Up 12 Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. 13 The Streetz R Deathrow 14 I Get Around 15 Papa'z Song 16 5 Deadly Venomz
The Lost Boyz' second album, Love, Peace & Nappiness, finds the group adding touches of reggae and ragga to its hard-edged hip-hop. The deeper production -- thick bass, echoing beats, and keyboards -- makes Love, Peace & Nappiness more sonically intriguing than the average rap album, but the Lost Boyz occasionally struggle for material, leaving the record a fitfully enjoyable listen.
The title track "100 Miles and Runnin' was the group's first track to gain radio airtime and appear on TV with its music video. Dr. Dre, who had just finished working with The D.O.C. and Above the Law, added atypical funky beats and the slow synth groove on "Just Don't Bite It". A sadistic parody of the police on a skit featuring The D.O.C. from the group's 1-900 hotline introduces "Sa Prize, Pt. 2", a sequel to the controversial "Fuck tha Police" originally off of the Straight Outta Compton album. MC Ren and The D.O.C. wrote the lyrics for Eazy-E and Dr. Dre.
Larry Sanders, better know by his stage name L.V. whose initials stand for "Large Variety", is an American R&B singer. He's best known for his collaboration with rapper Coolio on the hit single, "Gangsta's Paradise". He has been featured on multiple soundtracks since then, and has released two solo albums to date. L.V. is member of the gangsta rap group South Central Cartel since the beginnings of the group. He usually sings the vocals and chorus. +++++++
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His debut album was 1989's Just a Poet With a Soul, which won critical acclaim for sociopolitical lyrics and original beats. He was unable to live up to the expectations for his second album, however, and Soul Food, was a critical and commercial failure.Def Jef moved into production, working with Nas, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, among others, as well as appearing in films like Deep Cover in 1992 (see 1992 in film). He was featured on Shaquille O'Neal's 1993 top 40 single "(I Know I Got) Skillz". He produced the theme song for the Disney Sitcom "That's So Raven" in 2002 and remixed Kimberley Locke's "Supawoman" in 2005.Def Jef is currently working with Krayzie Bone and Thugline Records.
