Rawkus Records was an American hip hop record label, owned by James Murdoch, known for starting the careers of many rappers. Rawkus started in 1995 with releases in hip-hop, drum and bass and fun-dustrial.
Mars Ill is an emcee/DJ hip-hop duo from Atlanta, Georgia. The duo consists of Gregory Owens (Manchild) and Nathan Corrona. They are also part of the hip-hop collective and supergroup Deepspace5.
Deepspace5 is an underground hip hop supergroup formed in 1997 and currently composed of Beat Rabbi, Manwell?, Freddie Bruno, Listener, Mars ILL, Playdough, Sintax.the.Terrific, Sivion, and Sev Statik. Deepspace5 also previously included Illtripp and The Recon. Since its formation, the collective has sold over 100,000 copies of its recordings, and has performed with KRS-One, Atmosphere, and MF Doom, among others.
Gregory Scott Owens, commonly known by his stage name Manchild is a Christian rapper who works within the alternative hip hop genre. He fronts the underground and Christian hip hop group Mars ILL, is part of the Deepspace5 supergroup collective, and has collaborated with the likes of Christian rappers KJ-52 and John Reuben.
Raw Material. is a Mars Ill album released in 2000, on Sphere of Hip Hop Records.
DJ Dust is the DJ and producer for the underground hip-hop groups Mars ILL and Deepspace5. His real name is Nathan Corrona. DJ Dust is known for his hard hitting "boom bap" style of production, often mixing samples from obscure 1960s and 1970s guitar and drum driven records.
Joseph T. Evans, known professionally as Sev Statik and Stu Dent, is a hip hop musician and promoter from Albany, New York. Active as a rapper since the early 1990s, he has performed and recorded both as a solo artist and as a member of the hip hop collectives Deepspace5 and Tunnel Rats. Evans has also been a member of various Albany-area hip hop groups, including All Bully, Master Plan, Body Language, currently fronts the rap rock band Goldtooth, and is active in Pitch Control Music, a musical collective and arts movement he co-founded in order to promote and develop hip hop in the Albany area. Evans is a freemason in East Greenbush, New York.
Jason Emmanuel Petty , better known by his stage name Propaganda, is an American Christian rapper, spoken word artist, and poet from Los Angeles, California. He has released seven albums as an independent artist, including one collaborative album with Odd Thomas and one with Derek Minor, and has performed and recorded as a member of the underground hip hop group Tunnel Rats and associated act Footsoldiers.
Tunnel Rats is a West Coast underground hip hop collective founded in 1993 in Whittier, California. Named after the tunnel rats in the Vietnam war, the mixed-gender, multi-racial collective consists of some seventeen individual members and incorporates four affiliated groups, LPG, Future Shock, Foundation, and New Breed, which have recorded both within Tunnel Rats and independently. Several members also formed two additional side-projects, Footsoldiers and The Resistance, which recorded one album in 2006 and collaborated with KRS-One. Pioneers in the Christian hip hop genre, Tunnel Rats often met with resistance from church leaders who disliked the collective's aggressive style and felt that Tunnel Rats praised their rapping skills more than glorifying God.
Tunnel Vision is the second studio album by West Coast underground hip hop collective Tunnel Rats, released on October 25, 2001, through Uprok Records. Featuring a brash, aggressive sound, the album drew admiration from critics and proved highly influential for the Christian hip hop movement.
Tunnel Rats Present... Underground Rise, Volume 1: Sunrise/Sunset is a 2003 compilation album by Uprok Records in collaboration with underground hip hop collective Tunnel Rats. Around thirty-five rappers appear on the compilation, which features, in addition to the Tunnel Rats, numerous other underground hip hop artists and groups, Christian and non-Christian, including LA Symphony, LMNO and 2Mex of The Visionaries, Remnant, Mass Reality, Sekou the Misfit, and Deepspace5 members Playdough, manCHILD of Mars Ill, and Listener. Production was handled by Tunnel Rats members Dert, Donovan Luke Henry, Jermz and Raphi. Most of the album was recorded over a single weekend. CCM Magazine noted that on the song "One Voice", the entire Tunnel Rats and LA Symphony crews come together, with seventeen rappers appearing on the same track. Critics received the album well, noting that, it offered a diversity of musical styles and showcased the many talented artists in the underground and Christian hip hop scenes.
Tunnel Rats is the third studio album by West Coast underground Christian hip hop collective Tunnel Rats, released on March 3, 2004, through Uprok Records. Featuring several new members among the group's ranks, the album was well received by critics, with Christianity Today and Rapzilla considering it the best album so far by the group.
The discography of Propaganda, an American Christian hip hop and spoken word artist and poet from Los Angeles, California, consists of five studio albums, two EPs, twelve compilation appearances, eleven music videos, including one as a featured performer, and twenty-three guest appearances.
The Night We Called It a Day is the debut studio album by underground hip hop supergroup Deepspace5, released on January 8, 2002, through Uprok Records. It was recorded in Dallas, Texas.
Daniel Josev Brewer, who goes by the stage name Sintax the Terrific, sometimes stylized as Sintax.the.Terrific or simply Sintax, is an American Christian hip hop musician and a founding member of both The Pride and the supergroup collective, Deepspace5. Brewer is also a practicing attorney in Columbia, South Carolina. He has released three studio albums through Illect Recordings – Simple Moves (2003), Curb Appeal (2007), and Prince with a Thousand Enemies with DJ Kurfu (2011) – and two studio albums, Qoheleth with Beat Rabbi (2010) and The Last Unicorn with Sir Chamberlain (2015), independently. Brewer, originally under the moniker ipoetlaurate and later The Press Junket, runs a blog for which he writes articles and composes songs discussing current social and political events. He released three compilation albums containing these songs in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Speak Life is the debut studio album by Albany, New York-based hip hop musician Sev Statik, released on November 9, 2002, through Uprok Records. While Sev Statik, real name Joseph Evans, had released a previous studio album, Altered State, in 2001 under the moniker "Stu Dent", Speak Life is considered his debut. Sev Statik had recently joined to the hip hop collective Tunnel Rats, and the release features several artists from that group. It also features Listener from Deepspace5, another collective of which Sev Statik is part. Speak Life marks the debut appearance of Propaganda, who would join Tunnel Rats the following year. The album garnered a mixed response from critics, receiving praise for its positive lyrics, East Coast sound and use of sampling, but criticized for its lack of innovation and inconsistency in overall quality.
Slow Burn is a studio album by Albany, New York hip hop musician Sev Statik, released on March 7, 2005 through his own independent label Pointman Music, in association with Pitch Control Music. While Sev Statik, real name Joseph Evans, had also released two albums under the name Stu Dent, Slow Burn is his second studio album under the Sev Statik moniker, following up on 2002's Speak Life. The album met with a mixed critical reception.
Altered State is the first studio album by Albany, New York hip hop musician Stu Dent, better known by the moniker Sev Statik. Sev Statik, real name Joseph Evans, created the Stu Dent pseudonym due to contractual obligations with Tunnel Rats, a group of which he was a member at the time. Evans' debut studio album as Sev Statik, Speak Life, would be released in 2002. Altered State features guest appearances by, among others, members of Tunnel Rats, All Bully, and Deepspace5, all of which Evans was a member. The album was released on October 2, 2001, through Deepspace5 Recordings, and was received modestly by critics.
Nephilim: Act of God 1 is the second studio album by hip hop musician Stu Dent, released November 14, 2003 through Illect Recordings. Stu Dent is an alternate moniker for Albany, New York artist Sev Statik, real name Joseph Evans. Evans originally created the Stu Dent pseudonym in order to release the album Altered State in 2001 without breaking his contractual obligations with Tunnel Rats, a hip hop musical collective of which he is part. Nephilim follows up on Altered State and the 2002 Sev Statik release Speak Life. The album includes production from Beat Rabbi and Freddie Bruno, fellow members of Deepspace5, a group Evans co-founded, and production and a guest appearance by JB!!, also known as Dirty Moses, a member of All Bully, another group that Evans helped found. Nephilim met with a highly positive reception from critics.
Zane Marie Reynosa, known by the stage names Zane and Zane One as well as the names Zane Valdez and Zane Marie, is an American rapper and fashion accessory designer from Whittier, California. She joined the pioneering Christian underground hip hop collective Tunnel Rats in 1993, which was formed by her brother, Dax Reynosa, and recorded three studio albums and a compilation with the group. She also founded the band Saturday Night Freestyle. She has featured on numerous songs and in 2008 released a solo studio album, L.A. Woman. She was active for years as a battle rapper in the Los Angeles scene and was featured in the 2004 documentary The Battle for L.A.: Footsoldiers, Vol. 1, directed by Darren Doane. She also created a fashion line, Zane Marie Bags, specializing in vintage handbags, luggage, wallets, and rhyme books.
