Tunnel Rats discography

Last updated

Tunnel Rats discography
Studio albums3
Compilation albums1
Music videos1
Guest appearances1
Compilation appearances4
Miscellaneous1

The combined discography of Tunnel Rats, a West Coast underground Christian hip hop collective founded in 1993 in Whittier, California, is three studio albums, a collaborative compilation album, several compilation appearances, one guest appearance, one music video, and a collection of unfinished material. Named after the tunnel rats in the Vietnam War, the mixed-gender, multi-racial collective has included twenty individual members and incorporated six affiliated groups: LPG, Future Shock, Footsoldiers, the Foundation, New Breed, and the Resistance, which have recorded both within Tunnel Rats and independently. The collective has released three albums under the Tunnel Rats name: Experience (1996), Tunnel Vision (2001), and Tunnel Rats (2004). They also collaborated on a compilation album released through Uprock Records, Underground Rise, Volume 1: Sunrise/Sunset (2003). Though currently on hiatus, Tunnel Rats has not disbanded, according to a statement by member Peace 586. [1]

Contents

Studio albums

List of studio albums
TitleAlbum details
Experience [2]
  • 1st studio album
  • Released: 1996
  • Label: Brainstorm
Tunnel Vision [3]
  • 2nd studio album
  • Released: 2001
Tunnel Rats [4]
  • 3rd studio album
  • Released: November 1, 2004
  • Label: UpRok

Compilation albums

List of compilation albums
TitleAlbum details
Coalition: the Hip-Hop Alliance
Uprock Records Sampler [5]
  • Released: January 29, 2002
Uprock Mixtape, Vol. 1 [6]
  • Released: November 19, 2002
  • Label: UpRok
  • Host: DJ Allstar
Underground Rise, Volume 1: Sunrise/Sunset [4]
  • Released: April 25, 2003
  • Label: UpRok
Uprock Mixtape, Vol. 2 [7]
  • Released: October 7, 2003
  • Label: UpRok
  • Host: DJ Allstar

Guest appearances

List of guest appearances
TitleYearOther performer(s)Album
"What's Real" [8] 2002BK & AssociatesBK & Associates

Music videos

TitleYearDirector
"T.R.'z"2001

Miscellaneous

TitleAlbum details
Both Sides [3]
  • Compilation of unfinished material [9]
  • Released: October 5, 2005
  • Label: Thump

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aceyalone</span> American rapper

Edwin Maximilian "Eddie" Hayes, Jr., better known by his stage name Aceyalone, is an American rapper from Los Angeles, California, United States. He is a member of Freestyle Fellowship, Haiku D'Etat and The A-Team. He is also a co-founder of Project Blowed. Aceyalone is best known for his role in evolving left-field hip-hop on the West Coast at a time when the West Coast was dominated by gangsta rap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Syze</span> American rapper

David Albaladejo is an underground rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of Puerto Rican descent. He is a member of the underground hip hop supergroup Army of the Pharaohs (AOTP), having featured on all their studio albums. He is known for his frequent collaboration with AOTP members; OuterSpace. Outside of rap, Albaladejo works as a member of a trade union which has inspired the names of many of his studio albums.

<i>Raw Material</i> (album) 2000 studio album by Mars Ill

Raw Material. is a Mars Ill album released in 2000, on Sphere of Hip Hop Records.

LPG is an American Christian hip-hop duo from Whittier, CaliforniaWest Covina, California and part of the underground hip hop collective Tunnel Rats. It is composed of cousins Dax Reynosa and Jurny Big. Their name was understood to stand for "Lord's Personal Gangsters", but now is "Living Proof of Grace". They released their first album, Earthworm, in 1995.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Propaganda (musician)</span> Musical artist

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.

<i>Tunnel Vision</i> (album) 2001 studio album by Tunnel Rats

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.

<i>Underground Rise, Volume 1: Sunrise/Sunset</i> 2003 compilation album by Tunnel Rats and Various Artists

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.

<i>Tunnel Rats</i> (album) 2004 studio album by Tunnel Rats

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.

New Breed is a Christian Latin hip hop duo from Boston, Massachusetts, consisting of brother and sister Rosario "Macho" and Elsie Ortega. An affiliate of the underground hip hop collective Tunnel Rats, the duo has recorded and toured both as part of the Tunnel Rats and independently. After joining the Tunnel Rats in 1998, New Breed appeared on the DJ Maj mixtape Full Plates with the song "What's My Name" in 2001, and later that year on the Tunnel Rats album Tunnel Vision. The duo released its first album, Stop the Music, in 2002, and then appeared on the Tunnel Rats albums Underground Rise, Volume 1 in 2003 and Tunnel Rats in 2004. A second album from New Breed, Nine, came out in 2004.

<i>Stop the Music</i> (album) 2002 studio album by New Breed

Stop the Music is the debut album by Christian Latin hip hop brother-sister duo New Breed, a Tunnel Rats affiliate, released on March 12, 2002, through Uprok Records in the United States and through EMI Christian Music Group in the United Kingdom. Featuring a Latin-influenced East Coast hip hop sound that revealed the duo's Puerto Rican heritage, Stop the Music met with positive critical reception from critics.

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.

Dax Reynosa, often mononymously known as Dax and by the former stage name Theory, is an American underground hip hop artist, producer, songwriter, smooth jazz singer, and music manager from Whittier, California. As a hip hop artist, he co-founded the underground Christian hip hop collective Tunnel Rats and the affiliated groups LPG, Footsoldiers, and The Resistance. He also co-founded the Latin funk and R&B band Elé and formed The Dax Band. He has contributed vocals and songwriting to numerous jazz recordings.

<i>The Night We Called It a Day</i> (album) 2002 studio album by Deepspace5

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Cloud (rapper)</span> American rapper

Henry Andrade, known professionally as RedCloud, is an American rapper based in Los Angeles, California who creates hip-hop tracks recognizably influenced by his spiritual and Indigenous heritage.

<i>Speak Life</i> 2002 studio album by Sev Statik

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.

<i>Nephilim: Act of God 1</i> 2003 studio album by Stu Dent

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.

Ill Harmonics is a hip hop band from Dallas, Texas, formed in 1995 by Playdough and Blake Knight. In 2004, Gib, the brother of Blake Knight, joined the group as a drummer. Ill Harmonics has released four studio albums, An Octave Above The Original Volume No. 1 (2000), Take Two (2002), Monkey Business (2004), and Modern Heart Exhibit (2007), as well as a compilation sampler album with MG! the Visionary and Soup the Chemist, released in 2000 through Uprok. Both Playdough and Blake Knight have released solo material, and Playdough also performs and records with the supergroup Deepspace5.

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.

References

  1. Vasquez, Rene (February 13, 2010). "Re: Who Are the (Current) Tunnel Rats?". Sphere of Hip Hop. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  2. Cummings, Tony; Stephen Adams (February 24, 2003). "America's Hip Hop Underground: Some of the best US acts". Cross Rhythms Magazine (73). Cross Rhythms . Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "The Tunnel Rats - Discography". AllMusic . All Media Network . Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  4. 1 2 "Propaganda". Jesus Freak Hideout. John DiBiase. Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  5. "Uprock Records Sampler". AllMusic . All Media Network . Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  6. "Uprok Mixtape, Vol. 1". AllMusic . All Media Network . Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  7. "Uprok Records Mixtapes, Vol. 2". AllMusic . All Media Network . Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  8. "What's Real". AllMusic . All Media Network . Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  9. Henly, Ralph (2013). "Tunnel Rats "TRz" video - linked comment". YouTube . Google . Retrieved May 15, 2014. 'Both Sides' was misrepresented as a TR album. It's not. It was a like a production reel of stuff we were working on at the time...somehow it got released as a Tunnel Rats album which is incorrect.