Marlon Williams, better known by his stage name Marley Marl, is an American DJ, record producer, rapper and record label founder, primarily operating in hip hop music. Marlon grew up in Queensbridge housing projects located in Queens, New York. He performed in local talent shows during the early days of rap music, further fueling his interest.
West Coast hip hop is a regional genre of hip hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast region of the United States. West Coast hip hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during the early to-mid 1990s with the birth of G-funk and the emergence of record labels such as Suge Knight and Dr. Dre's Death Row Records, Ice Cube's Lench Mob Records and the continued success of Eazy-E's Ruthless Records, and others.
Aaron Tyler, better known by his stage name MC Eiht, is an American rapper and actor. Many of his songs are based on his life in Compton. His stage name was partly inspired by the numeral in KRS-One's name. He chose Eiht for its links to "hood culture", including Olde English 800 and .38 caliber firearms. He is the de facto leader of West Coast hip hop group Compton's Most Wanted, which also included fellow Compton-based rappers Boom Bam, Tha Chill, DJ Mike T, DJ Slip and Ant Capone. He is also known for his role as A-Wax in the 1993 film Menace II Society, as well as voicing the character Ryder in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Compton's Most Wanted (C.M.W.) is an American gangsta rap group and part of the early West Coast hip hop scene. The leaders of the group are MC Eiht and Tha Chill.
Che Kuo Eruera Ness, better known by his stage name Che Fu, is a New Zealand hip hop, R&B and reggae artist, songwriter and producer. A founding member of the band Supergroove, as a solo artist he has gone on to sell thousands of albums both in New Zealand and internationally. Che Fu is considered a pioneer of Hip hop and Pasifika music in New Zealand.
James Christopher D'Agostino, professionally known as DJ Green Lantern, is an American DJ, record producer, and broadcaster from Rochester, New York. In 2002, D'Agostino was signed by American rapper Eminem, to become the official DJ for Shady Records, after DJ Head stepped down for undisclosed reasons.
The X-Ecutioners are a group of American hip hop DJs/turntablists from New York City, New York. The group formed in 1989 and currently consists of three DJs, including Total Eclipse, DJ Boogie Blind, DJ Precision. Original members of the group included Mista Sinista, Rob Swift, and Roc Raida.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was an American hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group's members were Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, The Kidd Creole, Keef Cowboy, Scorpio and Rahiem. The group's use of turntablism, breakbeat DJing, and conscious lyricism were significant in the early development of hip hop music.
Rob Swift, is an American hip hop DJ and turntablist. He was an original member of the turntablist group The X-Ecutioners until 2004. He has also released numerous solo albums and collaborated with various artists, including Mike Patton, Patton's project Peeping Tom, Dan the Automator and Handsome Boy Modeling School, Lords of Acid, Portugal. The Man, and Herbie Hancock.
The discography of Nas, an American rapper, consists of thirteen studio albums, five compilations, one extended play, and seventy-nine singles. The son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Nas dropped out of school during ninth grade and began his music career in 1991 with a guest performance on the song "Live at the Barbeque" by Main Source. In 1992, Nas featured on the MC Serch posse cut, “Back to the Grill”, alongside Chubb Rock and Red Hot Lover Tone, and later contributed the track, "Halftime" to the soundtrack to the film, Zebrahead. Soon Nas ignited enough hype and signed to Columbia Records, where he released his debut album Illmatic in 1994. Including Nas's solo debut track "Halftime", Illmatic was certified platinum in the US, spawned several singles including "It Ain't Hard to Tell" and "The World Is Yours", and earned much critical acclaim. With a more mainstream-oriented sound, Nas's second album It Was Written was released in 1996 and included the Lauryn Hill collaboration "If I Ruled the World " and "Street Dreams", the latter of which reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the Hot Rap Singles chart. It Was Written was certified double platinum. In 1999, Nas released two albums: I Am... and Nastradamus. While I Am reached double platinum status like its preceding album It Was Written and spawned two singles that reached the top ten spots of the Hot Rap Singles chart, "Hate Me Now" and "Nas Is Like", Nastradamus signaled a decrease in quality and critical reception and sold only half as many units. Still, Nastradamus featured two charting singles, "You Owe Me", "Nastradamus" and was certified platinum.
Mobb Deep was an American hip hop duo from Queensbridge, Queens, New York. The duo consisted of rappers Havoc and Prodigy. They are considered to be among the main progenitors of hardcore East Coast hip hop and hip hop in the mid 1990s. Mobb Deep became one of the most successful rap duos in history, having sold over three million records. Three of their most notable albums were The Infamous (1995), Hell on Earth (1996) and Murda Muzik (1999), and their top hits include "Shook Ones ", "Survival of the Fittest" and "Hell On Earth ". They were known for their dark and hardcore delivery.
Darian "Big Tigger" Morgan, also known as Big Tigg, is an American television/radio personality and rapper best known as the host of BET's Rap City and 106 & Park.
Chris Sullivan, known professionally as DJ Spinbad, was a DJ, producer, and remixer on New York City's radio station WHTZ.
Likwidation is the third studio album by American hip hop group Tha Alkaholiks. It was released on August 26, 1997 via Loud Records. Recording sessions took place at Enterprise Studio in Burbank, California, at Yo Mama's House and at Sound Castle Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Production was primarily handled by member E-Swift, as well as Madlib, Easy Mo Bee, T-Smoov, and Marley Marl. It features guest appearances from Xzibit, Keith Murray, King Tee, Lootpack, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Phil da Agony, The WhoRidas, with cameos from DeBarge, LL Cool J and Nas. The album peaked at number 57 on the Billboard 200 and number 15 on Top R&B Albums. Its lead single, "Hip Hop Drunkies", became the group's biggest hit in 1997, peaking at #66 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Hip hop music, also known as rap music, is a genre of popular music developed in the United States by inner-city African Americans and Latino Americans in the Bronx borough of New York City in the 1970s. It consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, and rhythmic beatboxing. While often used to refer solely to rapping, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of hip hop culture, including DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
Gee Bayss is one of the pioneer DJs in West Africa. Member of the group, Pee Froiss, he toured throughout the world with his sure-fire turntablism which had crowds jumping whenever the group was performing. Combining solo projects with international tours of the Pee Froiss, Gee Bayss is actively engaged in transmitting his deejaying art to the younger generations.
Keys N Krates is a Canadian electronic music band formed in 2008 out of Toronto, Ontario. The group consists of drummer Adam Tune, keyboardist David Matisse and turntablist Jr. Flo. The band started as a live hip-hop act reliant on rough a cappella loops on top of heavy bass-driven beats.
British Alexander Mitchell, who performs under the stage name Brisco, is an American rapper.
Robert Cooper Phillips, better known by his stage name Koopsta Knicca, was an American rapper. He was best known as one of the members of the Memphis rap group Three 6 Mafia, as well as a member of the rap collective Da Mafia 6ix alongside DJ Paul, Crunchy Black and Gangsta Boo.
Symphony Taylor is an American hip hop producer, radio personality, and official DJ for GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. Symphony has worked with artists such as Digital Underground, Tony Touch, DJ Boogie Blind, DJ Scratch from EPMD, The Beatnuts, Sean Price, P. Diddy, Nas, MF Doom, Alchemists, Mobb Deep, Portia Dee, Rick Ross, KRS-One, 2 Chainz, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Yelawolf, Onyx, 9th Wonder, B2K's Raz-B and B-Nasty
