Nathaniel Thomas Wilson, better known by his stage name Kool G Rap, is an American rapper. He began his career in the mid-1980s as one half of the group Kool G Rap & DJ Polo and as a member of the Juice Crew. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential and skilled MCs of all time, and a pioneer of mafioso rap/street/hardcore content and multisyllabic rhyming. On his album The Giancana Story, he stated that the "G" in his name stands for "Giancana", but on other occasions he has stated that it stands for "Genius".
Wanted: Dead or Alive is the second album by the hip hop duo Kool G Rap & DJ Polo. The album was released a year after the duo's debut, Road to the Riches, and received greater acclaim from most music critics. The singles "Streets of New York" and "Erase Racism" received notable airplay on Yo! MTV Raps and the former is credited by Nas as being influential on his song "N.Y. State of Mind" from his critically acclaimed album Illmatic.
Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu is an American stand-up comedian and writer. His comedy covers subjects such as race, inequity, and Indian stereotypes. He was a writer for Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell and the creator of the 2017 documentary film The Problem with Apu.
"Chillin" is a song by American rapper Wale, featuring singer Lady Gaga. It was released as the lead single from his debut album, Attention Deficit, on April 14, 2009, by Allido Records. Wale had wanted to collaborate with Gaga, and were introduced to each other through the rapper's mentor, Mark Ronson. "Chillin" was composed by a number of songwriters, including Wale and Gaga, while it was produced by Cool & Dre. Recorded in New York City, the song discusses Wale's life in his hometown. It has musical influence of 1990s style rapping, and contains two samples from the 1969 song "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by the band Steam, and the 1987 song, "Top Billin'", by Audio Two.
Das Racist was an American alternative hip hop group based in Brooklyn, composed of MCs Heems and Kool A.D. and hype man Ashok Kondabolu. Known for their use of humor, academic references, foreign allusions, and unconventional style, Das Racist was widely hailed as an urgent new voice in rap, after occasionally being misunderstood as joke rap when they first appeared.
Attention Deficit is the debut studio album by American rapper Wale. It was released on November 10, 2009, by Allido Records and Interscope Records. The production on the album was handled by multiple producers including Mark Ronson, Cool & Dre, The Neptunes, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and David Sitek among others. The album also features guest appearances by Lady Gaga, Gucci Mane, J. Cole, Pharrell Williams and Jazmine Sullivan among others.
Relax is the only studio album by American hip hop trio Das Racist. It was released by Greedhead Music on September 13, 2011. It peaked at number 111 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Himanshu Kumar Suri, better known by his stage name Heems, is an American rapper from Queens in New York City. Best known for being part of the alternative hip hop group Das Racist, Suri is also the founder of Greedhead Music, an independent record label. In 2012, Suri released his first solo mixtape, Nehru Jackets, on his Greedhead imprint and in conjunction with SEVA NY, a community-based organization from Queens of which Suri is a board member. In August 2015, Heems announced that Fox had bought his story rights for a potential sitcom, and that he was working on the pilot. He is currently a member of Swet Shop Boys along with actor and rapper Riz MC and producer Redinho.
Nehru Jackets is the first solo mixtape by American rapper Himanshu. It was released on Himanshu's own Greedhead Music label on January 17, 2012.
Victor Vazquez, also known by his stage name Kool A.D., is an American rapper, record producer, author, and artist. He is from the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Vazquez is best known for being a member of the New York-based rap group Das Racist, though he has also been a member of the bands Boy Crisis and Party Animal. Vazquez has also released his own solo material, including numerous mixtapes. Mother Jones magazine described his work as "a thoughtful effort to deconstruct and rearrange cultural objects in ways that challenge our deepest assumptions about society and cultural products".
Royalty is the sixth mixtape by American rapper and actor Donald Glover, under the stage name Childish Gambino. It was released by Glassnote Records on July 4, 2012. The album has many featured artists and is produced by Glover and his co-producer Ludwig Göransson, as well as Beck, Boi-1da and Skywlkr.
Greedhead Music is an independent record label founded by Himanshu Suri of Das Racist. Initially, Suri founded Greedhead Music as a management and recording company in 2008 to manage Das Racist. Greedhead's first releases were the group's 2010 mixtapes, Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. Das Racist's first commercially available album, Relax, was also the first commercial release on the Greedhead imprint. Greedhead has since released solo mixtapes by both Kool A.D. and Heems. The label has also released works by Dash Speaks, Weekend Money, Keepaway, Lakutis, Big Baby Gandhi, Le1f, Antwon, and Meyhem Lauren, as well as non-hip-hop acts like singer Safe, Scottish bhangra act Tigerstyle, and comedian Joe Mande.
Alec Reinstein, better known by his stage name Despot, is an American hip hop artist from Queens, New York City. He was signed to rapper El-P's label Definitive Jux in 2004. Despot has been a part of the New York underground rap scene for over a decade. Despot is associated with the Smart Crew collective and was a co-owner of Santos Party House.
Wild Water Kingdom is the second solo mixtape by American rapper Heems. It was released on Heems' own Greedhead Music label on November 14, 2012.
"How Ya Doin'?" is a song by British girl group Little Mix, featuring American rapper Missy Elliott. It was released on 15 April 2013, through Syco Music as the fourth and final single from Little Mix's debut studio album, DNA (2012). "How Ya Doin" was described by critics as a pop rap track and received generally favorable reviews from critics. The chorus was taken from Curiosity Killed the Cat's 1989 single "Name and Number", with the bassline and beat coming from The Whatnauts 1981 funk song "Help Is on the Way". Both samples were used in "Ring Ring Ring " by De La Soul in almost the same manner.
"The Symphony" is a rap song produced by Marley Marl featuring Juice Crew members Masta Ace, Kool G Rap, Craig G and Big Daddy Kane. The track appears on Marley Marl's 1988 Cold Chillin' Records release In Control, Volume 1. Rolling Stone ranked “The Symphony” the 48th greatest hip-hop song of all time, calling it “the first truly great posse cut.”
Hugh Anthony Allison, better known by his stage name Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he debuted with the release of his first mixtape, The Big Fat Kill, in 2008. Allison would follow-up with what is considered to be his breakout project, the mixtape Lost in Translation, released by Mishka NYC in 2011. He signed his first major-label record deal with Universal Republic Records, in 2012, which he subsequently left. In 2017, with the release of Allison's fourth EP Brainiac, he launched Chocolate Rabbit, his own record label imprint. His self-titled debut studio album was independently released in 2019.
Lost in Translation is the second mixtape by American rapper Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire. It was released via Mishka NYC on September 11, 2011. It includes guest appearances from Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown, and El-P.
The Problem with Apu is a 2017 American documentary film written by and starring comedian Hari Kondabolu and produced and directed by Michael Melamedoff. It focuses on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, an Indian immigrant in the animated sitcom The Simpsons who, for a period, was the only figure of Indian heritage to appear regularly on mainstream U.S. television. The film explores encounters with negative stereotypes, minstrelsy, racial microaggressions, and slurs against people of Indian and South Asian heritage.
Chillin Island is an unscripted HBO reality series that aired six episodes between Dec 17, 2021 and January 28, 2022. It was directed by Josh Safdie and executive-produced by DreamCrew, a production company owned by Drake. The series based on the radio show of the same name. It is hosted by Alec "Despot" Reinstein, Ashok "Dap" Kondabalu, and Aleksey "Lakutis" Weintraub, all from New York City. It features guests like Young Thug and Lil Yachty. Together, the stars visit natural sites, like deserts and swamps, with the goal of having profound realizations. It is slow television.
