Building his New Jersey street credibility in the late '80s by fronting the hip-hop group the Flavor Unit, Apache eventually broke solo to show off his own microphone skills and won the recognition of Tommy Boy Records in the process. After the release of his self-titled debut in 1991, Apache scored the underground hit "Gangsta Bitch" without... [+] Read More

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Without question the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s, A Tribe Called Quest jump-started and perfected the hip-hop alternative to hardcore and gangsta rap. In essence, they abandoned the macho posturing rap music had been constructed upon, and focused instead on abstract philosophy and message tracks. The "sucka MC" theme... [+] Read More

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As the first white rap group of any importance, the Beastie Boys received the scorn of critics and strident hip-hop musicians, who accused them of cultural pirating, especially since they began as a hardcore punk group in 1981. But the Beasties weren't pirating -- they treated rap as part of a post-punk musical underground, where the... [+] Read More

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Biz Markie's inclination toward juvenile humor and his fondness for goofy, tuneless, half-sung choruses camouflaged his true talents as a freestyle rhymer. The Biz may not have been able to translate his wild rhyming talents to tape, but what he did record was worthwhile in its own way. With his silly humor and inventive, sample-laden... [+] Read More

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At the time of its 1989 release, De La Soul's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, was hailed as the future of hip-hop. With its colorful, neo-psychedelic collage of samples and styles, plus the Long Island trio's low-key, clever rhymes and goofy humor, the album sounded like nothing else in hip-hop. Where most of their contemporaries drew... [+] Read More

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Downtown Science was a brief collaboration between Sam Sever (born Sam Citrin) and Bosco Money (born Kenneth Carabello) that produced one neglected album that was released on Def Jam in 1991. Apart from some light rotation enjoyed by the supporting single "If I Was," the self-titled album all but disappeared shortly after release -- an... [+] Read More

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Although they predated the jazz-rap innovations of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Digable Planets, the Jungle Brothers were never able to score with either rap fans or mainstream audiences, perhaps due to their embrace of a range of styles -- including house music, Afrocentric philosophy, a James Brown fixation, and of course, the use of... [+] Read More

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One of hip-hop's first (and finest) superproducers, Marley Marl was an early innovator in the art of sampling, developing new techniques that resulted in some of the sharpest beats and hooks in rap's Golden Age. As the founder of Cold Chillin' Records, Marl assembled a roster filled with some of the finest hip-hop talent in New York: MC Shan,... [+] Read More

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Mt. Vernon, New Yorkers Pete Rock (a producer/DJ) and rapper C.L. Smooth emerged in 1992 as both a powerhouse performance duo and as prolific producers. Their 1992 album Mecca and the Soul Brother was a hip-hop classic with great cuts including "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" and "Straighten It Out." They later collaborated with Mary J.... [+] Read More

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Queen Latifah: musician; television and film actress; a label president; an author and entrepreneur. Blessed with style and substance, Queen Latifah has blossomed into a one-woman entertainment conglomerate. Heralded by the press and the industry as a force to be reckoned with, Latifah has quite simply done it all and shows no sign of slowing... [+] Read More

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