Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, MC Lyte, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, and Arrested Development

There's an argument to be made that Douglas E Davis is responsible for the term beatboxer becoming an expression at all. It was he who coined the nickname “The Original Human Beatbox” while he was making a name for himself as a rapper and performer around Harlem, and while others might have enjoyed more commercial success than him with their skills, they still own one hell of a debt to Doug E. Fresh. His first recorded appearance was on the Spoonie Gee and DJ Spivey single “Pass The Buddha”, and after that, his most notable early performance was with The Treacherous Three for their track “Beat Street”. This exposure meant that Fresh began building up some hype around himself, and began to release solo singles with the labels Enjoy and Vinetertainment.

By the end of 1985, Fresh was one of the biggest names in hip-hop with his group The Get Fresh Crew (which featured a young Slick Rick in its line up). He was having hits on both sides of the Atlantic with his single “The Show” hurtling into the top ten of the UK singles chart at number 7. By 1988, he had gone some way of earning the title he gave himself on his second solo album “The World's Greatest Entertainer”, which is a title he keeps to this very day. Remaining an influence even today, it was even Fresh's dance moves that inspired the Cali Swag District to record the smash hit single “Teach Me How To Dougie” in 2010, a good couple of decades after Fresh's last charting hit. Some talents never truly die, and as long as true hip-hop is still a cultural force, Doug E. Fresh will still be one of the men to thank for that. Highly recommended.

Born in Mitcham, London, UK, to British Jamaican parents, Walters was blinded in his right eye by broken glass at an early age and has wore a distinctive eye patch ever since. The family moved to Brooklyn, New York, U.S. in 1977 with Walters starting his music career in late 1983 after going Doug E. Fresh’s Get Fresh Crew under the moniker MC Ricky D. Within the hip hop genre, Walters recorded a series of highly acclaimed tracks including “La Di Da” and “Children’s Story” which received modest mainstream attention.

In 1988 Walters released his solo debut album “The Great Adventures of Slick Rick” on Def Jam Records, the biggest hip hop label at the time, due to an acquaintance with head Russell Simmons. The album achieved critical acclaim and reached No. 1 on Billboards R&B/Hop-Hop chart and featured the charted singles “Hey Young World” and “Teenage Love” and the highly popular but radio unplayable “Treat Her Like A Prostitute”.

Walters was incarcerated for five years in 1990, two years for shooting his cousin Mike Plummer after Plummer had Walters shot outside of a club, and three years for his continued struggle with Immigration and Naturalization Services over his U.S. residency. Before the sentencing Russell Simmons bailed him out and Walters’ second album “The Ruler’s Back” was released to limited commercial success and acclaim. His third studio album the suitably named “Behind Bars” was released in 1994 whilst he remained in prison and received much of the same lukewarm approval of his second.

Dubbed as the follow-up to the classic “The Great Adventures of Slick Rick”, “The Art of Storytelling” released on May 25, 1999, was Walters’ most successful album charting at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Featuring artists OutKast, Nas and Snoop Dog, the album cemented Walters’ position as a disciple of the golden age of hip hop.

Walters is known as a pioneer of narrative rap with his laudable storytelling and adoption of various voices in his tracks, as well as being noted for his use of the ‘Queen’s English’ including enviable diction and British-tinged pronunciation. The influence of Slick Rick on the hip hop genre is evident with consistent references to him in modern pop culture and covers of his songs.

Never one to shy away from her musical ability, at the age of 17 Lyte began giving tips and teaching other MCs the best way to create rap and rhymes. She has been constantly developing and improving her own brand of hip hop and has released a total of ten albums to date.

Her debut 'Lyte as a Rock' was released in 1988 and charted at #50 on the US R & B Charts. She was the first solo female rapper to release a full album and it was a critical success, as well as featuring a #1 US Rap single 'Paper Thin'.

Since then she has had three more #1s on the US Rap chart and three top ten hits on the US R & B chart. The 1996 release 'Keep On, Keepin' On' also charted at #10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, Lyte's highest chart position to date. Her albums have enjoyed similar commercial success, all charting well on the US R & B Chart. 'Eyes On This' remains the peak at #8 upon its release in 1989.

Her services to female hip hop are considered immeasurable by many and she has received a number of prestigious honours from the industry over her career. In 2006 MC Lyte was included in a list of artists honoured on VH1's annual award show Hip Hop Honors. Whilst In 2013 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hip Hop Inaugural Ball, and she has been honoured by the BET awards who awarded her the "I Am Hip Hop" Icon Lifetime Achievement Award in the same year. She also became the first female solo rapper to be nominated for the Best Rap Single Grammy Award in 1993.

Both hailing from Long Island, New York, the duo signed with Fresh/ Sleeping Bag Records and released their first album in 1988 called “Strictly Business” which featured a single with the same name that became a huge hit. The album sold over 500,000 copies and reached certified gold. The duo established themselves apart from the rest of the hip-hop world by lifting more rock and funk; with the follow up album, “Unfinished Business,” doing just as well as the first, also reaching certified gold. Unfortunately when Fresh/ Sleeping Bag Records went under, the duo ran into some trouble with the two albums were acquired by Priority/EMI Records and the record contract was acquired by Def Jam. In 1990 and 1992 they released “Business As Usual” and “Business Never Personal.”

In January 1993 EPMD split, although the reasons were mostly speculation; meanwhile, each pursued a solo career. The duo then reunited in 1997 with the release of their record “Back In Business” followed in 1999 with “Out Of Business” which was slated to be their last LP; again with each of them pursuing a solo career and each releasing a solo album. A second reuniting was brought about by a live performance at the Rock The Bells Tour in October 2006. Two months later they released a new song, “The Main Event,” and in 2008 made an announcement that a new album was being worked on. The album was released at the end of 2008, followed by a series of live performances.

While every rapper who’s ever spit is in effect an artist who writes lyrics there are more than a few rappers who truly earn the term “lyricist”. In the same way that Nick Cave are Leonard Cohen are famous for their making their lyrics true poetry while Luke Pritchard of The Kooks is most definitely not, some rappers transcend pop music and create a poetry of their own. Right up there with the legends is Big Daddy Kane, a man rated by everyone from Kool Moe Dee to The RZA as one of the greatest ever. To the extent that there’s a persistent rumour that Rakim, widely thought to be the greatest rapper of the eighties, turned down the chance to take on Kane in a rap battle.

Kane’s first appearance in the spotlight was as part of the Juice Crew, a hip-hop collective based in Queensbridge, New York City. The crew had already been together since 1983 when Kane and his mate Biz Markie (“the human beatbox”) joined three years later. However it wasn’t until 1987, that his solo career really started to take off. He signed to Cold Chillin’ Records and his first single “Raw”, was a big hit in the underground scene, the year after his first record came out, and “Long Live The Kane” remains one of the benchmark rap debuts to this day.

It was ecstatically received at the time and was a mild commercial success as well. In a time when rap was only just proving itself to be more than a fad that was a lot to hope for, but the best was yet to come. 1989 was the same year that Markie had his massive (and utterly hysterical) hit “Just A Friend”, and Kane went on to release “It’s A Big Daddy Thing” a record that might not have been quite as succesful at the time, but it’s still considered to be one of the greatest rap records of all time, so y’know, swings and roundabouts.

Since then, his work has given way to a generation of MCs enamoured with his work, and was even one of Jay-Z’s early patrons, taking him on tour in the early 90’s. It’s a testament to his influence that he was able to stop making records in 1998 and to this day his name is still spoken with respect and admiration. He can also still put on a show to remember and his records, even the ones released nearly three decades ago, hold up against anything released today. For that reason alone it’s a pleasure and a privilege to still have him around. Highly recommended.

While hip-hop has been a socially conscious genre of music from the very beginning, by the late 1980's the angriest, most controversial and most shocking styles of hip-hop were getting the most critical and commercial attention thanks to the rise of Gangsta rap from the West Coast. This lead to some great music, no doubt about it, 1988 alone gave us both Public Enemy's “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back” and N.W.A's “Straight Outta Compton”, but some grew tired of the constant venom and bile spat by the Gangsta rappers, not to mention their fascination with material wealth. Two of the artists sceptical of the movement as a whole were a rapper and a DJ from Atlanta, Georgia called Speech (Todd Thomas) and Headliner (Timothy Barnwell), respectively.#

Having both met while studying at the Art Institute of Atlanta, the duo first came together as Arrested Development in 1988 fuelled by the fundamental belief that the black community needed spiritual rebirth. Over the next four years, Speech and Headliner expanded the group to include everyone from other rappers, to a dancer/choreographer, to an elder spiritual adviser in the form of Baba Oje, and in 1992, the band signed to Chrysalis to release their first album “3 Years, 5 Months, & 2 Days in the Life Of...” which, weirdly enough for such an esoteric band, was an absolutely enormous hit.

The record went platinum four times over in the United States, contained three top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 in the form of “Tennessee”, “People Everyday” and “Mr. Wendal”, and netted the band two Grammy awards in 1993 for Best New Artist and Best Rap Performance by a Group or Duo. Ever since then, the band have not continued to enjoy the commercial successful that their first album brought them, but the fact of the matter is that if they did, they would have probably compromised their vision in order to do so. Compromise has never been in either Speech's considerable vocabulary, so while Arrested Development might remain a cult concern to this day, they also remain one of the most vital and genuinely important rap acts of their generation. For that, they come highly recommended.