![]() Their last album was actually the first to feature cameos by Beans and a then-unknown Eve. ![]() On a whole other tip, Philly is also one of the home bases of the so-called neo-soul movement, with Jazzy Jeff’s A Touch of Jazz production house (who brought Jill Scott to all the coffee shops) and, of course, everybody’s favorite rap band, The Roots. It wasn’t cool to wear a Gumby hairstyle, sneakers, and suits to match.” Nowadays, however, all eyes are on the city of brotherly love, as Bean’s whole crew got signed to Roc-A-Fella. Apart from them, Philly has at least one rap pioneer, Schooly D, but, to quote Beanie Sigel, the city’s current rap king, “when I grew up, if you was a rapper you was a sucker. Moving right along to Philadelphia, home of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Now everybody and their three cousins have an indie record out but most of the originators are still around, and still setting the standard. A bunch of college dudes caught on and boom, there was the start of the so-called underground rap movement. Stretch & Bobbito were doing their thing on the radio and cats like The Arsonists, Company Flow, Mos Def, Non Phixion and Necro were moving strictly butter 12 inches in the musical tradition of the ’93-’95 golden era. While Puff & the Bad Boys were on TV with their shiny suits and everything you heard on the radio was disco beats, rappers in NY started releasing more and more independent records, with the help of Fat Beats distribution and the then fledgling Rawkus label. Shit, Heavy D and Pete Rock & CL Smooth even came from Mt. EPMD and De La Soul both came from Long Island (Mobb Deep’s Prodigy, too, but we won’t blow your cover P), Naughty by Nature and Redman hail from New Jersey, while DMX and The Lox live up in Yonkers. Is there rap from the New York suburbs? Absolutely, starting with the Wu Tang Clan, straight from the slums of Shaolin (AKA Staten Island). Now, is there rap from Manhattan, you ask? Well, take the train Uptown and you’ll end up in Harlem World, birthplace of the his royal jigginess Puffy, Ma$e (we miss you), Cam’ron, and the late great Big L. Although they kind of fell off, Black Moon, Smiff N Wessun and the Beatminerz helped shape what is now known as the underground East Coast sound with stellar LPs like Enta da Stage and Dah Shinin’. Also worthy of mention is BK’s Bootcamp Click. Word is his ever-expanding Roc-A-Fella label just signed Brooklyn’s grimiest gun-toting duo: M.O.P. Jay-Z made his debut in 1996 with the seminal Reasonable Doubt, followed every trend, and got better with every album, and now he’s a trillionaire who screws models and can’t stay out of court. Illest voice, wittiest punchlines, cleverest lyrics and two classics, Ready to Die and Life After Death-a legacy that can only be rivaled by his heir to the throne: playboy Jigga. Now if you don’t think Biggie’s the best rapper ever we’ve got a problem. Move a little South and you’ll end up in Brooklyn, home of the East Coast’s answer to Holy Makaveli: The Notorious B.I.G., R.I.P. That legacy of graphic storytelling undoubtedly started with Kool G Rap, and is perpetuated by Queensbridge Projects’ finest: Nas, Mobb Deep, Cormega and Tragedy, to name a few. ![]() Home of pioneers such as Run-DMC, Marley Marl’s Juice Crew, LL Cool J, and more recently A Tribe Called Quest, Organized Konfusion and The Beatnuts, Q-Borough is now widely associated with thug rap. KRS’ first hit, “The Bridge Is Over,” was a diss to the borough of Queens, somewhat of a second birthplace for New York rap. producers Show, Lord Finesse, Buckwild and Diamond D continue to provide backdrops for Bronx classics. A few years later, Joey Crack introduced the world to the legendary Big Pun. With KRS-One as its perennial rap mayor, this is the borough that brought us Fat Joe, who stepped in the scene in 1995 with limited skills and a whole lot of realness. New York is where it all started, South Bronx to be exact, and the BX still represents that true-school heritage. ![]() Cop an album like Nas’ 1994 classic Illmatic and you’ll get a real musical representation of the NY state of mind. Forget the fact that New Yorkers now like to get crunk and throw elbows like they were Tupac fans all along. To this day, East Coast MCs are measured against the meticulously constructed rhymes of legends like Rakim or Big Daddy Kane, while beatsmiths strive to attain DJ Premier-like perfection. There’s nothing like good old East Coast rap-gritty lyricism and sample-based music. ![]()
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