old school rap | Musicosity

old school rap

SixFtHick

Sleazy but wry, cowpunk / hard rock that has some similarities to bands like Nashville Pussy and The Cramps but is more tongue-in-cheek. Know for their ferocious live shows, SixFtHick, portray their hometown, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia as if it was a separate country, with co-lead singer Geoff Corbett playing the role of a parochial Boss Hogg. The other singer, his brother, Ben Corbett plays the role of a disturbed Iggy Pop with an emphasis on physical self abuse.

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R.A. the Rugged Man

R.A. the Rugged Man, real name R.A. Thorburn, is a rapper from Stony Brook, Long Island. He began his music career at age 12. At 18, he signed to Jive Records. R.A.'s legend, perpetuated by the P.R. biographies at his various labels, say he was dropped due to violent and disgusting behavior, but in interviews he disputes many of the more extreme stories told about him, adding that Jive just didn't know how to break new artists at the time.

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Fatback Band

The Fatback Band (later, simply Fatback) is an American funk and disco band. Most popular in the 1970s and 1980s, The Fatback Band is most known for their Top Ten R&B hits, "(Do The) Spanish Hustle", "I Like Girls", "Gotta Get My Hands on Some (Money)", and "Backstrokin'". Their 1979 single "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" is sometimes considered the first hip hop single.

Read more about Fatback Band on Last.fm.

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Biz Markie

Biz Markie is an East Coast hip hop artist, DJ and world-renowned Human Beat Boxer, best known for humorous singles like "Just a Friend" and "Pickin' Boogers." and his pre-MTV hit "Vapors". He has been labeled The Clown Prince of Hip-Hop. His career began in the 1980s. In 1992, Biz recorded a song called "Alone Again," but Gilbert O'Sullivan claimed the track featured an unauthorized sample of his hit "Alone Again (Naturally)," and served Biz papers. His career was quite damaged from the lawsuit, and Biz ducked out of the harshest glare of the limelight for the remainder of the 1990s.

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Ultramagnetic MC's

Members Kool Keith, Ced Gee, TR Love and Moe Love released their debut album Critical Beatdown, produced by Paul C., in 1988 and inspired the world of hip hop with their original sound of unorthodox sampling, polysyllabic rhymes, and bizarre lyrical imagery. Kool Keith went on to work with many other groups and solo projects including The Cenobites, Dr Octagon, Masters Of Illusion and Dr. Dooom Their work has been often sampled, most notably in The Prodigy song "Smack My Bitch Up"

Read more about Ultramagnetic MC's on Last.fm.

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The Sugarhill Gang

The Sugarhill Gang is a hip-hop group from the very late 70s and early 80s. They are credited with releasing hip-hop's first single to find a mainstream audience beyond the hip-hop scene with their catchy (and 14-minute long) song "Rapper's Delight." By the mid-80s, the group faded away as the hip-hop scene began to expand and transform itself.

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Inspectah Deck

Jason Hunter, (born July 6, 1971) better known as Inspectah Deck (aka Rebel INS), is an American rapper, producer, and actor. A member of the Wu-Tang Clan, known for his lyricism, he has not achieved the same level of commercial success in his solo career as some of his counterparts (such as Ghostface Killah or Method Man) though he continues to be respected and actively releases material. Hunter routinely mentions the Park Hill Projects in Clifton, Staten Island, NY, where he grew up, going to school with the future Ghostface Killah, Raekwon and Method Man.

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The Pharcyde

The Pharcyde is a West Coast underground/alternative hip hop group. The group was formed in 1991 in South Los Angeles, California, United States, where the group's members grew up. The group was one of the most well known of the first wave of alternative hip-hop acts. The original members of the group are "Slimkid3" (Tre Hardson), "Fatlip" (Derrick Stewart), "Imani" (Emandu Wilcox) and "Bootie Brown" (Romye Robinson). The group is best known for their hit singles "Passing Me By" (which crossed over to alternative rock radio) and "Runnin'", and their debut album Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde.

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