Kool & The Gang

Kool & The Gang's story starts in the Jersey City projects. They were teenagers, studying Miles Davis albums and James Brown singles, jamming in basements, partying for the people in a swirl of Black consciousness. In 1969 they made their first record. Still teenagers, and full of confidence, they named that first record after themselves. Their confidence and creativity produced a string of loose-but-tight, "fun" records, culminating in the Pop Chart smash Jungle Boogie. Kool & The Gang didn't need a singer then: the horns were the lead voice; the fans chanted along. Their songs were featured in films like Rocky and Saturday Night Fever.

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Color me badd

Color me badd, formed in 1987, and consisted of four members, these are, Mark Caderon, Bryan Abrams, Sam Watters, & Kevin Thornton, all hailing from Oklahoma City. CMB got there big break, after performing for Robert 'kool' Bell, ( from kool & the gang ), he loved it! he told them to move to New York to sign a record deal, which they did, and the rest as they say is history!!!

There first single 'I wanna sex you up' which appeared on the 'New Jack City' soundtrack, exploded into the U.S.charts, going top 5, and stayed around for over a year! their debut album, 'CMB' was also a huge hit, both going platinum!!! CMB got their first number 1 with the single 'I adore mi amor' and the next single 'All 4 love' also hit number 1. The album also spawned other top 20 singles, which were, 'Slow motion' & 'Thinkin' Back' Here in the U.K. 'I wanna sex you up' entered the charts at 24, but after continuous air play, reached the Number 1 spot and stayed there for 4 weeks!! the album 'CMB' peaked at number 2, and stayed in the top 40 for over 4 months. next released was 'all 4 love' which reached the number 3 position, 'I adore mi amor',number 37, & 'Heartbreaker' ,number 52, were also released.

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The Pointer Sisters

Formed: 1971 in East Oakland, CA
Years Active: 70 's, 80 's, 90 's, 00's
Genre: R&B

The Pointer Sisters are an eclectic and versatile pop/R&B group who hail from Oakland, California. The four original members were June, Anita, Ruth and Bonnie Pointer. The ladies are the daughters of Reverend Elton Pointer and his wife Sarah and the sisters of brothers Fritz and Aaron. They began their music careers singing in their father's church. Bonnie and June formed a duo called Pointers, A Pair. Anita soon joined the group and the duo became a trio. They started out touring and performing as well as supplying backing vocals for such artists as Boz Scaggs, Grace Slick, Sylvestor James, and Elvin Bishop.

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SNAP FEATURING TURBO B

Snap are unconventional musical trailblazers,which is why they have become one of the most internationally successful German pop acts in history.
With their dancefloor anthem "The Power" the name Snap became, practically, overnight, the worldwide trademark for top class dance music and this was strengthened by the succession of hits that followed - "Oops Up", "Cult Of Snap" and "Mary Had A Little Boy".

Snap is a dance act who decided against reproducing their first hit sound many times over just to capitalise on the current trend. Instead they offer a broad based musical experience with a constant flow of innovative ideas. Their debut album, "World Power" went on to become one of dance music's few mega-sellers.

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DAZ EFX

Das EFX was formed by Drayz (Andre Weston, 9 September 1970, New Jersey, USA) and Skoob (b. Willie Hines, 27 November 1970, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA; Skoob is ‘books’ spelled backwards), two easy-natured rappers whose success story was of the genuine rags to riches variety. As college friends who had met during English classes, they entered a rap contest at a small Richmond, Virginia nightclub. Luckily for them Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith of EPMD were in attendance, and, despite not winning, they walked off with an instant record contract. The judgement shown by EPMD proved impeccable when Das EFX’s debut release, Dead Serious, charted strongly. Soon they were touring together, despite the fact that neither Drayz nor Skoob were old enough to legally enter the premises on some of the dates. As rap aficionados began to look once more to the old school and its freestyle vocals, Das EFX were the perfect modern proponents, with their jagged, cutting rhymes and sweet wordplay. They developed a wonderful habit of making words up if they could not find something appropriate in the dictionary to shore up their rhymes: ‘We’re not too worried about really putting heavy messages in our records - we just try and make sure all the lyrics are super dope’. It was a style that was to be, in typical hip-hop fashion, quickly adopted and mimicked by a hundred other artists, and by the time of their follow-up some of its impact had been lost. Their debut self-production, ‘Freak It’, followed in 1993, and was the first release to see them drop their familiar tongue-flipping style, which detractors accused them of copying from UK rappers such as the Demon Boyz. The advent of west coast gangsta funk saw the duo suffering a blow to their credibility, allied to criticisms that their style possessed only novelty value. Toughening up their stance, they silenced some of these detractors with 1998’s streetwise Generation EFX.

HOUSE OF PAIN

Formed: 1990 in Los Angeles, CA
Years Active: 90 's
Genre: RAP

"Jump Around," an impossibly infectious and catchy single, instantly elevated House of Pain from an unknown white hip-hop group to near-stars when it became a massive crossover hit in 1992. It made the band and it also broke the band, consigning them to the level of one-hit wonders. House of Pain continued to release records after their eponymous 1992 debut and "Jump Around," yet none of them gained much attention, partially because of the band's self-consciously loutish behavior. Led by rapper Everlast, the group celebrated their Irish-American heritage by wearing green, drinking prodigious amounts of beer, and swearing constantly. It certainly earned them attention at the outset, particularly when it was tied to a single like "Jump Around," but the bottom quickly fell out of their career. The group's second album, 1994's Same as It Ever Was, went gold, but it failed to generate a hit single, and by the time of 1996's Truth Crushed to Earth Shall Rise Again, the band had been forgotten.


Everlast (born Erik Schrody, August 18, 1969) became fascinated by hip-hop while he was in high school, eventually becoming part of Ice-T's Rhyme Syndicate. His association with Ice-T led to a contract with Warner Bros., who released his debut album, Forever Everlasting, in 1990. After the record bombed, Everlast formed House of Pain with his high school friend Danny Boy (born Daniel O'Connor) and DJ Lethal (born Leor DiMant), a Latvian immigrant. Released on Tommy Boy Records, the group's eponymous 1992 debut was co-produced by Muggs, who masterminded Cypress Hill's groundbreaking debut. Muggs gave "Jump Around" its distinctive, incessant beat, which merged a deep bass groove with drum loops and Public Enemy-styled sirens. On the back of Kris Kross' spring hit "Jump," "Jump Around" became a huge hit in the summer of 1992, peaking at number three on the pop charts. Both the single's video and the remainder of House of Pain celebrated the group's Irish heritage in a tongue-in-cheek fashion that quickly became shtick. Throughout their 1993 tour, the group ran into trouble with promoters and the law, culminating in Everlast's March arrest for possessing an unregistered, unloaded pistol at Kennedy Airport. He was sentenced to community service, and later that year, the group began work on their second album.


Like its predecessor, 1994's Same as It Ever Was was produced by Muggs. Upon its summer release, the record was greeted with surprisingly strong reviews and sales, debuting at number 12 on the charts. However, the sales quickly slowed as "On Point" failed to become a hit. Most of the next two years were spent in seclusion, and the group returned in the fall of 1996 with Truth Crushed to Earth Shall Rise Again, a record that was ignored by both the press and the public. Everlast returned in 1998 as a solo act, and gained critical acclaim for his debut, Whitey Ford Sings the Blues.

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Brand Nubian Biography

Brand Nubian

When Brand Nubian busted out in 1990 with the abum One for All, they represented an exciting new direction for hip-hop. Afrocentric, conscious, philosophical, and musically influenced as much by jazz as by funk and R&B, the group introduced the talents of Grand Puba, who went on to release two solo albums and produce other artists. Brand Nubian, meanwhile, released another album, In God We Trust, which featured the classic "Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down." But since 1993 or so, the marketplace has heard little from this innovative group. Until now.

With the recent release of Foundation, the original members of Brand Nubian?Grand Puba, Lord Jamar, Sadat X, and DJ Alamo?return in classic form. Now signed directly to Arista Records, a label whose rap product has primarily been acquired through joint ventures or distributed labels, Brand Nubian is set for a renewed presence in the market. The group came to the attention of Arista A&R exec Drew Dixon after they performed a track on the Money Talks soundtrack.

No doubt, there was a plan to break up," notes Puba of the days when members went their separate ways. "But it wasn't really no major thing. Plus the flavor changes [in hip-hop] made it perfect for us to come back; like nature, everything changes course." Puba says members decided to come back together in 1996, and began recording a number of tracks. When they got their Arista deal in 1997, recording began in earnest.

While the sound of rap and how it is accepted in the maintsream has altered somewhat since Brand Nubian's first incarnation, the group says that its return to the marketplace fills a void for conscious lyrics that has not been satisfied in the current run of West Coast hardcore and East Coast materialistic party rhymes. "There's always been a balance of positive and negative in hip-hop, but there's not too much positive shit out right now," explains Puba. "The market got bigger, and it's a lot harder to tell the truth on certain things and become a big star when you're opposing the people that's paying you. But you still have to take that chance if you truly believe in what you believe in."

And while the group is aware of the other elements of hip-hop, just as when they first came together, they are only intent on doing their own thing. With production by Grand Puba, DJ Premier, Lord Finesse, Alamo, Buck Wild, and Diamond D, among others, the group's tracks are just as head-noddin' and thought provoking as the lyrics. First single "Don't Let It Go to Your Head," which bites its melody and chorus from the Gamble & Huff-produced Jean Carne tune of the same name, cautions hip-hop new jacks against believing their own hype with a rhyme flow that is articulate, witty, and right on target. The track "Probable Cause" breaks it down about the injustices young black men suffer at the hands of the police, while "I'm Black And I'm Proud" keeps it on the positive tip. But the Nubians can also party with style, as they do on "Let's Dance," a straight uptempo groove featuring Busta Rhymes, and the vocals and melody of Rebbie Jackson's "Centipede."

According to Jeff House, VP of Street Promotion and Marketing for Arista, the label serviced a 12-inch, "The Return" b/w "Brand Nubian" for a five-week run starting August 19, then shipped a promo CD of the new single "Don't Let It Go to Your Head" on September 4. The video for the track was aired on BET Sept. 25, and House says that play for the track is coming in from major stations like

WGCI-Chicago and KKBT-Los Angeles. "It's a very radio friendly, R&B-ish?but still street at the same time?record, and we're looking to do very well with it," says House.

"It felt like it hasn't been that long," confides Lord Jamar, "As soon as we got back into the studio, we picked up right where we left off."

Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Originally called DVX, the name was changed after Mellow Man Ace left in 1988. Cypress Hill was the first Latino group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide.

History

Early works

Cypress Hill's self-titled first album was released in August 1991. The lead single was the double A-side "The Phuncky Feel One"/"How I Could Just Kill A Man" which received heavy airplay on urban and college radio. The other two singles released from the album were "Hand On The Pump" and "Latin Lingo", the latter of which combined English and Spanish lyrics. The success of these singles led to the album selling two million copies in the US alone. DJ Muggs, Cypress Hill's producer, subsequently produced House of Pain's first album, then worked on other Soul Assassins projects like Funkdoobiest. The band made their first appearance at Lollapalooza on the side stage in 1992.

Black Sunday, the group's second album, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 1993, recording the highest Soundscan for a rap group up until that time. Also, with their debut still in the charts, they became the first rap group to have 2 albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 at the same time. With "Insane in the Brain" becoming a crossover hit, the album went triple platinum in the U.S. and sold about 3.25 million copies.

Cypress Hill was banned from Saturday Night Live after Muggs smoked a joint on-air and the band trashed their instruments while playing their second single "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That". The band headlined the "Soul Assassins" tour with House of Pain and Funkdoobiest as support, then performed on a college tour with Rage Against the Machine and Seven Year Bitch. In 1993, Cypress Hill also had two tracks on the Judgment Night soundtrack, teamed up with Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth.

The band played at the 1994 Woodstock Festival, introducing their new member Eric Bobo, formerly a percussionist with the Beastie Boys. Rolling Stone magazine named the band as the best rap group in their music awards voted by critics and readers. Cypress Hill played at Lollapalooza for two successive years, topping the bill in 1995. They also appeared on the The Simpsons episode "Homerpalooza". Prior to Bobo joining the crew, Panchito "Ponch" Gomez sat in as a percussionist when not acting.

Their third album Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom was released in 1995, selling 1.5 million copies and reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200 on the strength of the hit single "Throw Your Set in the Air". Cypress Hill also contributed a track "I Wanna Get High" to the High Times sponsored Hempilation album to support NORML.

Currently managed by Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group

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