1.
RZA
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Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known by his stage name RZA, is an American rapper, record producer, musician, actor, filmmaker and author. A prominent figure in hip hop, RZA is the de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan and he has produced almost all of Wu-Tang Clans albums as well as many Wu-Tang solo and affiliate projects. He is a cousin of the late group-mate Ol Dirty Bastard and he has also released solo albums under the alter-ego Bobby Digital, along with executive producing credits for side projects. In addition to the Wu-Tang Clan and his releases, RZA was also a founding member of the horrorcore group Gravediggaz where he used the name The RZArector. Furthermore, he has acted in movies, including Coffee and Cigarettes, American Gangster, Gospel Hill, Life Is Hot in Cracktown, Ghost Dog, Funny People, Derailed, Due Date. He also appeared in the Showtime TV series Californication and his directorial debut is for the film he co-wrote and in which he plays the title role, The Man with the Iron Fists, also starring Russell Crowe. The magazine The Source placed him on its list of the 20 greatest producers in the magazines twenty-year history and he also made the Elite 8 in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe. NME placed him on their list of the 50 Greatest Producers Ever, RZA was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He lived in North Carolina with his uncle from age three to seven, who encouraged him to read and study, RZA was introduced to hip hop music at the age of nine, and by eleven, was competing in rap battles. He relocated to Steubenville, Ohio in 1990, to live with his mother and he spent weekends in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his father ran a convenience store in the citys Hill District. RZA got involved with petty crime and drug-dealing, and was charged with attempted murder while in Steubenville and he was acquitted of the charge, giving him what he stated was a second chance. He is named after Robert Kennedy and John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his mother greatly admired the Kennedys, the RZA has called his given name an honorable name, given the legacy of both brothers Robert and John. Robert Diggs formed a rap group with his cousins Russell Jones and they enjoyed local success but never signed a record deal. Diggs later debuted on Tommy Boy Records in 1991 as a solo artist under the name Prince Rakeem, after a shoot-out in Ohio in 1992, he faced eight years in jail. When they said not guilty, my face stuck in a smile for three days, he recalled, I was just walking around town, thinking about my daughter and my wife. Right then I said goodbye to anything that would put me in that situation again, I was up on trial on an attempted murder charge. I was a fool, with all that knowledge in my head. Diggs formed a new group with his cousins and five other childhood friends and this group would be named Wu-Tang Clan, releasing their debut album Enter the Wu-Tang,36 Chambers in 1993
2.
Prince Paul (producer)
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Paul Edward Huston, better known by his stage name Prince Paul, is an American disc jockey, record producer and recording artist from Amityville, New York. Paul began his career as a DJ for Stetsasonic, since then he has worked on albums by Boogie Down Productions, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane and 3rd Bass, among others. In 1994, Paul joined RZA, Frukwan and Too Poetic in Gravediggaz and his first solo album, Psychoanalysis, What Is It. came out in 1997, followed by a second album, A Prince Among Thieves, in 1999. Later that year Prince Paul formed Handsome Boy Modeling School with Dan the Automator, Prince Paul was one of the original members of Stetsasonic. He joined the group in 1984 after impressing Daddy-O with his routine in the Brevoit Day Celebration DJ battle in Brooklyn, Daddy-O was struck by Pauls energy, saying that he performed his routine with Liquid Liquids song Cavern, like he was mad at the turntables. Prince Paul produced tracks on 3rd Bass 1989 debut The Cactus Album, De La Soul is Dead received a five mic album review from The Source. According to Paul,3 Feet High and Rising had a budget of about $20,000 dollars and took a month and a half to make. In Brian Colemans book Check the Technique Paul reflected on his work with De La Soul by saying, If there was ever a sign of the existence of God, I’ve never had such a perfect fit in any other production situation. In 1990, Russell Simmons gave Prince Paul an imprint under his Def Jam label, however the only album, in 1995, Prince Paul co-produced guitarist Vernon Reids solo debut with Teo Macero. In 1996, he appeared on the Red Hot Organizations compilation CD, America is Dying Slowly, alongside Wu-Tang Clan, Coolio, the CD, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African American men, was called a masterpiece by The Source magazine. In 1996, during the recording sessions for Stakes Is High, De La Soul. Although Paul was not involved in the making of the album, he has praised it in interviews, once saying. I was trying to out the next thing I was going to do, I was going through a custody case for my son. There were a lot of going on at the time and in a sense. After this he released two albums, Psychoanalysis, What is It. and A Prince Among Thieves, featuring Big Daddy Kane, Xzibit, Kool Keith. Prince Paul formed Handsome Boy Modeling School with Dan the Automator, featured Sean Lennon, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Alec Empire, and Don Novello. He was also paired up with Deltron 3030 on their album for the song The Fantabulous Rap Extravaganza. Prince Pauls 2003 album Politics of the Business again featured many guests such as Chuck D, Ice-T, the Beatnuts, the latter also collaborated on a track Paul composed for the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack
3.
Anthony Ian Berkeley
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Anthony Ian Berkeley better known as Too Poetic, was a Trinidadian-born American rapper and producer. He was also a member of the hip-hop group Gravediggaz. The eldest son of a minister, Poetic was born in Trinidad and raised in the town of Wyandanch on Long Island, New York. After forming his first hip-hop group, Brothers Grym, with younger siblings Brainstorm and E Sharp in 1989, Sharp handled some of the duties, while Poetic. The group created a buzz for itself in the underground with its first official demo, however, his deal with Tommy Boy fell through before the release of his first album, and Too Poetic fell on hard times, which included a period of homelessness. Poetic then joined Wu-Tang Clans leader RZA, former De La Soul/Stetsasonic producer Prince Paul, concerning the origins of the supergroup, he said, Each member adopted a Gravedigga alias, and Poetic became known as the Grym Reaper. It was stated this stylistic change was adapted from his period of homelessness as his former DJ Koas said in an interview He went homeless. He hit rock bottom and that opens your eyes to really go deep, I guess it makes you strong to want it that bad. Tommy Boy basically jerked a lot of people and this proved to be an impressive change, as his offbeat rhyming style quickly gained attention as the groups first album, 1994s 6 Feet Deep, garnered positive reviews and strong sales alike. During this time, Anthonys rhyming style had matured more, in April 1999, Anthony collapsed in his home studio with stomach pains and was subsequently diagnosed with colon cancer. During this period, he collaborated with The Prodigys Maxim Reality, contrary to popular belief, this moniker was created by Poetic himself. It was Poetic who made the reference to the metal being as hard as Poetic’s will to live. One of his solo compositions makes reference to his feeling light as aluminum. He created work under his name as well as continuing work on the third Gravediggaz album. The subsequent release, Nightmare in A-Minor, was the darkest work the group had done. It makes many references to Poetics cancer, perhaps most notably on the track Burn, Baby, Burn and on the Last Emperors track One Life, which extensively detailed his brutal battle with the illness. Poetic died of cancer on July 15,2001,1, 45pm EST at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He had survived almost two and a half years beyond the doctors initial 3-month prognosis, an intimate memorial service for him was held at the Riverside Church in Harlem on August 4,2001, attended by his family and close friends including bandmates Frukwan and Prince Paul
4.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
5.
Long Island
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Long Island is an island located just off the northeast coast of the United States and a region within the U. S. state of New York. Stretching east-northeast from New York Harbor into the Atlantic Ocean, the island comprises four counties, Kings and Queens to the west, then Nassau, more generally, Long Island may also refer collectively both to the main Island as well as its nearby, surrounding outer barrier islands. North of the island is the Long Island Sound, across from which lie the states of Connecticut, across the Sound, to the northwest, lies Westchester County on mainland New York. To the west, Long Island is separated from the Bronx and the island of Manhattan by the East River. To the extreme southwest, it is separated from the New York City borough of Staten Island and the U. S. state of New Jersey by Upper New York Bay, the Narrows, to the east lie Block Island and numerous smaller islands. Its population density is 5,595.1 inhabitants per square mile, Long Island is culturally and ethnically diverse. Some of the wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods in the Western Hemisphere are located on Long Island, nine bridges and 13 tunnels connect Brooklyn and Queens to the three other boroughs of New York City. Ferries connect Suffolk County northward across Long Island Sound to the state of Connecticut, the Long Island Rail Road is the busiest commuter railroad in North America and operates 24/7. At the time of European contact, the Lenape people inhabited the western end of Long Island, giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to record an encounter with the Lenapes, after entering what is now New York Bay in 1524. In 1609, the English navigator Henry Hudson explored the harbor, adriaen Block followed in 1615 and is credited as the first European to determine that both Manhattan and Long Island are islands. Native American land deeds recorded by the Dutch from 1636 state that the Indians referred to Long Island as Sewanhaka, sewan was one of the terms for wampum, and is also translated as loose or scattered, which may refer either to the wampum or to Long Island. The name t Lange Eylandt alias Matouwacs appears in Dutch maps from the 1650s, later, the English referred to the land as Nassau Island, after the Dutch Prince William of Nassau, Prince of Orange. It is unclear when the name Nassau Island was discontinued, the very first settlements on Long Island were by settlers from England and its colonies in present-day New England. Lion Gardiner settled nearby Gardiners Island, the first settlement on the geographic Long Island itself was on October 21,1640, when Southold was established by the Rev. John Youngs and settlers from New Haven, Connecticut. Peter Hallock, one of the settlers, drew the long straw and was granted the honor to step ashore first and he is considered the first New World settler on Long Island. Southampton was settled in the same year, Hempstead followed in 1644, East Hampton in 1648, Huntington in 1653, and Brookhaven in 1655. While the eastern region of Long Island was first settled by the English, until 1664, the jurisdiction of Long Island was split, roughly at the present border between Nassau County and Suffolk County. The Dutch founded six towns in present-day Brooklyn beginning in 1645 and these included, Brooklyn, Gravesend, Flatlands, Flatbush, New Utrecht, and Bushwick
6.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
7.
East Coast hip hop
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East Coast hip hop is a regional subgenre of hip hop music that originated in the New York City area during the 1970s. In contrast to other styles, East Coast hip hop music has prioritized complex lyrics for attentive listening rather than beats for dancing, the main components of hip hop culture from that time and still today are MCing, DJing, break dancing, and graffiti. In contrast to the rhyme pattern and scheme utilized in old school hip hop. It has also characterized by multi-syllabic rhymes, complex wordplay. East Coast hip hop has a sound and style, it tends to gravitate to aggressive beats. The aggressive and hard-hitting beats of the form were emphasized by such acts as EPMD and Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions, Big Daddy Kane, Nas, Notorious B. I. G and Slick Rick were noted for their lyrical skill. East coast hip hop is occasionally referred to as New York rap due to its origins, according to AllMusic, At the dawn of the hip-hop era, all rap was East Coast rap. Early artists of the form, including DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, the Sugarhill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Jam Master Jay, pioneered East Coast hip hop during hip hops development. New York-based groups such as De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, later in 1992, Dr. Dres G-Funk record The Chronic would introduce West Coast hip hop to the mainstream. Along with an ability to retain its primary function as party music. Although G-Funk was the most popular variety of hip hop during the early 1990s, during this period, several New York City rappers rising from the local underground scene, began releasing noteworthy albums in the early and mid nineties. Black Moons 1993 debut, Enta Da Stage, was one of the first major recordings to emerge from New Yorks hardcore hip hop scene. The album has been credited with helping spark trends that would come to characterize this period in East Coast hip hop. The Notorious B. I. G. became the figure in East Coast hip hop during most of the 1990s. His success on the charts and rise to the mainstream drew more attention to New York at the time of West Coast hip hops dominance. His commercial success helped pave the way for the success of other East Coast rappers such as Jay-Z, many hip hop aficionados look favorably upon this period as a time of creative growth and influential recordings, describing it as The East Coast Renaissance. Music writer May Blaize of MVRemix Urban comments on the nostalgia felt among hip hop fans for records released during this time, wu-Tang brought the ruckus with 36 Chambers. The world was ours when Nas released Illmatic, Big L, the MVP, came out with Lifestylez ov da Poor and Dangerous
8.
Horrorcore
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Horrorcore is a subgenre of hip hop music based on horror-themed and often darkly transgressive lyrical content and imagery. While exaggerated violence and the supernatural are common in horrorcore, the genre also frequently presents more realistic yet still disturbing portrayals of mental illness, the term horrorcore was popularized by openly horror-influenced hip hop groups such as Flatlinerz and Gravediggaz. The lyrics are inspired by horror movies over moody, hardcore beats. According to rapper Mars, If you take Stephen King or Wes Craven and you throw them on a rap beat, Horrorcore was described by Entertainment Weekly in 1995 as a blend of hardcore rap and bloodthirsty metal. The lyrical content of horrorcore is sometimes described as being similar to that of death metal, Horrorcore artists often feature dark imagery in their music videos and base musical elements of songs upon horror film scores. Following this were groups like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, and songs like Dana Danes Nightmares, which spun more frightening, imaginative narratives. Since 1983, Ganxsta N. I. P. has performed horror-themed lyrics which he described as Psycho Rap, Ganxsta N. I. P. has written lyrics for other groups, including Geto Boys. While Kool Keith later claimed to have invented horrorcore, the first use of the term appeared on the group KMCs 1991 album Three Men With the Power of Ten and he said that the Geto Boys continued to pioneer the style with its second release, Grip It. On That Other Level, with such as Mind of a Lunatic. In 1994, according to Icons of Hip Hop, horrorcore gained prominence in 1994 with the release of Flatlinerz U. S. A. and Gravediggaz 6 Feet Deep. The genre is not popular with audiences as a whole, however, performers such as Insane Clown Posse. Also, horrorcore rapper Eminem sold millions of copies with his horrorcore albums The Slim Shady LP, the Slim Shady LP was certified 3x platinum in October 1999 and 4x platinum in November 2000. The Marshall Mathers LP sold 1,760,049 copies in its first week of being released and was certified diamond, Horrorcore has thrived in Internet culture and sustains an annual super show in Detroit called Wickedstock. Every Halloween since 2003, Horrorcore artists worldwide get together online, according to the January 2004 BBC documentary Underground USA, the subgenre has a massive following across the US and is spreading to Europe. Rolling Stone in 2007 referred to it as a trend that generated more shlock than shock. New York Magazine put horrorcore in the spotlight by listing off the ten most horrifying horrorcore rappers, spin asked Violent J of Insane Clown Posse to list off his favorite horrorcore songs. Songs included, The Dayton Familys Whats On My Mind, Bone Thugs-N-Harmonys Mr. Ouija, Necros Billie Jean 2005, and Michael Jacksons Thriller
9.
Gangsta rap
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Gangsta rap or gangster rap is a subgenre of hip hop music with themes and lyrics that generally emphasize the gangsta lifestyle. After the national attention that Ice-T and N. W. A attracted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, gangsta rap became the most commercially lucrative subgenre of hip hop. Many gangsta rap artists openly boast of their associations with various street gangs as part of their artistic image, with the Bloods. Gangsta rap is closely related to other indigenous gang and crime-oriented forms of music, the subject matter inherent in gangsta rap has caused a great deal of controversy. The White House administrations of both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton criticized the genre, many gangsta rappers argue that in the world of their genre exists the emotions and perspectives of a people whose suffering is too often overlooked and belittled by society. Gangsta rap, some argue, was an effect of the various wrongdoings perpetrated against African-Americans in underprivileged neighborhoods. The various riots sparked by the Rodney King beating and the acquittal of the officers responsible for the beating sparked anger. Gangsta rap acted as an outlet so such people could express themselves angrily and they often used gangsta rap to tell the stories of their lives, which sometimes included strong violence, hypersexuality, and drug abuse. The 1973 album Hustlers Convention by Lightnin Rod and Jaren Clark featured lyrics that deal with life, including pimping. Many rappers, such as Ice-T and Mac Dre, have credited pimp, rudy Ray Moores stand-up comedy and films based on his Dolemite hustler-pimp alter ego also influenced gangsta rap and are still a popular source for samples. Finally, blaxploitation films of the 1970s, with their depictions of black underworld figures, were a major inspiration as well. Tracy Ice-T Morrow, was born in Newark, New Jersey, as a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles where he rose to prominence in the West Coast hip hop scene. In 1986, Ice-T released 6 in the Mornin, which is regarded as among the first gangsta rap songs. In an interview with PROPS magazine, Ice-T said, Heres the exact order of what really went down. Then the syncopation of that rap was used by me when I made 6 in the Mornin, the vocal delivery was the same. P. S. K. is makin that green. six in the morning, police at my door. When I heard that record I was like Oh @#. *%, and call it a bite or what you will but I dug that record. My record didnt sound like P. S. K, but I liked the way he was flowing with it. P. S. K. was talking about Park Side Killers and that was the only difference, when Schoolly did it, it was. one by one, Im knockin em out
