November 13, 2004&mdash;This day in Hip-hop pays homage to the passing of the iconic Ol&#39; Dirty Bastard.

Most fans recognize Russel Tyrone Jones (ODB) as an original member and co-founder of the legendary rap supergroup, the Wu-Tang Clan. True enough, Jones formed an underground rap trio, Force of the Imperial Master. Along with cousins Robert Diggs and Gary Grice (later known as RZA and GZA), the three eventually recruited three new members and the Wu-Tang Clan was formed, ushering a new era of Hip-hop with their groundbreaking debut album,&nbsp;Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chamber).

Two years following the group&#39;s debut, ODB launched his first solo record,&nbsp;Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, which featured multiple hit-singles, such as &ldquo;Brooklyn Zoo&rdquo; and Shimmy Shimmy Ya&rdquo;. The album witnessed ODB&#39;s grit and steel rhymes as seen with&nbsp;Enter The Wu-Tang, which flowed smoothly atop RZA and 4th&nbsp;Disciple&#39;s more minimal approach towards the album&#39;s production.

In 1997, Hip-hop saw ODB rejoin the clan as Wu-Tang released their second album,&nbsp;Wu-Tang Forever, adding acclaim to both the group and ODB, who went on to release his sophomore record,&nbsp;N&mdash;ga Please, which listed the worldwide chart-topping single, &ldquo;Got Your Money&rdquo;.

Throughout his career, fans and critics alike distinguished Ol&#39; Dirty Bastard for his &ldquo;outrageously profane, free-associative rhymes delivered in a distinctive half-ripped, half-sung style,&rdquo; which he tremendously showcased both in his solo career and in the Wu-Tang.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

November 13, 2004&mdash;This day in Hip-hop pays homage to the passing of the iconic Ol&#39; Dirty Bastard.

Most fans recognize Russel Tyrone Jones (ODB) as an original member and co-founder of the legendary rap supergroup, the Wu-Tang Clan. True enough, Jones formed an underground rap trio, Forc...

Hip-Hop Pays Homage to Ol' Dirty Bastard

Following a long period of media hype and speculation, the pioneering Hip-hop group is back with their latest and last album&nbsp;We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service.

&ldquo;This is an excellent high note to end on but this is only telling me that the gas in [A Tribe Called Quest&#39;s] tank is NOWHERE near empty,&rdquo; reads a response post written on Questlove&#39;s Instagram page, &ldquo;I mean it feels vintage in its musicality but is such a 2016 record. And it&#39;s timing could really really truly couldn&#39;t be like&mdash;better because it&#39;s topical.&rdquo;

And The Roots drummer got it right to mention the word &ldquo;topical&rdquo;, because that&#39;s exactly what listeners can expect. A Tribe Called Quest&#39;s final album witnesses the renowned pioneers donning a modern-day prophet persona, spitting out their ever-so-familiar hooks against contemporary issues, ranging from Donald Trump&#39;s recent political victory to long-term issues such as racism, sexism, faulty media, police brutality, and even the much-speculated &ldquo;Space Program&rdquo; en route to Mars.

It&#39;s Golden Age Hip-hop facing off with the modern world, and you&#39;d be wont to not expect such grit and steel verses, such as in the track &ldquo;We The People,&rdquo; which has Q-Tip sympathizing with the oppressed, &ldquo;All you Black folks, you must go/ All you Mexicans, you must go/ And all you poor folks, you must go/ Muslims and gays, boy, we hate your ways/ So all you bad folks, you must go.&rdquo;

The album rallies all four original tribe members and enlists an impressive coalition of iconic artists, such as Kanye West, Andre 3000, Jack White, Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, Busta Rhymes, Talib Kweli, Consequence, and Elton John.

Stream A Tribe Called Quest&#39;s latest album&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://play.spotify.com/album/3WvQpufOsPzkZvcSuynCf3?play%3Dtrue%26utm_source%3Dopen.spotify.com%26utm_medium%3Dopen&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479150831281000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEM2CH5HeWeBLZ85CLyUYKxT1NSOA" href="https://play.spotify.com/album/3WvQpufOsPzkZvcSuynCf3?play=true&amp;utm_source=open.spotify.com&amp;utm_medium=open" target="_blank">via Spotify</a>.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

Following a long period of media hype and speculation, the pioneering Hip-hop group is back with their latest and last album&nbsp;We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service.

&ldquo;This is an excellent high note to end on but this is only telling me that the gas in [A Tribe Called Quest&#39;...

"Thank You 4 Your Service", A Tribe Called Quest Drops Final Album

Flip back to Hip-hop&#39;s glorious Golden Age with Gray and Pipitone&#39;s new book,&nbsp;No Half Steppin&#39;: An Oral and Pictorial History of New York City Club the Latin Quarter and the Birth of Hip-hop&#39;s Golden Era.

No Half Steppin&#39;&nbsp;entails an extensive amount of historical accounts anchored upon the earliest years in Hip-hop. Accounting 212 pages and over 175 colored photographs and images, the text also includes personal narrations from a laundry list of iconic figures, including Special K and Teddy Tedd, KRS-One, MC Shan and Eric B, Daddy O, Fab 5 Freddy, Just-Ice, Positive K, DJ Clark Kent, Chuck D, Sadat X, Prince Paul, Kurtis Blow, Big Daddy Kane, Queen Latifah, Kool G Rap, and the list goes on.

As written on the text&#39;s title, passages look back to a certain time during the 1980&#39;s, wherein a certain Manhattan salsa club became a cornerstone venue which birthed several of today&#39;s Hip-hop legends, such as KRS-One, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, as well as Stetsasonic, to name a few.

Daddy-O of Stetsasonic also contributes his own insight regarding those times, &ldquo;One moment that I always think of when people ask me about the Latin Quarter was Red Alert playing Eric B &amp; Rakim&#39;s &#39;My Melody&#39; for the first time. That might even be my most magical moment in Hip-hop,&rdquo; representing one passage among the many written by a myriad of other artists.

In regard to the authors, Claude &ldquo;Paradise&rdquo; Gray is best known for co-founding the X Clan and their historic album&nbsp;To The East, Backwards, which reaped tremendous acclaim as a socio-politically-conscious Hip-hop classic, born in the Golden Age. Before this, Gray portrayed both entertainment manager and host for the Manhattan club, the Latin Quarter, and became a key figure responsible for the large impact it would make within the industry.

Paradise Gray works alongside auhtor, activist, and fellow Hip-hop enthusiast Giuseppe &ldquo;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://u.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479087708441000&amp;usg=AFQjCNENrHHA2__fA1gvmtqP7K9d_4UeaA" href="http://u.net/" target="_blank">u.net</a>&rdquo; Pipitone, best known for his previous books,&nbsp;Bigger than Hip-hop, Renegades of Funk, Louder than a Bomb,&nbsp;and his most recent&nbsp;Don&#39;t Believe the Hype.

The book is scheduled to release mid-November, this year, published under Wax Poetics. For more information and pre-order options,&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://store.waxpoetics.com/products/no-half-steppin-wax-poetics-books&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479087708441000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGwawNJJKR5B9a1rCkiJ8kG-NikgA" href="http://store.waxpoetics.com/products/no-half-steppin-wax-poetics-books" target="_blank">click here</a>.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

Flip back to Hip-hop&#39;s glorious Golden Age with Gray and Pipitone&#39;s new book,&nbsp;No Half Steppin&#39;: An Oral and Pictorial History of New York City Club the Latin Quarter and the Birth of Hip-hop&#39;s Golden Era.

No Half Steppin&#39;&nbsp;entails an extensive amount of historical acc...

Remembering Hip-hop's Golden Age with Gray & Pipitone's "No Half Steppin'"

This day in Hip-hop acknowledges the following iconic albums making their debut on this day, several years back.

&nbsp;

Live From The Styleetron&nbsp;(1991)

<ul>
	<li>
	Marking the memorable debut of Oakland-based hip-hop supergroup, Raw Fusion, the album showcased an unexpected dive into a more minimal, jazzy sound, as opposed to the previous P-funk sounds witnessed in earlier work. Raw Fusion represented the combined forces of Digital Underground&#39;s Money-B and DJ Fuze, ushering their distinct humor-induced lyricism onto the West Coast scene.
	</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

2Pacalypse Now&nbsp;(1991)

<ul>
	<li>
	Hip-hop legend, Tupac Shakur&#39;s debut album also released on this day under Interscope and EastWest Records America. The record featured breakout hits, such as &ldquo;Brenda&#39;s Got a Baby&rdquo;, &ldquo;If My Homie Calls&rdquo;, and &ldquo;Trapped&rdquo;&mdash;all of which are now critically-acclaimed Hip-hop classics. The album recently released it&#39;s 25th&nbsp;anniversary Vinyl edition, catered by Respect The Classics.
	</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

The Doggfather&nbsp;(1996)

<ul>
	<li>
	Going big in the West Coast scene, Snoop Dogg continued his ongoing G-funk phenomenal brand of rap with his second album, signed under Death Row and Interscope Records. The album became a commercial success, debuting at #1 on both the US&nbsp;Billboard&nbsp;200 and Top R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, as well as selling over 470,000 copies in its debut week, extending to over two million to this date.
	</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

The Blueprint 2: The Gift &amp; The Curse&nbsp;(2002)

<ul>
	<li>
	Moving onto the East, Jay-Z released his seventh studio album, brandishing the Roc-A-Fella Records insignia. The album represented a direct sequel to his previous&nbsp;The Blueprint&nbsp;album, which released a year prior. The album also marked Jay-Z&#39;s first project debuting at #1 in its premier week, and featured hit-singles such as &ldquo;03 Bonnie &amp; Clyde&rdquo;, &ldquo;Excuse Me Miss&rdquo;, and &ldquo;Hovi Baby&rdquo;.
	</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

This day in Hip-hop acknowledges the following iconic albums making their debut on this day, several years back.

&nbsp;

Live From The Styleetron&nbsp;(1991)


	
	Marking the memorable debut of Oakland-based hip-hop supergroup, Raw Fusion, the album showcased an unexpected dive into a more...

Throwback Albums: Snoop, Pac, Jay-Z, and Raw Fus

This day in Hip-hop recognizes the late, great Henry Lee Jackson, better known as Big Bank Hank of the legendary rap group, The Sugarhill Gang.

Jackson&#39;s humble beginnings traces back to his days as music manager working at a certain Bronx nightclub under the employment of Hip-hop icon, Grandmaster Caz and his group The Mighty Force MC&#39;s. Years later, Jackson was currently managing for a local group, The Cold Crush Brothers, when he was approached by Sylvia Robinson, upon hearing Jackson rapping. After which, Jackson donned the title, &ldquo;Big Bank Hank&rdquo; and the iconic rap trio Sugarhill Gang was formed.

At age twenty-two, Jackson contributed greatly to the group&#39;s memorable self-titled album released February, 1980. The record featured the breakout single, &ldquo;Rapper&#39;s Delight&rdquo;, which reached #36 on the US pop chart, as well as #4 on R&amp;B. While the song isn&#39;t the first to feature rapping, Big Bank Hank is considered among the pioneering figures introducing Hip-hop onto the mainstream audience.

Big Bank Hank gained tremendous applause for a specific verse, wherein the rapper narrates a vividly-devised, comic-inspired hook, seemingly targeted against a metaphoric Superman and spoken to Lois Lane. On this subject, Jackson is well-known for his chant, &ldquo;Ho-tel, Mo-tel, what you gonna do today/ I&#39;m gonna get a fly girl, gonna get some spank n&#39; drive off in a def O.J.&rdquo;

Jackson passed away on November 11, 2014 at age fifty-eight, but his legacy lives on as a Hip-hop pioneer, as well as a prominent figure born out of its earliest days.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

&nbsp;

This day in Hip-hop recognizes the late, great Henry Lee Jackson, better known as Big Bank Hank of the legendary rap group, The Sugarhill Gang.

Jackson&#39;s humble beginnings traces back to his days as music manager working at a certain Bronx nightclub under the employment of Hip-hop icon, Grand...

Remembering Big Bank Hank of The Sugarhill Gang

Two iconic albums debuted on this day in Hip-hop, authored by two prominent figures arguably-considered innovators and revolutionaries with the distinct sounds they imparted. One ushering in grit and steel of West Coast gangsta rap, while the other parading through the dark streets of Horror-core Hip-hop.

&nbsp;

Last Man Standing&nbsp;(1997)

<ul>
	<li>
	The third studio album from MC Eiht, released under Epic Street records showcased production from Dat Nigga Daz and DJ Muggs, and featured the West Coast rapper&#39;s hit-single, &ldquo;Hit The Floor&rdquo;, which featured Daz Dillinger who also produced the track. Similar to his previous two albums, MC Eiht ensures a large&nbsp;Compton&#39;s Most Wanted&nbsp;collaborative imprint on&nbsp;Last Man Standing,&nbsp;and also featuring appearances from artists, such as Boom Bam and B-Real. MC Eiht&#39;s third studio album peaked at #64 on the US&nbsp;Billboard&nbsp;200 and #13 off the Top R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

	&nbsp;
	</li>
</ul>

The Return of the Psychopath&nbsp;(2003)

<ul>
	<li>
	Known for his vivid depictions of a Hip-hop horror scene inherent in his brand of music, Ganxsta NIP, returned with his sixth studio album, released after a four-year recluse. The album was releases under both Rest In Peace and Black Market Records, and featured production from the likes of 151, Dope E, JB Money and K-Rino, as well as showcasing a project under the guidance of fellow Horror-core rap specialist, Mars. With an album authored by an artist so immersed in this sub-genre, listeners gain entry into Hip-hop&#39;s dark underworld painted ever-so-clearly amidst a tempest of raw, razor-sharp rhymes Ganxta NIP sends flying through the air.
	</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

Two iconic albums debuted on this day in Hip-hop, authored by two prominent figures arguably-considered innovators and revolutionaries with the distinct sounds they imparted. One ushering in grit and steel of West Coast gangsta rap, while the other parading through the dark streets of Horror-core Hi...

Hip-Hop Pays Homage to Ol' Dirty Bastard

"Thank You 4 Your Service", A Tribe Called Quest Drops Final Album

Remembering Hip-hop's Golden Age with Gray & Pipitone's "No Half Steppin'"

Throwback Albums: Snoop, Pac, Jay-Z, and Raw Fus

Remembering Big Bank Hank of The Sugarhill Gang

Throwback Albums: MC Eiht & Ganxta NIP

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