Hip Hop History by Drew Curry

Raekwon is a two time hall of famer, from both his work with Wu-Tang and his solo work. This week we touch on the life and come up of Corey Woods. Corey or Raekwon the Chef would grow up with a few of the future members of the Wu including Ghostface Killah who would be a major part of not only connecting Wu members but also a large part of Raekwons' first album, a classic. The purple tape would so...

Book of Ryan is the seventh album by Royce Da 5'9". This may be Royces' best album with tracks like 'Cocaine', 'Boblo Boat' and 'Strong Friend' these tracks and more Royce puts his life and experience on the track. This album combines his lyricism with his experiences into a beautifully honest album. Check out this episode about Royces album and more importantly check out the album, everywhere you...

Ryan "Royce Da 5'9"" Montgomery is one of the most fierce emcees of all time. Royce has had a long career that has no signs of slowing down. Royce started in Detroit, Michigan and he would make a name for himself and then meet up with Eminem and the two would grow together and start the group later to be called 'Bad Meets Evil', somethings would come between the two and end that endeavor for years...

Welcome to this episode of hip hop history, this week we are getting into the third album by Redman. This is perhaps Redmans most well known album. The album that definitely propelled him to another level. This is a certified classic album. Check out this episode, but more importantly check out this album. Its available everywhere you listen to music. Please, like, subscribe and leave a review whe...

Redman is one of the greatest emcees of all time. If we purely go off of Eminems' song Lose Yourself, "It goes REGGIE, JayZ, Tupac and Biggie. Andre from Outkast, Kurupt, Nas and then me." then Reggie or Redman is number one. Redman has been around and prevalent since 1992. Redman has been around legendary groups and mistakenly put into many iconic groups. He has been incorrectly put into EPMD and...

Ridin Dirty is the third studio album by the dynamic duo UGK. It was released July 30, 1996 through Jive Records. The album sold 70,000 copies in its first week and 850,00 copies to date. This is the album most people, who were unaware of the duo before 'Big Pimpin', ran to, to hear from the legendary group. Check out this episode hear a few songs from the group and find out more about the album a...

UGK is one of the most prolific and legendary groups of all time. Made up of the illustrious Pimp C and the incomparable Bun B, both straight out of Port Arthur, Texas. These two had made great music, that didn't hit the mainstream until they assisted Jay Z on 'Big Pimpin' which gave them the spotlight they deserved. Listen to this episode and get to know a little bit about this legendary group. R...

This week we are talking bout the first album from the emcee we talked about last week, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. The album was delayed because of leaks, which provided Lupe the opportunity to create a song with Pharrell. Lupe had his first big feature on the Kanye West song "Touch The Sky" after that Lupe skyrocketed and his worked backed up the praise. He first hit the unique song "Kick P...

This week we are getting into a legend out of Chicago, who is a true emcee. Lupe Fiasco has been heralded by Pharrell, Kanye and Jay Z early on in his career. Lupe has went on to create some of the most well thought out, important songs of the past twenty years. Lupe Fiasco is one of those emcees that most emcees want no problems with. Lupe is one of my personal favorite emcees of all time. Check...

This week we go to Memphis, Tennessee where the iconic group started with three members; Paul 'DJ Paul' Beauregard, Ricky 'Lord Infamous' Dunigan, and Jordan 'Juicy J' Houston. The group that was a pioneer in horror core, crunk and so much more. The three would grow to six and have a ground breaking sound and style. They would go on to win an Oscar for their work on Hustle & Flow. The road was...

Hell Hath No Fury is now the third album released by the legendary group Clipse. I say now because their first album Exclusive Audio Footage was shelved until 2022 when it was released. Check out what went into making this classic album who produced it, hint it was The Neptunes, and the samples and writing that went into making it. Malice and Push made a classic album through the struggles of tyin...

Two brothers from Virginia Beach, Virginia meet the masterful production duo known as The Neptunes, also from the area, and one of the greatest duos of all time was born. Clipse could have given us more classics than they already did, if it wasn't for the record labels. Their first recorded album wasn't released until recently, but they quickly moved record labels and created Lord WIllin' which wa...

Before Mos Def and Talib Kweli released their own solo albums, they decided to join forces and become Black Star. Black Star is everything Mos is times two, Mos and Talib are some of the realest, most conscious, and determined emcees the world has. We've heard two episodes describing who Mos is and his first album. Now jump into this episode and find out about he making of yet another classic albu...

Black On Both Sides is the debut solo album by the one and only Mos Def. Check out what made this album including producers, samples and the time that it took Mos Def to complete this classic album. Check out this album and let me know what you think. Thank you Mos Def for this classic album and everything you've contributed to the culture and pushing it forward. Thank you for listening to this ep...

Mos Def may be the most unique artist hip hop has ever seen, between his work on wax and his work on film, no one is even really close to his skill set. Mos started at a young age in film and television, going between New York and Los Angeles. Mos then left high school early to continue on his journey in entertainment. Mos and fellow New York emcee Talib Kweli were both preparing their individual...

The second album by the ground breaking group Paul's Boutique didn't perform as well as any of their other albums but has made the biggest impact. People are still influenced by the production and lyricism today. Beastie Boys are known as influencers across many genres of music, from Eminem to Rage Against The Machine and many others. Many artist have called them an influence and they have influen...

The Beastie Boys are a culture shifting band/group who started out as a punk group in the mid to late 80's, who switched to hip hop around the time they met Rick Rubin who we covered earlier this season. Beastie Boys first album had them penned as frat rap, so off of their first record label and away from Rick, they came back with a heavily sampled production by the Dust Brothers that changed the...

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik is the debut album from the iconic southern group OutKast. With this album OutKast came out with a bang and put the entire genre on notice. No longer would southern rappers run to east and west coast production teams to produce their albums. Everything OutKast was doing was out of the world famous Dungeon in Atlanta. One of the greatest albums of all time by quite p...

Quite possibly the greatest duo in hip hop, this Atlanta group made up of Andre "3000" Benjamin and Antwan 'Big Boi" Patton has solidified themselves in the history books. OutKast came out with a bang and made sure they spoke up for their city and their uniqueness. One of the early icon moments came from The Source Awards in 1995, with Andre declaring that "the south had something to say." Ever si...

Flesh Of My Flesh Blood Of My Blood and It's Dark And Hell Is Hot were the first two major label releases by the incomparable DMX. Released in 1998 in May and December respectively. Two platinum albums with absolute classic songs on classic albums. DMX is the only artist to release two albums in the same year under one name. Pac had done it a few years before in 96 but one was a posthumous album u...

Earl Simmons was raised in an abusive one parent household and found that love he was seeking and needing in stray dogs. Earl was introduced to his life long enemy, drugs, by those closest to him all before twelve years old. Despite those unfortunate events and many more you'll hear about in this episode about the one and only DMX, he became an unforgettable talent, treasure and messenger for God....

Rick Rubin is one of the most revered and constant producers since the 80's. He was the founder and owner of Def Jam Records until the early 2000's. Rick still to this day is making music with rappers and rockers alike. He is a multi time grammy award winner who has won with artist like Adele, Eminem, Jay Z, The Dixie Chicks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Johnny Cash to name a few. Check out this epi...

Country Grammar was the first album from one of the best selling hip hop artist of all time. Country Grammar is one of the few albums of all time that has went diamond and still sells to this day. Country Grammar brought in playground rhymes and childhood games into the rap game. Down down baby, is just one example. Listen to this album and hear some snippet of each song and how it got to this poi...

Welcome to the premiere of season three of Hip Hop History by Drew Curry, this week we are getting into a legend from the midwest. The one and only Nelly out of St. Louis, Missouri. The reason I am confident in the spelling of Missouri because of the line M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-O-U-R-I no one could do it better. Nelly came in the game on fire with Country Grammar and his follow up Nelly...

It's Gangsta Grillz you bastards! Arguably the greatest mixtape series to ever exist on this planet. DJ Drama has worked with more artist than I should name, but Ron Artest, Katt Williams, ItsTheReal, Bun B, Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, I could go on and on but you get the point. The legendary man has worked with damn near everyone in the game. Thank you DJ Drama for this amazing body of work that stil...