60 Fun Facts About 90s Hip Hop

Tupac Shakur's debut album 2Pacalypse Now (1991) took its title from which film?

He had debuted months earlier as a dancer and rapper with Digital Underground; his mother Afeni was a Black Panther.

Tupac's Me Against the World hit number one in March 1995 while he was where?

He was serving a sentence for sexual abuse; the album made him the first artist to top the Billboard 200 from behind bars.

All Eyez on Me (1996) holds what distinction in rap history?

Suge Knight bailed Tupac out of prison in exchange for three albums on Death Row; this was the first, released in February 1996.

Under what alias did Tupac release The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory?

The name nodded to Machiavelli, fuelling theories that he had faked his death; the album came out two months after he was shot in Las Vegas.

Tupac was shot in a drive-by on September 7, 1996, in which city?

He had just watched a Mike Tyson fight; he died six days later, and the case stayed unsolved for 27 years.

The Notorious B.I.G. borrowed his alias 'Biggie Smalls' from a character in which 1975 film?

Calvin Lockhart played the gangster; Christopher Wallace was born in Brooklyn in 1972.

Biggie's breakthrough 1994 single, the one that opens 'It was all a dream', is built on which 1983 track?

'Big Poppa' followed to number six and a Grammy nomination; the album is six-times platinum.

Which R&B singer did Biggie marry in August 1994, weeks before Ready to Die came out?

She later sang on 'I'll Be Missing You', Puff Daddy's tribute that topped the chart for 11 weeks.

How long after Biggie's murder in March 1997 was his second album, Life After Death, released?

It debuted at number one and delivered two posthumous chart-toppers, 'Hypnotize' and 'Mo Money Mo Problems'.

Which magazine's July 1995 cover declared Biggie 'The King of New York'?

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, three years after Tupac.

How old was Nas when Illmatic came out in April 1994?

The Source gave it a perfect five mics; the cover shows a seven-year-old Nas over a photo of the Queensbridge projects.

Which of these producers did NOT work on Illmatic?

Large Professor and L.E.S. round out the credits; AZ is the album's only guest rapper, on 'Life's a Bitch'.

Illmatic was hailed as a classic on release, but when did the RIAA certify a million shipments?

Nas's follow-up It Was Written (1996), largely produced by the Trackmasters, went to number one and remains his best seller.

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) takes its title from Enter the Dragon and which other kung fu film?

RZA produced it on a shoestring at Firehouse Studio; the deal famously let each member sign solo contracts elsewhere.

What unusual clause did the Wu-Tang Clan negotiate with their label in 1993?

The result was Method Man on Def Jam, Raekwon on Loud, GZA on Geffen and Ol' Dirty Bastard on Elektra within two years.

The Chronic's cover pays homage to what?

The title is slang for high-grade cannabis; the album launched Snoop and defined G-funk with its Parliament-Funkadelic bass.

How did Snoop Dogg get his nickname?

Born Calvin Broadus in Long Beach in 1971, he was rechristened Snoop Lion by a Rastafarian priest in 2012.

Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle (1993) sold how many copies in its first week on the way to a number-one debut?

He was facing a first-degree murder charge at the time; he was acquitted in February 1996.

Which label did Snoop Dogg move to in March 1998 after leaving Death Row?

Master P's New Orleans empire released his next three albums; Snoop bought the Death Row brand itself in 2022.

Death Row Records was founded in 1991 by Suge Knight, Dr. Dre, Dick Griffey and which N.W.A associate?

Interscope put up $10 million in 1992; Dre walked out in March 1996 to start Aftermath as the label imploded.

Sean Combs founded Bad Boy in 1993 after being fired from which label?

The first release was Craig Mack's 'Flava in Ya Ear'; by 1997 the label was worth an estimated $100 million.

In 1995 Suge Knight invited artists to 'come to Death Row' if tired of their executive producer doing what?

The dig at Puff Daddy is usually cited as the public start of the East Coast-West Coast war.

Tupac blamed Biggie and Puffy for the November 1994 shooting at which New York studio?

He was shot in the lobby while Junior M.A.F.I.A. members were upstairs; 'Hit 'Em Up' followed in 1996.

Andre 3000's line 'The South got something to say' was a response to what?

The Atlanta duo's Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik had won Best New Rap Group; ATLiens and Aquemini followed.

Which civil-rights icon sued OutKast in 1999 over a song title on Aquemini?

The case dragged on for six years before settling; the duo went on to win Album of the Year for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

Jay-Z's 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt appeared on which label he co-founded with Damon Dash and Kareem Burke?

It peaked at only number 23 but featured Biggie on 'Brooklyn's Finest' and Mary J. Blige on 'Can't Knock the Hustle'.

The Fugees' 'Ready or Not' samples an unlikely artist. Who?

The Score, with its Roberta Flack cover 'Killing Me Softly', sold about 22 million copies, still the most by any hip hop group.

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) was the first hip hop record to win what?

She took five Grammys that night, then a record for a woman; most of the album was recorded at Bob Marley's Tuff Gong studio in Kingston.

Which lead single from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill debuted at number one on the Hot 100?

The album's first-week sales of 422,000 were a record for a female artist; it remains her only solo studio album.

Coolio's 1995 smash hit interpolates which Stevie Wonder song?

Wonder refused to allow profanity, so it is one of Coolio's few clean tracks; it was 1995's best-selling US single and soundtracked Dangerous Minds.

Salt-N-Pepa became the first female rap act to win a Grammy in 1995 with which single?

Their album Very Necessary went five-times platinum; 'Whatta Man' with En Vogue reached number three.

In 1998 DMX became the first rapper to do what?

It's Dark and Hell Is Hot in May and Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood in December; his first five albums all debuted at number one.

DMX took his stage name from what?

The Oberheim DMX was a staple of early-80s hip hop production; Earl Simmons died in 2021 aged 50.

Which British singer's track is sampled on Eminem's 1999 breakthrough 'My Name Is'?

The Slim Shady LP debuted at number two and won Best Rap Album; Dr. Dre said he had never signed anyone from a demo before.

MC Hammer's Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em was the first hip hop album to achieve what?

'U Can't Touch This' rode Rick James's 'Super Freak'; his nickname came from an Oakland A's batboy stint when he was said to resemble Hank Aaron.

"Ice Ice Baby" (1990) was the first hip hop single to top the Hot 100. Whose bassline did it borrow uncredited?

It was originally a B-side to a 'Play That Funky Music' cover; the writers of 'Under Pressure' were paid and credited after the fact.

Which group's Black Sunday debuted at number one in 1993 with the highest first-week sales for a rap group?

'Insane in the Brain' crossed over; in 2019 they became the first hip hop group with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's 'Tha Crossroads' (1996) was a tribute to which figure who had signed them?

The Cleveland group's harmonised rapid-fire style took the song to eight weeks at number one and a Grammy.

Big Pun's Capital Punishment (1998) was the first album by a solo Latino rapper to do what?

Fat Joe discovered the Bronx rapper; he died of a heart attack in 2000 aged 28.

Nas's supergroup The Firm originally featured Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown and which Queensbridge rapper?

Cormega was replaced by Nature before the group's lone 1997 album; It Was Written's 'If I Ruled the World' featured Lauryn Hill.

Which weekly BET show and which MTV show were the essential 90s rap video outlets?

Yo! MTV Raps had launched in 1988 with Run-DMC hosting the pilot; Fab 5 Freddy and Ed Lover and Doctor Dre followed.

Which movie soundtrack gave Coolio's 'Gangsta's Paradise' its home in 1995?

Michelle Pfeiffer's teacher drama sold far more soundtracks than tickets; Coolio won the Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance.

Missy Elliott's blow-up suit in 'The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)' was widely compared to what?

Hype Williams shot the suit through a fisheye lens; the track's chorus is lifted straight from Ann Peebles' 1973 single 'I Can't Stand the Rain'.

Puff Daddy and Faith Evans' 1997 Biggie tribute 'I'll Be Missing You' is built on which Police song?

Combs never cleared the sample, so Sting sued and walked away with 100 percent of the royalties on a record that spent eleven weeks at number one.

Will Smith's 1998 hit 'Gettin' Jiggy wit It' samples which 1979 Sister Sledge disco hit?

It gave Smith his first Hot 100 number one and the 1999 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, three weeks on top from March 1998.

Which rap elder gave Busta Rhymes his stage name, borrowed from NFL receiver George 'Buster' Rhymes?

Busta broke through with Leaders of the New School on A Tribe Called Quest's 1991 posse cut 'Scenario' before going solo with The Coming in 1996.

No Limit boss Master P spent ten days on which NBA team's training-camp roster in January 1999?

He got a second look from Toronto that autumn and complained the Raptors never gave him a fair shot; No Limit Enterprises grossed $110 million in 1998.

Which jazz double bassist did A Tribe Called Quest hire to play on The Low End Theory (1991)?

He appears on 'Verses from the Abstract' and agreed to play only on the condition that the group kept profanity off the record.

Wu-Tang Clan's 1997 single 'Triumph' runs over five minutes with no hook. How many verses does it have?

Every member plus Cappadonna gets a verse, while Ol' Dirty Bastard only handles the intro and bridge; the parent album Wu-Tang Forever debuted at number one.

During whose Song of the Year speech at the 1998 Grammys did ODB declare 'Wu-Tang is for the children'?

He was protesting Wu-Tang Forever losing Best Rap Album to Puff Daddy's No Way Out.

In Juice (1992), Tupac's first film role, he plays which of the four Harlem friends?

Treach, Money-B and Donald Faison had all auditioned for the part; Tupac only tagged along with Money-B, asked to read, and got 15 minutes to rehearse.

Jay-Z's 1998 hit 'Hard Knock Life' pitches up a children's chorus from which Broadway musical?

The parent album gave Jay-Z his first Billboard 200 number-one debut and a Best Rap Album Grammy he boycotted because the rap categories were not being televised.

Naughty by Nature's 1991 hit 'O.P.P.' is built on a sample of which Jackson 5 song?

The track also samples Melvin Bliss's 'Synthetic Substitution', one of hip hop's most-used breakbeats.

Warren G's 'Regulate' (1994) rides a sample of which Michael McDonald song?

It was the first single from the Above the Rim soundtrack; the video included a Tupac cameo.

Which producer discovered the teenage duo Kris Kross at an Atlanta mall in 1990?

Dupri was 18 himself; the duo became known for wearing their clothes backwards.

Which Cypress Hill DJ produced House of Pain's 'Jump Around' (1992)?

Muggs originally made the beat for Cypress Hill, but B-Real could not come up with lyrics; the horn intro samples Bob & Earl's 'Harlem Shuffle'.

Whose 1994 debut Funkdafied was the first platinum album by a female solo rapper?

The Chicago native released it on Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label two years after starting her career.

Which Queen Latifah single from Black Reign won the 1995 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance?

The song was also featured on Living Single, the sitcom Latifah began the same year.

Which production team, known for Public Enemy, produced most of Ice Cube's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted?

Cube's first solo album after his bitter split from N.W.A peaked at 19 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum in June 1990.

Pete Rock & CL Smooth's 'T.R.O.Y.' (1992) memorialises a dancer from which group?

Troy Dixon, 'Trouble T-Roy', died in 1990; the beat samples Tom Scott's 'Today'.