Every week as part of our Saturday night hip hop show The Breaks, hosts Confucius and Fresh present facts about the culture of hip hop and R&B that you might not have known.
Disclaimer: None of these facts have been fact-checked so might in fact be false. Read at your own risk.
#1 – DJ Premier refused to produce for Lady of Rage until he received permission from the heads of Death Row Records.
- Turns out Suge Knight and Dr. Dre loved Premier, just hated Bad Boy Records.
- Was there ever East vs West coast, or was it always just Bad Boy vs Death Row?
# 2 – Lil Jon was originally a DJ.
- Jermaine Dupree discovered Lil Jon through his DJing in the ATL club scene.
# 3 – The Men in Black soundtrack sold 10 million copies. Will Smith’s sunglasses sold 14 million.
- Steve Stoute himself has verified this fact!!!
# 4 – His feature on the 8 Mile soundtrack was 50 Cent’s major label debut.
- Turns out, a feature on a quadruple platinum Acadamy award-winning record is a pretty good way to launch a career.
# 5 – In the beginning, there was no The Love Below.
- Originally, Speakerboxxx was planned as Big Boi’s solo debut. Everything was ready to go, but two weeks before the release Andre 3000 called up L.A. Reid to ask if he could create his own record to sell with Speakerboxxx. Two weeks later, Andre shows up with The Love Below.
# 6 – Before Frank Ocean came out as bisexual, Tyler the Creator claims he already knew because Frank likes his pop tarts without the frosting.
- No comment.
