As hip-hop turns 50 and we pull back the lens to see its full story, we can appreciate the rappers who truly changed the game from an artistic and business perspective.
That list wouldn’t be complete without including the groundbreaking trio from East Orange, New Jersey: Naughty by Nature.
They started out performing at their high school talent show and went to the moon.
Initially, Vin Rock (Vincent Brown) and DJ KayGee (Keir Lamont Gist), who joined me on this week’s “Renaissance Man,” enlisted Treach (Anthony Criss) to round out the group.
“We started in 1987 in high school and we didn’t even have a name when we did that talent show,” KayGee told me.
“Then, when we did the talent show, I just scratched, ‘It’s the new style!’ So, you know, we just start calling ourselves the New Style. We started doing a bunch of talent shows and it evolved.”
They changed their name after their first album to Naughty by Nature — and the rest is history.
Now, they’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of their album “19 Naughty III,” which featured their anthem “Hip Hop Hooray.”
Two years earlier in 1991, they released their smash hit, “O.P.P.,” which was used in “Sister Act 2” and changed to a much cleaner “You down with G.O.D.”
And in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Leonardo DiCaprio danced to “Hip Hop Hooray” on his yacht.
“It’s a very classic film. So to see our music in that scene, it was like, ‘Oh, we really mean something to pop culture,’” said Vin.
As kids, they were influenced by Run-DMC and movies like “Wild Style,” “Beat Street” and “Breakin.’” KayGee would DJ while Vin beatboxed and break-danced.
“I was good for the backspin, windmills, I had a headspin. Those were the beautiful days of hip-hop and you just loved it because of the art and creativity of it,” Vin said.
They noted one of their early collaborators was Terry Peppers, the father of former Michigan star and current New England Patriot Jabrill Peppers.
They were also early on the branding front, selling their merch themselves instead of getting ripped off by companies.
“We invest in ourselves. And that’s what made us put up our own retail store,” said Vin, adding that their formula became the norm for rappers going forward.
They also got a leg up from fellow Jersey native Queen Latifah, who signed them to her Flavor Unit Management company.
“We met her in front of a Roy Rogers chicken restaurant on Central Avenue [in East Orange],” Vin recalled.
“And then next thing you know, we invited all of Flavor Unit to a gymnasium.
“And we put on our own show, gave them our demo … And it’s still like much, much love and respect for her.”
Interviewing them reminded me of the Fab Five. Four of us are close, but we are still trying to reel in our brother Chris Webber. We all hope that one day, we can sit courtside while Juwan Howard is coaching.
So, I wanted to know why Treach wasn’t there to celebrate this milestone.
“Treach is doing his thing. He’s acting. He’s doing a play. And, at the moment, he wants to have his space and do him at the moment … He is our brother. He will come back and we will all get back to the stage again, with the three-man threat,” said KayGee.
Vin explained that they’ve been together since they were teens.
“We were child stars, man. It’s not personal, it’s just a soul-searching kind of thing,” he concluded.
And I hope that search lands them all back together before the next big anniversary.
Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the college hoops world in the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons in the NBA before transitioning into a media personality. Rose is an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive-produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the author of the best-selling book “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.