NAUGHTY BY NATURE AND RAKIM HEADLINE THE WILBUR THEATRE ON JULY 19TH

Boston, MA- Naughty By Nature and Rakim are set to perform The Wilbur Theatre on Friday July 19th, 2013 at 8:00pm

The Grammy Award winning, Platinum-album selling, New Jersey super-group, Naughty By Nature, has nearly a twenty-year track record of creating the hits and party anthems that have become the soundtrack to our lives. Their music has smashed through mainstream barriers all while remaining true to the sound, message and grit of the hood. And now, these three kings of the hip-hop anthem have formally claimed their titles and named their forthcoming reunion album, “Anthem Inc.” in celebration.

Life is good. Treach, Vin Rock and DJ Kay Gee are back in the studio, doing what they do best: creating undeniably classic, hand-raising, life-affirming, hip-hop music. “We wouldn’t have reunited if we didn’t think we could give people that authentic Naughty feeling,” says the group’s master lyricist Treach. “This new album is definitely gonna take you back, but just like we always did, we’ve invented a new sound, a bunch of new flows and after being without an album for so long, we’ve gotta lotta things to say.”

Few groups in music can boast a near twenty-year career that has been both consistent and history making. Naughty By Nature, the Grammy and American Music Award winning rap trio, initially called “New Style”, began performing at talent shows and were discovered by fellow New Jersey native and then-emerging hip-hop artist, Queen Latifah. Eventually signing the group to her management company “Flavor Unit Management”, Latifah helped them land a deal with Tommy Boy Records.

Naughty By Nature’s self-titled debut album was released in 1991 and quickly assaulted the music charts with the instant classic #1 hit “O.P.P.”. The group quickly became crossover stars, while maintaining their ghetto sensibility. To date, their success and longevity as a Hip-hop group has been unparalleled. These three “Kings of The Hip-hop Anthem” went on to produce their follow-up albums that have become part of America’s Hip-hop legacy: “19 Naughty III”, “Poverty’s Paradise“ and “Nature’s Fury”.

Inevitably, a break-up in 1999 would lead to the group members each following different, yet equally successful, personal endeavors. As a producer, Kay Gee went onto produce award winning music with artists including: Luther Vandross, Notorious B.I.G, Jaheim, Next and Zhane. As an actor, Treach found success in film and television offering critically acclaimed performances in HBO’s original series “The Sopranos” and “OZ”, along with “Jason’s Lyric”, “Soul Food”, the Hip-hop cult-classic “Juice” and several other films.

As the marketing genius behind the group, Vin Rock developed Naughty Gear; one of the first Hip-hop inspired clothing lines. When he got a hold of the worldwide web, he mastered it with www.NaughtyByNature.com, further developing and expanding the reach of the Naughty brand. Throughout this time, Treach and Vin Rock continued to tour and perform around the world. In 2002, the duo struck a deal with TVT Records and produced their last album, IIcons.

Fast forward to 2008: After years of steady touring and itching to get back in the studio, both Treach and Vin agreed, that in order for the next album to have that authentic sound and feel of Naughty By Nature, they must reunite with DJ Kay Gee. At this same time, VH1 bestowed their coveted “Hip-hop Honor” to the group as innovators of our culture. Joining the ranks of Big Daddy Kane, Rakim and Eazy E., the group received their “Hip-hop Honors” in October of 2008.

The group continues to tour globally, ripping stages from Australia to Canada and New Jersey to South Africa. Naughty By Nature is on their A-game and have no plans to stop anytime soon.  

Likewise, Rakim has had an equally influential impact on the world of Hip-Hop. In 1986, Rakim started to work with New York-based producer-DJ Eric B. The duo—known as Eric B & Rakim—is widely regarded as among the most influential and groundbreaking of hip-hop groups, due in no small part to Rakim’s technical abilities. The duo’s first single, "Eric B. Is President" was a success and got the duo a contract with the fledgling Island Records sub-label 4th & B’way. The duo’s next single, the smash “I Know You Got Soul,” sparked early debate on the legality of unauthorized, unaccredited sampling when James Brown sued to prevent the duo’s use of a fragment of his music. It also established Brown’s back catalog as a hip musical mining ground for a new generation of hip-hop programmers.

Their first full album, Paid in Full, was released in 1987. causing a stir in the hip-hop music world due to its novel sound, approach, and subject matter. Rakim pioneered a practice previously unknown to hip-hop called internal rhyming. Already an important aspect of traditional poetry, where rhymes could be found throughout the bar of a lyric which added to the rhythmic complexity of the song: "I keep the mic at Fahrenheit, freeze MCs, make ’em colder/The listeners system is kicking like solar/As I memorize, advertise like a poet/Keep it goin’, when I’m flowin’ smooth enough, you know it’s rough." Instead of two rhyming syllables within two lines at the end of the lines, as we would find in the older hip-hop style displayed above, we have 18 rhyming syllables in just four lines. Rakim also introduced a lyrical technique known as cliffhanging and popularized the use of metaphors with multiple meanings. His songs were the first to really impart hip-hop music lyrics with a serious poetic device sensibility.

Eric B & Rakim went on to produce three more successful albums, all now considered hip hop standards. Prior to Rakim, hip-hop music lyricism was usually rather simple from a structural standpoint and the ideas it expressed were easy and direct. Many hip-hop artists (both underground and mainstream) acknowledge a huge debt to Rakim’s innovative style. He is given credit for popularizing the heavy use of internal rhymes in hip-hop—rhymes that are not necessary to the overall rhyme scheme of the verse, but occur between the endpoints of lines and stanzas, serving to increase the alliteration, assonance, and emphasis of the rhyme. He is also credited for the jazzy, heavily stylistic, seemingly effortless delivery of his lyrical content. 

Bill Blumenreich presents Naughty By Nature and Rakim

Friday July 19th, 2013 at 8:00pm

The Wilbur is located at 246 Tremont St. in Boston’s Historic Theatre District

Tickets: $25-$30

For more information about the Wilbur and other great events visit https://wilburboston.wpengine.com