RAP MANIA HITS THE UK FEATURING EPMD, ONYX, M.O.P. AND LORDS OF THE UNDERGROUND HOSTED BY JERU THE DAMAJA AND RODNEY P

Hip hop legends EPMDOnyxM.O.P. and Lords Of The Under­ground have announced they will be join­ing forces for two very spe­cial UK shows in April 2020, per­form­ing togeth­er for the very first time in Lon­don at O2 For­um Kentish Town (04 April) and Bris­tol, O2 Academy (05 April).

EMPD aka Erick Ser­mon (aka E Double) and Par­rish Smith (PMD) began record­ing as EPMD in the late 80s and early 90s and were among the best in hip hop’s under­ground scene. With four albums, includ­ing the 1988 clas­sic Strictly Busi­ness to 1992’s Strictly Per­son­al and numer­ous col­lab­or­a­tions, the duo are back to work more than thirty years on at Long Island, New York’s Def Squad Stu­di­os, for their first release since their con­cert album, Live Busi­ness in 2019. EMPD legend and co-founder Erick Ser­mon has also released his eighth stu­dio album, Ver­nia (19 April 2019 – Def Squad Records) fea­tur­ing AZ, Big K.R.I.T., Too Short, Keith Mur­ray, Raek­won; and in 2017, PMD released Busine$$ Men­tal­ity.

Hip hop roy­alty M.O.P. need little intro­duc­tion. “Ante Up” and “Cold As Ice” from 2000’s War­ri­orz album (Loud Records) became street anthems and a corner­stone of Billy Dan­ze and Lil Fame’s cata­logue; sym­bol­ic of the music the Browns­ville, Brook­lyn duo had been mak­ing since the early 90s. Over the last three dec­ades M.O.P. have col­lab­or­ated with a who’s‑who of hip hop legends includ­ing DJ Premi­er, Busta Rhymes and Wu-Tang Clan.

Amer­ic­an hard­core rap­pers Onyx — Fre­dro Starr and Sticky Fin­gaz — were foun­ded in 1988 under the guid­ance of Jam Mas­ter Jay, and their trail-blaz­ing debut album, Bacdafucup, reached Plat­in­um status, peak­ing at No.10 on the Bill­board 200. The influ­en­tial east coast rap­pers shot to star­dom with the break­out single, “Slam” hit­ting No.4 on the Bill­board 100.

Years later and after sev­er­al full-length under­ground clas­sics, Onyx are back with SnowMads (released 15 Novem­ber 2019 – Goon MuSick), their eighth stu­dio album, pro­duced entirely by Snow­goons, with guest appear­ances from rap­pers Dope D.O.D., Bumpy Knuckles, Nems amongst oth­ers. This year, Onyx have also dropped Lost Treas­ures, (07 Feb­ru­ary 2020), a spe­cial com­pil­a­tion of rare and unre­leased tracks from Onyx and Sticky and Fre­dro. Spe­cial guests on the record include Bobby Brown, Talib Kweli, Layzie Bone and KRS-One amongst oth­ers.

Plat­in­um-selling hip hop trio, Lords Of The Under­ground, based in Newark, New Jer­sey, met and formed in 1990 while attend­ing Shaw Uni­ver­sity Raleigh, North Car­o­lina. DJ Lord Jazz and rap­pers Mr. Funke and Doitall had three hit singles, “Psy­cho”“Funky Child” and their sig­na­ture song “Chief Rocka” on the rap charts before their debut album Here Come the Lords even appeared in 1993. Hailed as legends in the golden age of hip hop, Lords Of The Under­ground are back with a bang in 2020 with a new video and comeback song, “Insom­ni­ac”, pro­duced by Snow­goons. The track is the first single from So Legendary (Feb­ru­ary 2020 on Goon MuSick), their first album in over a dec­ade. At the end of Janu­ary 2020, they col­lab­or­ated with fel­low hip hop force Onyx to release a video for brand new song “What’s Up”. A high energy pro­duc­tion, this is the first time the Newark col­lect­ive have linked up with the New York City rap group for a colossal cut.

For just two nights only, don’t miss Rap Mania, a cel­eb­ra­tion of legendary hip hop cul­ture from four clas­sic play­ers, hos­ted by Brook­lyn rap vet­er­an Jeru the Dam­aja and UK emcee and ‘God­fath­er of Brit­ish rap’, Rod­ney P.

Lon­don           O2 For­um Kentish Town      Sat­urday 04 April 2020            8pm-2am

 Bris­tol            O2 Academy Bris­tol             Sunday 05 April 2020             4pm-10.30pm

Lon­don £32.50-£35.00 adv (over 18s only) / Bris­tol £29.50-£32.50 adv

Tick­ets on sale now at ticketmaster.co.uk.

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

About Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal
Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless. Currently working in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media knowledge to I am Hip Hop and other projects by No Bounds.