Naughty By Nature

American hip hop group Naughty by Nature based in East Orange, New Jersey is best known for being among a handful rap artist who managed being successful on pop charts while still maintaining credibility on hardcore rap front. Formed in 1989, the band’s initial lineup included lead rapper Treach, Vin Rock, Kyle Roskamp and DJ Kay Gee, among whom the former three have continued to perform as part of the band. To date, they have released seven studio albums including Independent Leaders, Anthem Inc., IIcons, Nineteen Naughty Nine: Fury of Nature, Poverty’s Paradise, 19 Naughty III, and Naughty by Nature, among which the latter two have reached platinum. Their most popular singles include Jamboree, Hip Hop Hooray, and O.P.P. all of which climbed up to the number one spot on US Rap, US R&B and US Hot 100 charts, respectively. Other singles include Perfect Party, Flags, Feels Good, Holiday, Live or Die, Dirt All My Lonely, Mourn You Till I Join You, Clap Yo Hands, Feel Me Now, Craziest, Written on Ya Kitten, It’s On, Uptown Anthem, Everything’s Gonna Be Alright and Scuffin’ Those Knees. The group has collaborated with other well-known artist such as Jaheim & Balewa, Joe, Zhane, Master P, Phiness, Mystikal, and Sikk the Shocker. They are often associated with Eazy-E, Rottin Razkals, Road Dawgs, Apache, Tupac Shakur and Queen Latifah. Naughty by Nature tickets have been taken to be quite the treat among hip hop fans since the band came to prominence in the nineties.

Naughty by Nature made their first appearance in the music scene of 1989 with the release of their debut album Independent Leaders, which at the time they released under their then name New Style. This album brought them a small hit with their song Scuffin’ Those Knees, following which they were introduced to fellow New Jersey artist Queen Latifah under whose mentorship they changed their name to its present form. The group’s first big hit came in 1991 in shape of the single O.P.P. that was used to sample the famous Jackson 5 hit called ABC, and was released on their album titled Naughty by Nature. The single reached the sixth spot on Billboard Hot 100 becoming one of the biggest successes in crossover songs in the history of rap music. It gained tremendous popularity in pop culture, getting mentioned in films and TV shows such as My Wife and Kids, The Office, Monk, Malibu’s Most Wanted and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Alongside it gained significant praise from critics, being named among the top hundred rap singles from all times by The Source publication in 1998 while also being placed as the twentieth best single from the nineties era as printed by Spin magazine.

In its later years Naughty by Nature made numerous hits released on their third and fourth albums both of which climbed up to the number one spot on Hip-Hop/R&B charts. The single Hip Hop Hooray from the third album was one of these hits and was made into a video directed by the famous Spike Lee and featuring various hip hop artists of the early nineties such as Da Youngstas, Run-D.M.C., EAzy-E and Queen Latifah. Their fourth album produced the hit Feel Me Flow that reached the seventeenth spot on Billboard Hot 100. By the mid-nineties the group began to their own imprint called Illtown Records, so that by 1995 they had released their protégés Rottin Razkals’ album on it. The band, Kay Gee in particular, worked very closely with several R&B acts over many following years including the likes of Next and Zhane. Kay Gee helped produce Next’s song Too Close that became a number hit in 1998.
Naughty by Nature has been nominated for several Grammy and AMA awards and in 1996 won their first Grammy for their album Poverty’s Paradise in the category of Best Rap Album. In 1992, they won their first AMA award for their self-titled debut release in the category of Favorite New Artist- Hip-Hop/Rap. The band has established quite a reputation for live performance so hurry on and grab Naughty by Nature tickets to really rock it out.