"Fans can relive the glory days of hip hop as the “Hip Hop Legends” tour comes to PNC Arena on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014. The concert will feature some of the biggest names in the business. DMX will headline the show, followed by the 2000’s hip hop legend, Ja Rule, as well as the old school era’s finest including Rakim, EPMD, Rob Base and Kool Moe Dee. The tour is presented as a part of the
HipHopLegends.com concert series, which also produced the 2011 “Salt-n-Pepa: Legends of Hip Hop Tour.”
Tickets will go on sale Friday, Aug. 15 at noon through Ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 800-745-3000 and the PNC Arena Box Office.
In this new age of hip hop, we must not forget where it all began. The show will bring out New York’s finest legends in hip hop featuring songs such as “Party Up,” “Whats My Name,” and “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” from DMX, “Holla Holla,” “Put It On Me,” “Thug Lovin” from Ja Rule, along with “Paid in Full” and “Don’t Sweat the Technique” from Rakim, EPMD’s “Strictly Business” and “Crossover,” Rob Base’s dance club smashes “It Takes Two” and “Joy & Pain,” and Kool Moe Dee’s “How You Like Me Now” and “Wild Wild West.”
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ARTIST BIOS
DMX- Following the deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., DMX took over as the undisputed reigning king of hardcore rap. He was that rare commodity: a commercial powerhouse with artistic and street credibility to spare. His rapid ascent to stardom was actually almost a decade in the making, which gave him a chance to develop the theatrical image that made him one of rap's most distinctive personalities during his heyday. Everything about DMX was unremittingly intense, from his muscular, tattooed physique to his gruff, barking delivery, which made a perfect match for his trademark lyrical obsession with dogs. Plus, there was substance behind the style; much of his work was tied together by a fascination with the split between the sacred and the profane. He could move from spiritual anguish one minute to a narrative about the sins of the streets the next, yet keep it all part of the same complex character, sort of like a hip-hop Johnny Cash. The results were compelling enough to make DMX the first artist ever to have his first four albums enter the charts at number one. His top hits include: X Gon’ Give It To Ya, Ruff Ryders’ Anthem, Slippin’, Party Up (Up In Here), Where The Hood At, Damien, Get It On The Floor, Already and Lord Give Me A Sign.
JA RULE- As the flagship artist for producer Irv Gotti's Def Jam-affiliated Murder Inc. label, Ja Rule became one of the rap industry's most commercially successful artists during the early 2000s, working closely with the hit making producer and his stable of talent. Born Jeffrey Atkins on February 29, 1976, in Queens, New York, Ja Rule established himself with Venni Vetti Vecci (1999), a hardcore debut album similar in style to the rugged thug rap then popularized by DMX and the Ruff Ryder collective. On his second album, Rule 3:36 (2000), he began collaborating with female R&B singers, and a string of radio-friendly hits resulted ("Between Me and You," "Put It on Me," "I Cry"). Pain Is Love (2001) followed the same template, serving up a few rap-R&B hybrids for the singles ("I'm Real," "Livin' It Up," "Always on Time," "Down Ass Chick") and filling out the album with hardcore rap. Throughout the summer of 2002, Ja Rule was at his most popular, featured on not only his own hits but also as a featured guest on Fat Joe's "What's Luv?" and Mary J. Blige's "Rainy Dayz." Near the end of the year, he released his fourth album, The Last Temptation (2002), which again paired him with R&B vocalists for its singles, this time with Bobby Brown ("Thug Lovin'") and Ashanti ("Mesmerize"). Exodus (2005), a best-of collection, brought Ja Rule's tenure with Def Jam to a close. His top hits include: How Many Wanna, Holla Holla, Between Me & You, Put It On Me, Livin’ It Up, Thug Lovin’, and Mesmerize.
RAKIM- Although he never became a household name, Rakim is near-universally acknowledged as one of the greatest MCs of all time within the hip-hop community. It isn't necessarily the substance of what he says that's helped him win numerous polls among rap fans in the know; the majority of his lyrics concern his own skills and his Islamic faith. But in terms of how he says it, Rakim is virtually unparalleled. His flow is smooth and liquid, inflected with jazz rhythms and carried off with an effortless cool that makes it sound as though he's not even breaking a sweat. He raised the bar for MC technique higher than it had ever been, helping to pioneer the use of internal rhymes -- i.e., rhymes that occurred in the middle of lines, rather than just at the end. Where many MCs of the time developed their technique through improvisational battles, Rakim was among the first to demonstrate the possibilities of sitting down and writing intricately crafted lyrics packed with clever word choices and metaphors (of course, he also had the delivery to articulate them). Even after his innovations were worshipfully absorbed and expanded upon by countless MCs who followed, Rakim's early work still sounds startlingly fresh, and his comeback recordings (beginning in the late '90s) only added to his legend. His top hits include: Eric B. is President, I Ain’t No Joke, I know You Got Soul, Move The Crowd, Paid In Full, Microphone Fiend, and No Competition.
EPMD - On the surface, the sample-reliant productions and monotone rapping styles of Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith had little to recommend them, but the duo's recordings as EPMD were among the best in hip-hop's underground during the late '80s and early '90s. Over the course of four albums (from the 1988 classic Strictly Business to 1992's Business Never Personal), the group rarely varied from two themes: dissing sucker MCs and recounting sexual exploits. A closer look, however, revealed that the duo's rhymes were nothing less than incredible, simply undervalued due to their lack of intonation during delivery. EPMD also had a feel for a good groove, and created numerous hip-hop classics, including "It's My Thing," "You Gots to Chill," "Get the Bozack," "Strictly Business," and "Rampage." Their top hits include: Strictly Business, You Gots To Chill, So Wat Cha Sayin, Gold Digger, and Rampage.
ROB BASE- Best known for the multi-platinum 1988 hip-hop classic "It Takes Two," Rob Base and partner DJ E-Z Rock rode the hit into dance clubs and, eventually, the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, providing a touchstone for the style known as hip-house. After Base leapt several hurdles -- including vicious rumors about his personal life, and a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Maze's Frankie Beverly regarding the duo's third single, "Joy and Pain" -- he responded in 1989 with a solo album, The Incredible Base. His top hits include: It Takes Two, Get On The Dance Floor, Joy And Pain, and Break of Dawn ’96.
KOOL MOE DEE- Mohandas Dewese, better known as Kool Moe Dee, is an American hip hop MC prominent in the late 1970s through the early 1990s. He was one of the first rappers to earn a Grammy Award and was the first rapper to perform at the Grammys. In the late 1970s, Kool Moe Dee met Special K, DJ Easy Lee, and LA Sunshine to form the influential old school hip hop group the Treacherous Three on Enjoy Records. In 1985, the Treacherous Three disbanded. After leaving the group, Kool Moe Dee attended the State University of New York at Old Westbury, where he received a degree in communications. In 1986, he went solo, releasing a self-titled album that ranked 83 on Billboard. He co-operated with the young producer Teddy Riley which contributed greatly to the New Jack Swing movement that would gain popularity in the years to follow. Kool Moe Dee released his second album, How Ya Like Me Now which was his most successful album commercially, achieving platinum status. His top hit include: How You Like Me Now, Go See The Doctor, Let’s Go, Wild, Wild West, I Go To Work, They Want Money, All Night Long, God Made Me Funke and How Kool Can One Blackman Be?"
- A Press Release
