It's weird, but I don't think it's as a common occurrence these days, but prepubescent teen rappers were all the rage back in the 90's. I never went overly crazy about the tiny teens doing their thing on the mic, I can't say I didn't buy Kriss Kross when they dropped (and some of those beats are still rather dope on that first album) and I did jam my fair share of "Coolin' At The Playground Ya Know", I won't lie. While none of the kid MCs/groups released certified classic, several of them left their mark on the hip hop game. Here is my top five list for the underage hip hop artists. I realize Mobb Deep, LL, Special Ed 
and others released music at a young age, but I don't think many people consider those artists as child artists.
1. Shyheim
Of course it helped coming up with the Wu-Tang Clan having your back, Shyhiem is easily the best "child" rapper to come up through the ranks. The funny thing is, Shyhiem is commonly seen as a kid rapper, but he was 17 when his first album, A.K.A. The Rugged Child, hardly any younger than say Mobb Deep or even Kwame and his first album. None the less, we'll go along with common perception and name Shyheim the best under 18 MC to do it....or at least in the commonly perceived list of child rappers.
2. Illegal aka Malik & Jamal
You can chalk up all three careers and round them up as one for these two MCs. Their group release as the hip hop duo Illegal came in 1993 when the two were merely fourteen. They dropped Head or Gut on Dallas Austin's Rowdy label. The effort was backed by the likes of Diamond D, Lord Finesse and Erick Sermon all producing tracks, but in the end, it was an uneven release. The group split by 1995, with Jamal joining the Def Squad and releasing the good album, Last Chance, No Breaks. Malik would join forces with the west coast and Snoop, Dre and Death Row and would appear on Doggystyle and Dogg Food.
3. Chi Ali
Chi Ali, the most famous child rapper to appear in the Native Tongue entourage, and well, the only one to roll with the legendary click. Chi is probably most notably known for his guest appearances with De La Soul and of course his spots on Black Sheep's debut album. That's not to say that his own album didn't contain notable bangers, but it's the remixes of "Roadrunner", and "Funky Lemondade" that probably made the most noise. Both jams, appearing on the 12 inch releases are some of his best works.
4. Da Youngstas
I personally was never that crazy about Da Youngsta's, they were given much credit from the hip hop underground. The trio released several albums while still being c
onsidered a "kid group". Two of the brothers in the group were sons of legendary Philly label boss, Lawrence Goodman, who is responsible for much of the Pop Art early success and collapse. The kids wrote their own lyrics, which is more than a lot of the early child stars did in those days.
5. Kriss Kross
Yes, I know, a bunch of you are booing your screen right now. While they weren't the greatest MCs, you can't deny their success of their first album and the mark they had on the mainstream. And as I said before, I know a lot of people in their 30's that bought that album, don't lie, you know you did. And those beats were straight rip offs of the Bomb Squad but daaaayum. The fad and Daddy Mack and Mack Daddy grew old rather quickly and I don't think I've heard the whole second album to this day, but we'll give it to them.
4/14/2009
5x5 Day Two: Kid Rappers
6/14/2007
Tony Hawks Pro Skater & Shyheim The Rugged Child
Some years ago my favourite game used to be Tony Hawk Pro Skater on the N64 (I think that was the first one) and later the other series on Sonys PS1, my favourite character used to be Chad Muska because he had that special trick , grindin’ with a boombox on his shoulder and well I think he was the most “hip hop” like persona in that game. The Pro Skater series used to have a lot of great hip hop tracks, mainly underground, and you were able to turn on your favourite tracks in a list, which was for me Biz Markies – Body Rock. Unfortunately I couldn’t find this track on any of his albums, until some years later, I was checking Bankheads the dice game, and he posted this album (I think it was last year) by none other than my favourite skater Chad Muska , who turned out to be a producer, well he saved all of his hard earned money to have his own studio where he could full fill his dream, a compilation with his favourite artists..
1 Raekwon / U-God -The Wu Track
2 Prodigy Street -Subpoena
3 Afrika Bambaataa -Fake
4 Guru -Up In Here
5 Biz Markie -Body Rock
6 Grandmaster Melle Mel -I'm A Star
7 Flavor Flav -Flavor Man
8 Special Ed -Crooklyn
9 MC Lyte -We Can't Be Stopped
10 Ice-T -Gangsta Rap
11 Jeru The Damaja -Verses Of Doom
12 KRS-One -Get Off Your .......
Turns out Chad has a pretty good taste, considering the artists being featured and even though in my opinion most producer albums suck (I admit there have been some good ones lately), this one is by far not bad, it’s not a classic either, but I mean this guy got some skills and just look at the artists and you ‘ll know that you can’t do too much wrong, though I would recommend everybody to just download the compilation for this one track alone, I just love how that track starts and how Biz is rockin’ the Mic on this joint…
Muska Beatz
Since I’m already reminiscing off my days playing the shit out of the first Tony Hawk series, I remember being on holiday for about a week in Austria and my brother was with me along with one of his friends, off course he took the PS1 with him and besides playing all night long we listened to some music, to be more specific we where listening to Shyheims Manchild , which had just been released back then I think, in 2001/2002, anyway I’ve never heard anything about him before this and so after having this album in my head for about one week , I came back home and searched for more material, so here’s one unreleased Lp I found together with GP Wu (Gladiator Posse Wu) consisting of Pop The Brown Hornet, Down Low Recka, June Luva and Rubberbands, the unreleased lp has 16 tracks including 6 remixes of on & on, shit is real, ones fo da money , hit me with that shit ,shaolin style and pass it off…
Sorry but I’m too lazy to write down the whole tracklist , right now, the tracklist is included though, so there shouldn’t be any problem with that. Have Fun:Shyheim & GP Wu unreleased Lp
Chris
