The white face of hip hop

The Beastie Boys' post punk style was strongly influenced by hop hop, but they themselves in turn influenced hip hop developments. After the 1989 release of Pauls Boutique (which was initially 'declared a disaster... [but later] hailed as visionary'^[1] ) the group set about building their own recording studio and forming their record company, Grande Royal. In 1992 they released Check Your Head which debuted in the Top Ten and the band was described as having 'revisited their punk days while adding elements of funk and old-school hip-hop^[2]. Beastie Boys became increasingly popular with fans of the emerging alternative rock scene, and the album spawned the singles ''So Whatcha Want' and 'Pass the Mic' - which received exposure through college alternative radio network.

In 1994 Beastie Boys released Ill Communication, which reached #1 and achieved double platinum status. The band's move to the 'alternative' arena now seemed complete, and they were invited to be a headline act on the annual alternative rock Lollapalooza Tour. In the same year the Grande Royal label released Luscious Jackson's acclaimed debut album, Natural Ingredients. - establishing it as one of the most respected 'indie' labels of the 1990s^[3].

Vanilla Ice (b. Robert Van Winkle, 1974, Miami) became only the second white rapper to top the charts with his 1990 multi platinum single 'Ice Ice Baby'. Van Winkle's accompanying album, To the Extreme received very poor critical reviews, and he was taunted for 'lacking any real street cred'. Despite this negative press, To the Extreme became the first album to reach all five certification levels - gold, platinum, double-platinum, triple-platinum and quadruple-platinum - in just one month, but the press mocked Vanilla Ice further when his claims of a violent gangster past were found to have been fabricated^[4]. In the spring of 1990 Vanilla Ice began work on the feature filmCool as Ice but the constant negative press that surrounded the white rap star meant that the motion picture was a failure. Despite several comeback attempts Vanilla Ice failed to gain any further success. His discredited claims not only helped destroy his career, but also created a stereotypically negative view of white rappers^[5].

Beck (b. David Campbell, 1974) was raised in two very different environments. The first was associated with his paternal grandfather (a Presbyterian minister) in Kansas City, and the second was connected with his family, and involved some of the worst areas of Los Angeles. Beck was heavily influenced by his 'bluegrass street performing father'^[6] and the developing LA hip hop scene. He dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen and moved to New York, where he was exposed to the 'anti-folk' underground movement, popularised at the end of the 1980s in Greenwich Village. He returned to Los Angeles after running out of money and started working in a video store and performed in the 'arty Silverlake coffee shops'^[7].

Tom Rothrock (owner of Bong Load Records) became interested in Beck's eclectic style, which drew from a broad range base of influences (from John Hurt's Mississippi blues, hip hop and punk to Presbyterian hymns). Beck initially recorded the single 'MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack', followed by ' Loser' (1993 #10 Billboard charts). 'Loser' produced with hip hop technician Karl Stephenson, saw Beck become the centre of a bidding war by the major record labels. He eventually signed to Geffen Records, and became the unwilling voice of the 'twenty-something...slackers [being] anointed as the voice of his generation'^[8]. His critically-acclaimed album Mellow Gold ( 1994) sold 500, 000 copies.

Beck released his second album Odelay for Greffen in 1996, employing the Dust Brothers (who had produced the earlier landmark Beastie Boys' album Paul's Boutique) as producers. The recording featured more traditional instrumentation and combined 'experimentation [and] improvisation' together with the Dust Brothers' unique production techniques^[9]. Odelay sold 500,000 units, and Beck received a Grammy for 'Best Alternative Music Performance'. Beck has been described by Rolling Stone as 'one of the most critically acclaimed musicians of the 1990s'^[10].

Eminem (b.Marshall Mathers) released his debut recording Infinite in 1996. The recording helped Eminem come to the attention of the hip-hop underground, not only for his 'exaggerated, nasal-voiced rapping style'^[11] but for his skin colour - he was soon label the next 'great white hope'. In 1997 Eminem came second in the freestyle category of the 'Rap Olympics' held in Los Angeles, and Dr. Dre agreed to sign him. The first release emanating from this partnership was 1999 triple platinum Slim Shady LP. The recording created a great deal of controversy, with some commentators harshly criticizing the 'cartoonish, graphic violence' of its lyrics whilst others applauded its 'edginess and surreal humor'. The subsequent album The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), saw Eminem become the fastest-selling rap artist of all time (the recording sold approximately two million copies in its first week of release). Eminem's meteoric rise in popularity has seen him become an enormous pop cultural phenomenon, and society's exaggerated 'love-hate' relationship with the rapper has even been the topic for his own music with such songs as 'This looks like a job for me' (2002).