Pop Da Brown Hornet

12" - 1996 - Smoke Records  

Many aspiring rappers kick around the term "MC" whenever it suits their fancy. Many of these MCs lack skills, so in a futile effort to impress their over inflated egos, they rap about cars they rent, the ice they lease, the money they don’t have and the big house they don’t own. But, in the immortal words of Rakim, "MC" means to move the crowd. The best way to do that is with good olf fashion lyrical skills.

Pop Da Brown Hornet is an MC who possesses the lyrical skills to move the crowd, and more importantly , one who understands that hip-hop has taken a few wrong turns for the worst. His mission is to put it back on course with his weapon of choice : his trusty microphone and lyrical skills.

"Rakim once said that MC meant move the crowd , and lotta MCs are moving the crowd. I gather that a lot of rappers took that literally. No they’re busting their guns and they really are moving the crowd in the wrong direction. And hip-hop has moved in the wrong direction. In the new Millenium, to me, MC means message carrier. We have so much watered down hip-hop out there. It’s been a while since I’ve heard an album that sounds like mine , where you don’t have to kill up everybody to sound tough. It’s a lyricist album. I wanted to get lyrical and prove that’s there’s a difference between hip-hop and rap. Really, right now we have been dancing and boogying to rap. I wanna see if people are ready for a hip-hop album"

Born and raised in the infamous Staten Island , Pop started out rhyming at an early age . He payed his dues by coming up through the ranks along side some young MCs whom would later become the Wu-Tang clan. "I remember being underage rhyming on one of these corners out there in a cipher with five or six individuals , who at the time weren’t really known for who they are now. It was all of us . It was the Clan members, even though there weren’t the Wu-Tang Clan at the time. I remember stealing the show a couple of times"

By the early 90s Pop Da Brown Hornet’s name was ringing around Staten Island like church bells on Easter Sunday. "That’s when people were really big on me in Staten Island. During the late 80s and the early 90s when I was just doing demos , they’d be instant classics on the streets. Songs like "No More Mr Nice Guy" are from that era"

Although Pop’s demos were red hot on the streets and he had some impressive guest spots on Shyheim Da Rugged Child’s LP , He still found it hard to land a deal as a solo artist. Finally, he hooked up with some neighborhood friends (Down Low Recka, June Luva and Rubberbands) he used to rhyme with and they formed the Gladiator Posse, who later became known as GP Grain. 
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