Rap Artists Who tried Reggae - In honor of Reggae Month

In honor of Reggae Month i have made a list of rappers who have tried going into the actual reggae culture some only vocally while others have "the look".

1.  

A lot of hype was made over Snoop Dogg's transition to Snoop Lion in 2012, but he's not the only one who has wanted to make songs under the Caribbean sun. Many have taken their deep Jamaican roots and infused them into the lifeline of the culture. With the Long Beach, California, Reincarnated album and documentary it showed that he was devoted to the culture but Lets face the facts Snoop Dogg makes better music than Snoop Lion and the album sales have proven that. I wanna see a Doggystyle part 2 album uncle snoop.




 2.
Brooklyn rapper Lil' Kim aimed to follow up the hype delivered by 2003's La Bella Mafia with her fourth studio album The Naked Truth. Stripping away her notoriously raunchy rap style in favor of something more soul bearing, the Hard Core rapper launched "Put Your Lighters Up" as her first single. The song was a departure from the hard-hitting thump and Hip-Hop pop that the New York native was known for. Boasting a similar tone to Damian Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock," the song did a wonderful job in hyping up the album. The single quickly became her highest charting solo hit making it to the #31 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a repeatable hit at bashment parties across the country.




3. . 
Smif-n-Wessun the Hip-Hop duo consisting of members Tek and Steele are a major component of the Brooklyn-based Boot Camp Clik supergroup, and legends within the culture. Known inside and outside Kings County for their gritty raps and dark, dusty beats, Swif-n-Wessun were underground kingpins throughout the mid-1990s. After a cease and desist order from the Smith & Wesson firearms company, the group had to rename themselves Cocoa Brovaz. But it was their classic cut, "Sound Bwoy Bureill" from their debut album, Dah Shinin' that endured them to rap fans around the globe. Sampling "Dust Out a Sound Bwoy" by Super Beagle (which was also used for Kanye West's "Mercy"), "Sound Boy Bureill" is so good that the intro usually murders the bash, before the actual tune started.




4.  
KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock consisted of the lyrically beastly Hip-Hop group known as Boogie Down Productions. The group delivered classic songs, yet one of their biggest contributions to Hip-Hop was their pioneering fusion of dancehall reggae and rap music through their debut LP, Criminal Minded. KRS-One and Criminal Minded play an integral role in reaffirming the social acceptance of being Jamaican, and its influence was well illustrated by the use of the "Mad Mad" or "Diseases" riddim that begun with reggae star Yellowman ("Zunguzug"). The song "9mm Goes Bang" is a perfect example of this usage, and was one of the first Hip-Hop songs to be based around a first-person crime narrative.



5. 
The late Heavy D was everything that you would want in an entertainer. Charismatic, enduring, a talented songwriter, and a pretty smooth dancer to boot, the Mount Vernon, NY rapper was a treasure on M-I-C and in the Hip-Hop culture. Together with rap cohorts G-Whiz, "Trouble" T. Roy, and Eddie F, Heavy D and The Boyz maintained a sizable fan base throughout the jiggy-era of the 1990s. In 2008, the Mandeville, Jamaica-born rapper decided to expose the world to his irie side with the Reggae album Vibes that came out on December of that year. Featuring no raps from the Overweight Lover MC, Hev managed to maintain him image of being the heavyset man who constantly charms the ladies with clever wordplay.


6.  
Brooklyn's own Foxy Brown decided to change her image to reflect the Kings County neighborhood she's from. In 2001, she released her third album, Broken Silence showcasing a more "street" image, and gave tribute to hometown heroes such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. The first single, "Oh Yeah," featured her then-boyfriend, Jamaican dancehall king Spragga Benz. Sampling the Jamaican reggae and ska band Toots & The Maytals' "54-46 That's My Number," the Ill Na Na flowed like water on the track. In the end, her song is widely credited as the first song to kick off the Hip-Hop/Dancehall movement in the early 2000's.


7.
New Jersey's own Lauryn Hill was a Hip-Hop treasure as a part of the group, The Fugees. When she broke out to do her own as a solo act, her album became the stuff of legend. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was the first Hip-Hop oriented album to ever receive 10 Grammy nominations. Taking home five golden gramophones marked her as the first woman to win that many Grammys in one night. Hill's love of music, and namely Bob Marley, is apparent throughout the album. Littered with Rastafarian overtones, the cut "Forgive Them Father" directly sampled "Concrete Jungle" by the man known as Tuff Gong. Written and produced by the former Fugee crooner, the song meshed classic Hip-Hop bass-lines and snares with Caribbean flare.