The 411/Flashbacks

Flashbacks
January
January 3, 2000
Jay-Z's Vol. 3...Life and Times of S. Carter debuts at No. 1 after selling more than 462,000 copies, well short of the 1 million units he was aiming for.

January 4, 1999
ODB pleads not guilty at his arraignment on three felony counts of making terrorist threats stemming from a Sept. 16 battle with bouncers at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, Calif.

January 5, 1999
Lauryn Hill receives 10 Grammy nominations for her album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

January 9, 1999
Guru of Gangstarr is robbed by three masked gunmen outside a small recording studio in Woodhaven, Queens. Guru is unharmed after getting into his Mercedes and being attacked and pistol whipped by the trio, who make off with gold and diamond jewelry valued in excess of $10,000.

January 11, 1999
Sean "Puffy" Combs and Heavy D, along with the City University of New York, are found negligent in a 1991 celebrity basketball game that killed nine people and injured dozens.

January 12, 1970
Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon is born.

January 18, 1967
DJ Quik is born.

January 21, 1965
Run DMC's Jam Master Jay is born.

January 22, 1965
DJ Jazzy Jeff is born.

February
February 1, 1993
2Pac's sophomore album, Strictly for my N-----, is released and eventually is certified platinum.

February 1988
L.L. Cool J releases "Going Back to Cali."

February 14, 1995
2Pac is sentenced to 4½ years in prison for sexual abuse and begins serving his time at Rikers Island in New York.

February 13, 1996
2Pac's Death Row Records debut, All Eyez on Me, is released. It is hip-hop's first double album and sells more than 4.5 million copies, which is considered nine times platinum.

February 24, 1999
Jay-Z wins a Grammy for Best Rap Album but boycotts the ceremony. Will Smith and the Beastie Boys grab the other two hip-hop awards, and Lauryn Hill makes her presence felt by taking home five of the 10 awards she was nominated for.

February 15, 1999
Lamont "Big L" Coleman is shot and killed in Harlem.

February 7, 2000
Big Pun dies of a heart attack.

March
March 9, 1997
Early in the morning, the Notorious B.I.G. was returning to his hotel in Los Angeles after a Soul Train Awards party when a car pulled up alongside his car and opened fire, killing him instantly.

March 22, 1999
ODB is arrested for allegedly driving without license plates. When police officers search the car, they allegedly find three envelopes of crack.

March 26, 1999
It is announced that Master P donated $500,000 to keep his old school from closing. The Archdiocese of New Orleans planned to shut down St. Monica Elementary, the school he attended from first to eighth grade, and merge its 125 students into Our Lady of Lourdes. Master P contributes $250,000 to St. Monica, $150,000 to Lourdes and $100,000 to St. Matthias, the church his family attends.

March 26, 1999
Lauryn Hill receives awards for best R&B/soul or rap music video for "Doo Wop," and R&B/soul or rap album of the year and best R&B/soul album female for The Miseducation of Lauryn HIll at the 13th annual Soul Train Music Awards, held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

March 28, 1999
Freaky Tah of the Lost Boyz is shot and killed in Queens.

March 26, 1995
Eazy-E dies in Los Angeles of AIDS at age 31.

March 27, 1995
2Pac's Me Against the World debuts at No. 1, making him the first artist to hit No. 1 on the charts while in jail for sexual assault.

March 9, 1987
Lil' Bow Wow is born.

March 23, 1981
"Rapture" by Blondie hits No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. It is regarded as the first rap song to reach the top.

March 13, 1972
Khujo of Goodie Mob is born.

March 18, 1970
Queen Latifah is born.

March 21, 1970
Mase of De La Soul is born.

March 21, 1969
DJ Premier of Gang Starr is born.

March 27, 1963
M.C. Hammer is born. His 1990 album, Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, is still the best-selling hip-hop album of all time. It topped Billboard's pop album chart for 21 weeks and sold more than 10 million copies.

March 16, 1959
Flavor Flav of Public Enemy is born.

April
April 25, 2002
Left Eye of TLC is killed in a car crash in Honduras.

April 25, 1999
Roger Troutman is killed.

April 29, 1970
Master P is born.

April 19, 1966
Suge Knight is born.

May
May 27, 1975
Andre 3000 of Outkast is born.

May 25, 1975
Lauryn Hill is born.

May, 21, 1972
Notorious B.I.G. is born.

June
June 1995
After less than a year as a column in a regional monthly music magazine, The 411 breaks out on its own, launches a four-page, newsletter-style magazine and distributes it free throughout the Midwest. All of the elements of the column are brought back -- news, interviews, and reviews of classic and new albums -- along with plenty of new features, including the rating system still in use today. The 411 would quickly grow in size and reach, gaining some international recognition in the November 1995 issue of Rap Pages for "supplying a gang of info within four pages."

June 1993
The Rev. Calvin Butts aborts his attempt to steamroll "offensive" rap music at a protest rally in New York City. He encourages the crowd to trample the CDs and cassettes instead.

June 1991
N.W.A's Efil4Zaggin enters the pop chart at No. 2, the highest album debut since Michael Jackson's Bad. It later moves to No. 1 and sells 1 million copies in two weeks, making it the fastest-selling rap album at the time.

June 6, 1990
2 Live Crew's As Nasty As They Wanna Be is ruled obscene by a federal district court judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The group quickly retaliates with the single, "Banned in the U.S.A." The decision was later overturned on appeal.

June 1986
A videotape of a Run DMC concert in Philadelphia in which the group prompted fans to put their Adidas in the air leads to an endorsement deal with the shoe company and the manufacture of four Run DMC styles.

June 15, 1969
Ice Cube is born.

June 12, 1962
Whodini's Grandmaster Dee is born.

July
July 1994
The 411 starts out as a page in a regional monthly music magazine. The page features a column, a review of a hip-hop classic and quick bits of news and commentary. Highlights from the first episode include a column on violence and hip-hop, a review of Eric B and Rakim's Paid in Full and a prediction that "Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith must have staged the breakup of EPMD just to make a reunion release titled Back in Business." Of course, three years later they reunited and released an album with that exact title.

July 1994
D.J. Train, the good friend of N.W.A's M.C. Ren and platinum deejay of J.J. Fad, dies in a fire at his mother's home in Los Angeles.

July 1990
T-Roy from Heavy D & the Boyz dies after a 20-foot fall in Indianapolis during a tour stop.

July 1982
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five release "The Message." The single blows up and was one of the first to use hip-hop to deal with social issues.

July 1981
The first national news story on hip-hop appears on ABC's 20/20.

August
August 1995
The East Coast-West Coast rivalry heats up at The Source Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Much of the show was overshadowed by the dark cloud that hung over the Death Row and Bad Boy camps, both of which performed and took home a good share of the awards. Snoop, who won artist of the year, was joined by Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, Rage, Sam Sneed, and DJ Quik for the event's opening performance. After a quick set from the 69 Boyz, the home team had its turn at bat. Biggie, who won lyricist of the year, took the stage with Craig Mack, Faith, Total and Junior M.A.F.I.A. and came through with a sampling of their hip-hop and R&B hits, while Puffy played his old-school supporting role. Bone and Method Man finished things up with a pair of tight performances, but it was Suge Knight's public attack on Puff's need to always be seen and heard in his artists' videos that kept people talking after the show.

August 1991
Chuck D files suit against St. Ides after an Ides commercial produced by D.J. Pooh samples from "Bring the Noise."

August 1988
White Harvard students David Mays and Jon Schecter publish the first issue of The Source as a newsletter for the Street Beat radio program.

August 1987
D.J. Scott La Rock dies from gunshot wounds to the head. His partner KRS-One carries on his name for future BDP albums.

August 1986
Fighting breaks out at a Run DMC concert in Long Beach. Police arrive four hours later after 42 people are injured.

August 11, 1978
Kris Kross' Chris Kelly is born.

August 3, 1971
Salt-N-Pepa's Spinderella is born.

August 9, 1971
Mack 10 is born.

August 1, 1963
Coolio is born.

August 12, 1963
Sir Mix-A-Lot is born.

August 8, 1962
Kool Moe Dee is born.

August 1, 1960
Public Enemy's Chuck D is born.

August 9, 1959
Kurtis Blow is born.

September
September 1996
2Pac died in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, six days after being shot three times in a drive-by shooting while riding in the passenger seat of a car driven by Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight.

September 1994
The Source's senior editor, James Bernard, accuses publisher David Mays of being the manager of the Almighty RSO and for publishing a story on the group without his knowledge.

September 1993
Vibe magazine officially is launched after several preview issues were successful.

September 1988
Yo! MTV Raps premieres on MTV with Fab 5 Freddy as host.

September 1979
The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" is released and becomes the first hip-hop single to hit the Top 40 chart.

October
October 1998
Puff Daddy plays his first-ever U.K. show at the official opening of the new London venue Sound Republic in Leicester Square. The invitation-only event is broadcast live by MTV U.K.

October 1997
Virginia concert promoter Patricia Ann Richardson files suit against Snoop Doggy Dogg, his former manager Sharita Knight and Death Row Records for allegedly tricking her into transporting packages containing seven pounds of marijuana to a venue where Snoop Doggy Dogg was performing. Richardson claims she was stopped, searched and arrested by local, state and federal law enforcement officers at the entrance to the club.

October 1995
2Pac is released from prison on $1.4 million bail, just eight months after a judge sentenced him to a jail term of up to four years for sexual assault. He is released pending an appeal of his conviction.

October 1994
The soundtrack to Murder Was the Case is released, featuring the long-awaited reunion of Dr. Dre and Ice Cube on "Natural Born Killaz."

October 1985
Krush Groove, featuring Run DMC, LL Cool J, the Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow and the Beastie Boys, opens in theaters nationwide and is listed as the No. 1 movie in America the following week.

October 1983
Kool DJ Red Alert's show debuts on WRKS 98.7 in New York, creating the first commercial radio outlet for hip-hop.

October 1982
Wild Style, the first feature film about hip-hop culture, premieres. It officially opens in theaters the next year.

October 1971
One of the first ladies of hip-hop, MC Lyte, is born.

November
November 1995
The 411 gets its first taste of international recognition when it's featured in Rap Pages' Underground 'Zine column: "When we can't ask Mary, we get The 411 right from this newsletter that supplies with a gang of info within four pages. Interviews, old and new album reviews, "this day in hip-hop history" and record reviews based on the pay scale (a 50 is a "certified classic"; a buck makes a "good frisbee")." Of course, The 411 continued to grow from that four-page newsletter into what you see here. Much love to Rap Pages.

November 13, 2004
ODB dies in the studio.

November 1994
Ice Cube's controversial Death Certificate debuts at No. 2 on the pop album chart. Protesters complained that "Black Korea" and "No Vaseline" contained racial, cultural and sexual prejudices.

November 1988
Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" debuts on MTV. The single eventually sells more than 2.5 million copies.

November 1984
Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin start Def Jam Recordings in Rubin's New York University dorm room. L.L. Cool J's "I Need A Beat" is its first record and sells more than 100,000 copies.

November 1974
DJ Afrika Bambaataa founds the Universal Zulu Nation on the principles of peace, unity, love and having fun.

December
December 1995
"Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio wins the award for single of the year at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards. The track, which features L.V., also tops the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

December 1995
The Fat Boys' Human Beat Box, the 450-pound Darren "Buffy" Robinson, dies unexpectedly at age 28 while entertaining friends at his home.

December 1994
2Pac is found guilty of sexually abusing a woman but acquitted of more serious sex and weapons charges. Two days earlier Pac had been shot five times during a robbery outside a New York recording studio.

December 1991
A fight breaks out between the road crews of several rap acts and as many as two dozen police at the Emerald City nigthclub in East St. Louis, Ill. Newspapers report that the fight starts when someone assaults a roadie for the group Naughty by Nature with a beer bottle.

December 1982
Michael Jackson's Thriller is released. It becomes the best-selling album of all time, with worldwide sales of more than 40 million copies. Kool Moe Dee and Nas are among the artists who have sampled it.

December 1974
Canibus is born on Dec. 4.

December 1970
Naughty By Nature's Treach is born on Dec. 2.

December 1969
Jay-Z is born on Dec. 4.

December 1966
The Geto Boys' Bushwick Bill is born on Dec. 8.

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