Lords of the Underground
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The Lords of the Underground (L.O.T.U.G.) are a 1990s hip-hop trio based out of Newark, New Jersey. MCs Mr. Funke and DoItAll Dupré met DJ Lord Jazz (a native of Cleveland) when all three were undergraduates at Shaw University.
The three are perhaps best remembered for the singles "Funky Child", "Chief Rocka" and "Tic Toc"; all of which were wildly eccentric manifestoes. The music video for "Funky Child" features the group members parading around in their underwear.
Their chief producer was the Juice Crew spearhead Marley Marl. Another key contributor was Marley Marl's protégé K-Def. Pete Rock remixed their songs "Flow On" and "Check It" in 1994.
In their initial release, their album Here Come The Lords (1992) and Keepers of the Funk (1994), earned them an award from Black Entertainment Television in 1993. They collaborated with George Clinton; their second album's title track, which samples his work, features him in a cameo. The track is generally more abrasive and less conventionally tuneful in its instrumentation than most of their work.
Gangsta posturing was rhetorically referenced, but never outright indulged in, by the group, except on their 1995 single "Burn Rubber", which took a cavalier pro-carjacking attitude and featured a line where Mr. Funke unapologetically said he'd "even jeopardize [his] friends" for the sake of a jacking. Because their dalliance in gangsterism was half-hearted, they were one of a number of groups lost in the shuffle when gangsta rap became dominant.
Their reunion album Resurrection (1999), released via Queen Latifah's Jersey Kidz imprint, was so small-scale a release that few realized it had been recorded. Da Brat made an appearance on it.
The Lords are best remembered in connection with the golden age of hip hop. As such, when Nas, the popular and successful legend of East Coast hip hop, decided in 2007 to do a remix of his song "Where Are They Now" (which asked after the fates of several long-forgotten golden-age rappers). The Lords were among those requested to appear. DoItAll Dupré performs eight bars on the track. The others featured include Positive K, Father MC, Rob Base, Redhead Kingpin, Monie Love, and members of Black Sheep, Salt-N-Pepa, Three Times Dope, the Jungle Brothers, the Fu-Schnickens and Das EFX.
