3rd Bass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 3rd Bass | |
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 Left to right: MC Serch, Pete Nice, & DJ Richie Rich
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Queens, New York City New York, United States |
| Genre(s) | Hip-Hop |
| Years active | 1987 – 1992 |
| Label(s) | Def Jam/Columbia/[Sony Music Entertainment |
| Associated acts | Prince Paul The Bomb Squad |
| Former members | |
| MC Serch Pete Nice DJ Richie Rich |
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3rd Bass was an American hip-hop group that rose to fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was notable for being one of the first successful interracial hip-hop groups.
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[edit] Career
MC Serch (Michael Berrin), Prime Minister Pete Nice (Peter J. Nash), and DJ Richie Rich (Richard Lawson) were the three founding members of the group. Richie Rich (also credited as "Daddy Rich") was a local D.J. while Nice was an English major at Columbia University and hosted a hip hop show on WKCR. Serch performed at clubs and block parties, and released a single called "Hey Boy" on independent label Idlers.
Record producer Sam Sever (real name Sam Citrin) convinced Nice and Serch to work together in 1987. Sever, Prince Paul, and The Bomb Squad produced their 1989 debut, The Cactus Album, a critically-acclaimed debut LP that went gold and contained a minor hit in "The Gas Face." The accompanying video, which featured a bevy of humorous cameo appearances that included Gilbert Gottfried, Flavor Flav and Erick Sermon, garnered respectable MTV airplay, and the single peaked at #5 on Billboard's Top Rap Singles chart, though it failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100.
As reported in many interviews, Serch had tried (unsuccessfully) to join up with fellow New Yorkers, the Beastie Boys. Upon signing with Def Jam, 3rd Bass inherited their label's feud with the Beasties. The Cactus Album was released shortly after the Beastie Boys- riding high on the success of Licensed to Ill- walked out of their contract with the label. In addition to containing multiple potshots directed at M.C. Hammer (who was called "M.C. Household Tool" in the liner notes), Cactus also attacked the Beastie Boys and their defection to Capitol Records.
3rd Bass's 1991 follow-up, Derelicts of Dialect, had a new target in fellow white rapper Vanilla Ice, who was the focal point of several tracks on the album, most notably "Pop Goes the Weasel." The track depicted Ice as a culture thief who watered down the sound of rap in order to pander to a mainstream audience, while depicting 3rd Bass as more respectful of the genre's traditions. Ice was also criticized therein for his refusal to credit artists whose music he had sampled for his 1990 hit "Ice Ice Baby." The video featured punk rock icon Henry Rollins dressed up as Ice, who received a "beatdown" by 3rd Bass at the end. Fueled by the heavy backlash against Vanilla Ice at the time, "Pop Goes the Weasel" gave 3rd Bass their only Top 40 single (peaking at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100), and helped propel the album to gold status.
3rd Bass's final collaboration was the title track to the soundtrack of the 1992 film Gladiator. That same year - three years after The Cactus Album - the Beastie Boys retaliated against 3rd Bass on their new release Check Your Head; the track "Professor Booty" contained the lyric "...dancing around like you think you're Janet Jackson," which was a swipe at Serch's dancing in 3rd Bass's videos. Ironically, 3rd Bass had already called it quits by the time the album was released.
[edit] Breakup
In August 1992, MC Serch released a solo album, Return of the Product, which included the second major label recording of Nas (credited in the liner notes as "Nasty Nas") and featured the single "Here it Comes." Meanwhile, Nice and Rich teamed up as Prime Minister Pete Nice & Daddy Rich, and released Dust to Dust in 1993. Their lead-off single, "Rat Bastard," contained voice samples from The Silence of the Lambs and was rumored to reflect bad blood between the pair and Serch, though it was not confirmed. The follow-up was "Kick the Bobo," which received light airplay on MTV and BET but was unable to become a sizeable hit. Neither Nice nor Serch were able to achieve much popularity after 3rd Bass disbanded.
Around the time of the split, Serch was involved with the production of the movie Zebrahead. As recalled by actor Michael Rapaport, Serch originally wanted to star in the film but was unable to secure the role, and ended up producing the film's soundtrack instead. After serving a stint at now-defunct Wild Pitch Records, he founded Serchlite, a record label and publishing company responsible for signing another group of white New York rappers, Non Phixion (who broke up in 2006).
3rd Bass reunited for a gig at the birthday party of Andy Hilfiger (brother of Tommy Hilfiger) in 1998. They also performed at Woodstock 1999, and released a non-charting single, "Hail to the Chief." There had also been talks of a new album entitled Ichabod’s Cranium, but any long-term reunion and album plans were ultimately scrapped.
Nice retired from the music business and opened a baseball memorabilia store in Cooperstown, New York. He published a book, Baseball Legends of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, under his real name in 2003, in addition to attempting to secure property for an official gravesite of Negro League players. Serch hosted the VH1 reality TV series Ego Trip's The White Rapper Show in 2007, and Nice opened McGreevy's 3rd Base Saloon, a baseball history-themed sports bar, in Boston in April of 2008.[1]
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
All albums were released on Def Jam.
- The Cactus Album (1989, Gold) - on CD, known as The Cactus Cee/D
- Cactus Revisited (1990)
- Derelicts of Dialect (1991, Gold)
[edit] Singles
| Year | Title |
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| 1989 | "Steppin' to the A.M." [1] |
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| 1990 | "The Gas Face" [2] |
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| 1990 | "Brooklyn-Queens" [3] |
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| 1990 | "Product of the Environment" [4] |
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| 1991 | "Pop Goes the Weasel" [5] |
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| 1992 | "Portrait Of The Artist As A Hood" [6] |
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| 1992 | "Gladiator" [7] |
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| 2000 | "Hail to the Chief" |
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[edit] References
[edit] External links
- 3rd Bass at Allmusic
- 3rd Bass at Discogs
- thirdbass.net - Fansite devoted to the band and its members
- Arcadia Publishing
