Lamont Coleman (May 30, 1974 – February 15, 1999), better known by his stage name Big L, was an American rapper. Coleman was born and raised in Harlem, New York, where he started his rap career with Three the Hard Way. He founded the group Children of the Corn and was a member of the Diggin' in the Crates Crew before pursuing a solo career. His first professional appearance came on Lord Finesse's "Yes You May (Remix)". He released his debut album, Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous in 1995, and significantly contributed to the underground hip hop scene. He created his own independent label, Flamboyant Entertainment, in 1998 where he released one of his best known singles "Ebonics" (1998).

On February 15, 1999, Coleman was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in his hometown of Harlem. Suspects, including the main suspect Gerald Woodley, were brought in for questioning, but no one was found guilty. His second studio album, The Big Picture was put together by Coleman's manager, Rich King. It was released the following year and certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Four posthumous albums have been released, mainly consisting of unreleased songs which were put together by Rich King and his brother, Donald. Multiple tributes have been given to Coleman, including in The Source, MTV, and HipHop DX. A documentary is in the works titled Street Struck: The Big L Story (2012). About.com called him the twenty-third best MC of all time, and multiple writers at Allmusic have given him high praise.

Early life[link]

Born Lamont Coleman in Harlem, New York on May 30, 1974,^[1] he was the third and youngest child of Gilda Terry (d. 2008^[2]) and Charles Davis.^[3] His father left the family while Coleman was a child.^[4] He has two siblings, Donald and Leroy Phinazee (d.^[2]), who were the children of Gilda Terry and Mr. Phinazee.^[3] Coleman received the nicknames "Little L" and "'mont 'mont" as a child.^[5][6] At the age of 12, Coleman became a big hip hop fan and started freestyling against his own neighborhood.^[3][6] He founded a group called Three the Hard Way in 1990, but was quickly broken up due to a lack of enthusiasm.^[7] It consisted of Coleman, a "Doc Reem", and a "Rodney".^[8] No studio albums were released, and after Rodney left, the group was called Two Hard Motherfuckers.^[8] Around this time, people started to call him "Big L".^[3] In the summer of 1990, Coleman met Lord Finesse at an autograph session in a record shop on 125th Street.^[9][10] After he did a freestyle, Finesse and Coleman exchanged numbers.^[10]

Coleman attended Julia Richman High School.^[3] While in high school, Coleman freestyle battled in his hometown; in his last interview, he stated, "in the beginning, all I ever saw me doing was battling everybody on the street corners, rhyming in the hallways, beating on the wall, rhyming to my friends. Every now and then, a house party, grab the mic, a block party, grab the mic."^[11] He graduated in 1992.^[3]

Professional career[link]

1991–1994: The beginnings[link]

Coleman began rhyming in 1990.^[12] In 1991, he founded the Harlem rap group Children of the Corn (COC) with Killa Cam, Murda Mase, and Bloodshed.^[7][13] On February 11, Coleman appeared on Yo! MTV Raps with Lord Finesse to help promote Finesse's studio album Return of the Funky Man.^[14] Coleman's first professional appearance came on "Yes You May (Remix)", the B-side of "Party Over Here" (1992) by Lord Finesse,^[13] and his first album appearance was on "Represent" off of Showbiz & A.G.'s Runaway Slave (1992).^[9] In that same year, he won an amateur freestyle battle, which consisted of about 2,000 contestants and held by Nubian Productions.^[15] In 1993, Coleman signed to Columbia Records.^[7] Around this time, L joined Lord Finesse's Bronx-based hip hop collective Diggin' in the Crates Crew (DITC) which consisted of Lord Finesse, Diamond D, O.C., Fat Joe, Buckwild, Showbiz, and A.G.

Sometime in 1993, Coleman released his first promotional single, "Devil's Son", and claimed it was the first horrorcore single released.^[9] He said he wrote the song because "I've always been a fan of horror flicks. Plus the things I see in Harlem are very scary. So I just put it all together in a rhyme."^[9] On February 18, 1993, Coleman performed live at the Uptown Lord Finesse Birthday Bash at the 2,000 Club, which included other performances from Fat Joe, Nas, and Diamond D.^[3] In 1994, he released his second promotional single "Clinic". On July 11, 1994, Coleman released the radio edit of "Put It On", and three months later the video was released.^[3] In 1995, the video for the single "No Endz, No Skinz" debuted, which was directed by Brian Luvar.^[16]

[edit] 1995–1999: Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous

His debut solo album, Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous, was released in March 1995. The album debuted at number 149 on the Billboard 200^[17] and number 22 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.^[18] Lifestylez would go on to sell over 200,000 copies as of 2000.^[19] Three singles were released from the album; the first two, "Put It On" and "M.V.P.", reached the top twenty-five of Billboard's Hot Rap Tracks and the third "No Endz, No Skinz" did not chart.^[20][21] Even though the album received a three-star rating from Allmusic, it was an AMG Album Pick.^[22]

Sometime in 1996, Coleman was dropped from Columbia mainly because of the dispute between Coleman's rapping style and the production from Columbia.^[23] He stated "I was there with a bunch of strangers that didn't really know my music."^[24] In 1997, he started working on his second studio album, The Big Picture.^[25] COC folded when Bloodshed died in a car accident in April 1996.^[26] DITC appeared in a July issue On The Go Magazine.^[3] Coleman appeared on O.C.'s single "Dangerous" for O.C.'s second album Jewelz.^[27] In November, he was the opening act for O.C.'s European Jewlez Tour.^[3] Sometime in 1998, Coleman formed his own independent label, Flamboyant Entertainment.^[28] According to the The Village Voice, it was "planned to distribute the kind of hip-hop that sold without top 40 samples or r&b hooks."^[29] He released the single "Ebonics" in 1998.^[30] The song was based on ebonics, and The Source called it on of the top five independent singles of the year.^[10] DITC released their first single, "Dignified Soldiers", that year.^[1]

Coleman caught the eye of Damon Dash, the CEO of Roc-A-Fella Records, after the release of "Ebonics". Dash wanted to sign Lamont to Roc-A-Fella, but Coleman wanted his crew to sign^[31][32] On February 8, 1999, Coleman, Herb McGruff, C-Town, and Jay-Z started the process to sign with Roc-A-Fella Records as a group called "The Wolfpack".^[3][33]

Death[link]

In a 2010 interview with Donald Phinazee, he commented on what led up to the death of Lamont Coleman

There was something that went down with a dude out here with my middle brother, "Big Lee", and, uh, Lee went upstate for five years. [...] It was a little problem like I just said, "divide and conqueror" between the fellas and, uh, Lee went upstate, then I went upstate, and then [Lee] sent word to do something [to someone]. He sent word to somebody else to do something, but Lamont went with him, which he shouldn't have. [...] It didn't go down the way it should have and they seen Lamont face. So, uh, both of us is gone, and [Lamont] was out here by himself. And so you can't get one brother, you get the other one. That's it in a nutshell.

—Donald Phinazee, ^[31]

Coleman was killed in the doorway of 45 West 139th Street in Harlem on February 15, 1999 after being shot nine times in the face and chest.^[34][35][36] Gerard Woodley, one of Coleman's childhood friends, was arrested in May for the crime.^[37] At the time of his death, Coleman had two brothers in prison. "It's a good possibility it was retaliation for something [Big L's] brother did, or [Woodley] believed he had done," said a spokesperson for the NYPD.^[38] Woodley was later released, and the murder case remains unsolved.^[39]

Posthumous career[link]

The tracks "Get Yours", "Way of Life", and "Shyheim's Manchild" b/w "Furious Anger" were released as singles in 1999 for DITC's self-titled album (2000) on Tommy Boy Records.^[3][40] The album peaked at number 31 on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and number 141 on the Billboard 200.^[41] Coleman's first posthumous single was "Flamboyant" b/w "On The Mic", which was released on May 30, 2000.^[42] The single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs^[43] and topped the Hot Rap Tracks,^[21] making it Coleman's first and only number-one single.

Coleman's second studio album, The Big Picture, was released in August 1, 2000 and featured Fat Joe, Guru of Gang Starr, Kool G Rap, and Big Daddy Kane among others. The Big Picture was put together by his manager and partner in Flamboyant Entertainment, Rich King. It contains songs that he had recorded and a cappella recordings that were never used, completed by producers and guest emceess that Coleman respected or had worked with previously.^[3] The Big Picture debuted at number thirteen on the Billboard 200, number two on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and sold 72,549 copies.^[19] The album was certified gold a month later for shipments of 500,000 copies by the RIAA.^[44] The Big Picture was the only music by Big L to appear on a music chart outside of the United States, peaking at number 122 on the UK Albums Chart.^[45]

A compilation album containing COC songs entitled Children of the Corn: The Collector's Edition was released in 2003. The next posthumous album released was 139 & Lenox, which was released on August 31, 2010.^[46] It contained previously unreleased and rare tracks.^[46] It was released by Rich King on Flamboyant Entertainment.^[47] The next album to follow was Return of the Devil's Son (2010), which peaked at number 73 on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.^[48] Coleman's next release was The Danger Zone (2011),^[49] and an upcoming album called L Corleone is planned to release February 14, 2012.^[50]

Legacy[link]

Henry Adaso, a music journalist for About.com, called him the twenty-third best MC of 1987 to 2007, claiming "[he was] one of the most auspicious storytellers in hip hop history."^[51] HipHop DX called Coleman "the most underrated lyricist".^[7]

Many tributes have been given to Coleman. The first was by Lord Finesse and the other members of DITC on March 6, 1999 at the Tramps.^[3] The Source has done multiple tributes to him: first in July 2000^[52] followed by March 2002.^[53] XXL did a tribute to Fat Joe and Lamont in March 2003.^[54] On February 16, 2005, at SOB's restaurant and nightclub in Manhattan, held a commemoration for him.^[55] It included special guests such as DITC, Herb McGruff, and Kid Capri.^[55] All the money earned went to his estate.^[55]

Style[link]

	"Ebonics" noicon In "Ebonics", one of Coleman's best-known tracks, he raps about the slang used in Harlem while he was growing up.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Coleman is often credited in helping to create the horrorcore genre of hip hop due to his 1992 song "Devil's Son."^[9] However, not all his songs fall into this genre, for example, in the song "Street Struck" Coleman discusses the difficulties of growing up in the ghetto and describes the consequences of living a life of crime.^[56] Idris Goodwin of The Boston Globe said, "[Big L had an] impressive command of the English language", and the best example was Coleman's song "Ebonics".^[57]

He was notable for using a rap style called "compounding".^[58] He also used one-liners: an example is in the song "'98 Freestyle" from The Big Picture where he raps "If my girl think I'm loyal, then that bitch is a fool."^[59] Coleman also used metaphors in his rhymes.^[22] M.F. DiBella of Allmusic stated Coleman was "a master of the lyrical stickup undressing his competition with kinetic metaphors and a brash comedic repertoire".^[22] On the review of The Big Picture, she adds "the Harlem MC as a master of the punch line and a vicious storyteller with a razor blade-under-the-tongue flow."^[23] Trent Fitzgerald of Allmusic said "a lyrically ferocious MC with raps deadlier than a snakebite and mannerisms cooler than the uptown pimp he claimed to be on records."^[60]

Documentary[link]

A movie title Street Struck: The Big L Story is set to be released in 2012. It is directed by a childhood friend and independent film director, Jewlz.^[15] Approximately nine hours of footage was brought in, and the film is planned to be 90 to 120 minutes long.^[31] The first trailer was released on August 29, 2009.^[15] Street Struck contains interviews from his mother Gilda Terry; his brother Donald; childhood friends E-Cash, D.O.C., McGruff, and Stan Spit; artists Mysonne and Doug E. Fresh; producers Showbiz and Premiere; and recording DJs Cipha Sounds and Paul Rosenberg.^[15] A soundtrack will be made for the documentary, and it will be put together by Lamont's brother Donald.^[31]

Discography[link]

Studio

• Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous (1995)
• The Big Picture (2000)

Posthumous

• 139 & Lenox (2010)
• Return of the Devil's Son (2010)
• The Danger Zone (2011)
• L Corleone (2012)

See also[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Big L

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Hess, Mickey (2010). Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide: Volume 1: East Coast and West Coast. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-34323-0. 
• Jasper, Kenji (July 6, 1999). "Of Mics and Men in Harlem". The Village Voice. http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-07-06/news/of-mics-and-men-in-harlem/. Retrieved February 6, 2012. 

External links[link]

• Official website
• Big L at Allmusic
• Big L at MTV
• Big L discography at Discogs
• Big L at Find a Grave

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2010)

Lord Finesse (born February 19^[1], 1970) is a Hip hop artist and producer, from The Bronx, New York, best known as the leader of the D.I.T.C. rap crew.

Career[link]

In 1989, Finesse and his former partner DJ Mike Smooth signed to Wild Pitch Records, home to other popular Hip Hop artists like Gang Starr, Main Source, Chill Rob G, Percee P and O.C.. In 1990, the duo released their debut album Funky Technician.^[2] The album featured production from future star beat-makers DJ Premier, Diamond D and Showbiz. Soon after, Finesse formed the popular New York underground crew D.I.T.C., an acronym for 'Diggin In The Crates', together with Showbiz & AG and Diamond D. Future members included Fat Joe, O.C., Buckwild, and the late great, Big L.

Finesse returned as a solo artist in late 1991 with his second effort, Return of the Funky Man. The album featured guest appearances from Percee P and AG. The album's title track peaked at #13 on the Hot Rap Singles chart. Return of the Funky Man also included a couple of songs that were produced by Finesse himself, and this would be the start of a career as a much respected hip-hop producer. In 1994 Finesse made a production appearance on The Notorious B.I.G.'s classic debut Ready to Die, on the track Suicidal Thoughts. In 1995, he produced a big portion of Big L's debut album Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous, including the single M.V.P. and also made an appearance on one of the album's highlight songs "Da Graveyard". He finally returned as an artist in 1996 with the now rare 12" single Check The Method and then the acclaimed album The Awakening. Finesse produced the entire album himself, and enlisted a large number of guests, including O.C., KRS-One, MC Lyte, Akinyele, Showbiz and A.G., Diamond D and Kid Capri. The underground single Actual Facts, featuring Sadat X, Grand Puba and Large Professor, was included as a hidden track on the album.

Finesse hasn't released a studio album since this effort, but has continued his production work. In 1997, he produced the title track to O.C.'s acclaimed effort Jewelz and also the track "Channel 10" off of Capone-n-Noreaga's debut The War Report. Finesse released a mixtape called Diggin' On Blue in 1999. Later in the year, he produced the track The Message on Dr. Dre's seminal 2001 album. Finesse is currently working on a Funky Technician remix project, as well as a new D.I.T.C. album. Along with these projects, he and DJ Premier are working on a posthumous Big L album.

In 1998, Finesse provided the vocal sample on the hook to The Rockafeller Skank, a hit single by British musician Fatboy Slim from his album You've Come a Long Way, Baby. The song features Finesse's repeated line "Right about now, the funk soul brother. Check it out now, the funk soul brother".

Lord Finesse returned to the mic on Handsome Boy Modeling School's album White People in 2004. He was featured on the song entitled "Rock 'N' Roll (Could Never Hip-Hop Like This) pt. 2, collaborating with famous old-school DJ's Grand Wizard Theodore and Jazzy Jay. Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park make appearances, as well as Rahzel of The Roots.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Studio albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

Tarsha Jones, better known as Miss Jones, is a former R&B artist and radio personality. Miss Jones is currently the host of Jonesy In the Morning, a morning show that airs nationally on MissJonesRadio.Net. After previously working for Hot 97 and until 2008 and WUSL Power 99Fm and until 2011, Jonesy In the Morning is produced by Miss Jones. The new show is titled "Jonesy In the Morning", a nationally syndicated urban morning show, presented by MissJonesRadio.Net. Jonesy In the Morning can be heard streaming online as well weekday mornings at www.MissJonesRadio.Net 6am-10am Eastern.

Early life[link]

Jones graduated with honors from the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, having majored in classical music. She also has a bachelor's degree in music from Syracuse University. After graduating from college, she worked as a long distance operator.^[1]

Career[link]

Music[link]

Jones met rapper Doug E. Fresh, who admired her vocal skills and invited her to his Get Fresh Crew tour. She began performing on recordings by such hip-hop artists as Big Pun, AZ, and Common.^[1] In 1994, her singles "Where I Wanna Be Boy" and "Don't Front" became popular. Her debut album, The Other Woman, was released in 1998, as Jones quit performing to work for New York City urban radio station WQHT with Guests like Malkam Dior.^[2]

Radio and controversy[link]

Before becoming host of Hot 97's Miss Jones in the Morning show, Jones reported music industry gossip for the Star and Buc Wild morning show on Hot 97.^[3]

She wrote an autobiography, Have You Met Miss Jones?: The Life and Loves of Radio's Most Controversial Diva, in 2007, published by Random House.^[4]

On June 28, 2008, Hot 97's contract with Miss Jones expired. Radio show Big Boy's Neighborhood, hosted by Big Boy and MTV VJ Liz Hernandez, replaced Jones' former morning show.^[5]

Tsunami Song and racial epithets[link]

On January 17, 2005, Hot 97 Miss Jones provoked a controversy by airing a song entitled "USA for Indonesia" a month after approximately 187,000 people died in the Asian tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The song, a parody sung to the 1985 tune "We Are the World", was criticized for overtly racist mocking of the Asian and East African victims; the song lyrics contain the racially derogatory word "Chinamen," and calls the drowning victims "bitches." Some of the lyrics included the words "Go find your mommy. I just saw her float by, a tree went through her head. And now your children will be sold. Child slavery".^[6]

Miss Info, a fellow on-air colleague of Korean descent, was outraged and spoke against the song on the station. She excluded herself from producing the song and said it was wrong for it to be played.^[7] Miss Info immediately found herself subjected to a four-minute, on-air lambasting from the other DJs. Miss Jones accused Miss Info of always distancing herself from the antics of the others, and of acting superior because she is Asian.^[8] Another jock on the show named Todd Lynn muttered "I'm gonna start shooting Asians."^[9]

Following angry protests from the Asian-American community, bloggers, and networking sites, and other New Yorkers, Miss Jones, DJ Envy , and Tasha Hightower were suspended for two weeks while Todd Lynn and song writer Rick Del Gado were fired.^[10][11] The station issued an apology on its website. Newsday, Sprint, McDonald's, and Toyota all pulled their advertising from the station.^[12] The suspended employees' pay was diverted to charities helping victims of the tsunami.^[7]

Bibliography[link]

• Jones, Tarsha. Have You Met Miss Jones?: The Life and Loves of Radio's Most Controversial Diva. New York: Random House: 2007. ISBN 0-345-49748-1.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]