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Big Daddy Kane
NYC 1999
Background information
Birth name	Antonio Hardy
Also known as	B.D.K., Dark Gable, King Asiatic Nobody's Equal, Blackanova, Count Macula
Born	(1968-09-10) September 10, 1968 (age 43) Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
Genres	East Coast hip hop, hardcore hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, screenwriter, record producer, model
Years active	1984–present
Labels	Cold Chillin'/Reprise/Warner Bros. Records (1986-1993) MCA Records (1994) Blackheart/Mercury/PolyGram Records (1998)
Associated acts	Juice Crew, Quincy Jones, Kool G. Rap, Easy Mo Bee,2pac Prince Paul
Website	officialbigdaddykane.com

Antonio Hardy (born September 10, 1968)^[1] better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is a Grammy Award-winning American rapper who started his career in 1986 as a member of the rap group the Juice Crew. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential and skilled MCs in Hip Hop.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]} Regarding the name Big Daddy Kane, he said: "The Big Daddy part and the Kane part came from two different things. The Kane part came from my fascination with the martial arts flicks when I was young. The Big Daddy came from something that happened on a ski trip one time involving a young lady." ^[13]

Biography[link]

1980s[link]

In 1984, Kane became friends with Biz Markie, and he would co-write some of Biz's best-known lyrics.^[14][15] Both eventually became important members of the Queens-based Juice Crew, a collective headed by renowned producer Marley Marl. Kane signed with Marl's Cold Chillin' Records label in 1987 and debuted the following year with the 12" single "Raw," an underground hit. Kane is known for his ability to syncopate over faster hip hop beats, and despite his asthmatic condition^[14] he is acknowledged as one of the pioneering masters of fast-rap. His sense of style is renowned and set a number of late-1980s and early-1990s hip hop trends (high-top fades, velour suits, and four-finger rings). The backronym "King Asiatic Nobody's Equal" is often applied to his moniker.

He released his debut album under Cold Chillin' Records in the early summer of 1988 called Long Live the Kane which featured the hip hop hit, "Ain't No Half Steppin". The following year Kane released his second album and biggest hit to date It's a Big Daddy Thing which included 1970s sample throwbacks like "Smooth Operator" and the Teddy Riley produced track "I Get the Job Done" which hit the R&B top 40 during the closing of the 1980s. He also had a memorable verse on the Marley Marl produced track "The Symphony" released in late 1988 which included Juice Crew member Craig G, Masta Ace, and Kool G Rap).

1990s[link]

Big Daddy Kane appeared on Patti Labelle's 1991 effort, "Burnin'". He provided the rap chorus to the single "Feels Like Another One". He also appeared on the video release "Live in New York."

In 1991, Kane won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for his performance on the Quincy Jones collaborative track "Back on the Block" off of Back on the Block.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest rappers during the "golden age" of hip hop (1986–1993), Kane's experimentation with R&B beats and his alignment to the Five Percent Nation drew criticism. Later albums, such as Looks Like a Job For…, were acclaimed, but he was never able to return to the commercial and artistic success of It's a Big Daddy Thing. However, he still tours extensively.

As an actor, he debuted in Mario Van Peebles' 1993 western, Posse, and appeared in Robert Townsend's 1993 film Meteor Man. Big Daddy Kane also posed for Playgirl and Madonna's Sex book during the 1990s. In 1996, he collaborated with 2Pac on his song "Where Ever U R".

During the early 1990s, Jay-Z is known to have been Big Daddy Kane’s hype man, and Kane helped him early on in his career - Ice-T says, “I actually met Jay-Z with Kane. Kane brought Jay-Z over to my house”.^[2] Kane himself says that Jay-Z wasn’t technically his hypeman in the true sense of the term –“he wasn’t a hypeman, he basically made cameo appearances on stage. When I would leave the stage to go change outfits, I would bring out Jay-Z and Positive K and let them freestyle until I came back to the stage.”.^[16] Jay-Z was also featured on Big Daddy Kane’s track ‘Show & Prove’ from Daddy’s Home (1994), as well as in the video.^[17]

In 1995, Kane recorded with MC Hammer and Tupac Shakur on the rap song "Too Late Playa" (along with Danny Boy).^[18]

2000s[link]

A rejuvenated Big Daddy Kane occasionally collaborated with a variety of hip-hop artists, including A Tribe Called Quest, Jurassic 5, Little Brother, and DJ Babu of the Beat Junkies. He released two singles, the Alchemist-produced "The Man, The Icon", and the DJ Premier-produced "Any Type of Way" (on which he discusses urban collapse in post-9/11 New York City ("Giuliani got New York lookin' like it's Amistad") and the erosion of the middle class.)

Big Daddy Kane appeared on the trip-hop group Morcheeba's 2003 single "What's Your Name". In 2004, "Warm It Up, Kane" appeared on popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on classic hip hop radio station Playback FM.

In 2005, Big Daddy Kane was honored during the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors. After a medley of hits performed by T.I., Black Thought, and Common, he came out to perform "Warm It Up, Kane" with his old dancers, Scoob and Scrap. Kane and Kool G Rap can both be seen briefly in Dave Chappelle's Block Party documentary.

In 2006, he appeared as a guest MC on the track "Get Wild Off This", produced by The Stanton Warriors for their Stanton Sessions Vol. 2 breaks mix. He also appeared alongside the Wu-Tang Clan, Rakim, and his longtime friends Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip in a segment of the 2006 Summer Jam concert (June 7, 2006), as part of an initiative by Busta Rhymes to honor the legacy of New York City hip hop.

In 2007, a new track, "BK Mentality", was released on the mixtape compilation Official Joints. Kane also appeared on Joell Ortiz's The Brick: Bodega Chronicles mixtape.

Big Daddy Kane made a cameo in the 2008 video for "Game's Pain", a track by Compton rapper The Game. The video also featured appearances by Raekwon, Three Six Mafia and Ice Cube. The Game also referenced Jay-Z's former occupation as Kane's hypeman: "Ask a Jay-Z fan about Big Daddy Kane: Don't know him, Game gon' show 'em".^[19] He also appeared on the remix of "Don't Touch Me" by Busta Rhymes. Also in 2009 Kane played the role of Clay in the film Just Another Day. The film is the tale of two rappers, one poor and young, one older and successful. The movie follows them through just another day of their lives.

As of 2010, Big Daddy Kane is working on a new album with his band Connie Price and the Keystones, and Darnell Chavis from the 90's R&B group, Solo, called "The Last Supper". The project is said to have a classic Hip-Hop & R&B vibe to it. No date is set for the release of the album.

Legacy[link]

Big Daddy Kane is regarded as one of the most influential and skilled golden age rappers.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][20]} MTV put him at No. 7 in their Greatest MCs Of All Time list,^[2] he is placed at No.4 in Kool Moe Dee’s book There's A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs,^[3] About.com ranked him #3 on its list of the "Top 50 MCs of Our Time,"^[21] and RZA listed him as one of his Top 5 best MCs.^[4] Allmusic says, “his best material ranks among the finest hip-hop of its era, and his sex-drenched persona was enormously influential on countless future would-be players”,^[5] and describes him as, “an enormously talented battle MC”,^[6] “one of rap's major talents”,^[6] refers to his, “near-peerless technique” ”^[6] and “first-rate technique and rhyming skills”^[22] and says he “had the sheer verbal facility and razor-clean dexterity to ambush any MC and exhilarate anyone who witnessed or heard him perform”.^[20] Kool Moe Dee describes him as “one of the most imitated emcees ever in the game”^[23] and “one of the true greatest emcees ever”,^[24] and Ice-T says:

"To me, Big Daddy Kane is still today one of the best rappers. I would put Big Daddy Kane against any rapper in a battle. Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, any of them. I could take his 'Raw' "swagger" from 88 and put it up against any record [from today]. Kane is one of the most incredible lyricists… and he will devour you on the mic. I don't want to try to out-rap Big Daddy Kane. Big Daddy Kane can rap circles around cats".^[2]

His first two albums are also considered Hip Hop classics^[7] and Rolling Stone says, “he has received consistent critical kudos”.^[25] In the book, Rap-Up: The Ultimate Guide To Hip-Hop And R&B, Cameron and Devin Lazerine say Big Daddy Kane is “widely seen as one of the best lyricists of his time and even today regularly gets name-checked by younger dudes”,^[26] and music journalist Peter Shapiro says Kane is “perhaps the most complete MC ever”.^[12] Eminem references Big Daddy Kane in the lyrics to his song ‘Yellow Brick Road’ from his Encore album, saying, “we (Eminem and Proof) was on the same shit, that Big Daddy Kane shit, where compound syllables sound combined”^[10] and he quotes the same lines in his book, The Way I Am – this illustrates how Big Daddy Kane had an influence on both Eminem’s and Proof’s rhyme technique.^[11]

Discography[link]

• Long Live the Kane (1988)
• It's a Big Daddy Thing (1989)
• Taste of Chocolate (1990)
• Prince of Darkness (1991)
• Looks Like a Job For... (1993)
• Daddy's Home (1994)
• Veteranz' Day (1998)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Big Daddy Kane

• Official website
• Big Daddy Kane on Myspace
• Big Daddy Kane at Allmusic
• Big Daddy Kane at MTV
• Big Daddy Kane at the Internet Movie Database
• Big Daddy Kane bio The 411 on Big Daddy Kane
• The Unkut Interview
• http://www.exclaim.ca/musicreviews/latestsub.aspx?csid1=130&csid2=870&fid1=37508 March 26, 2009 Toronto Concert Review - Exclaim! Magazine - by: Neil Acharya
• Hiphopdx.com article

Look up big daddy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Big Daddy may refer to:

People[link]

Politicians[link]

• Idi Amin (c. 1920–2003), President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979
• Robert Byrd (1917–2010), American senator (self-given epithet in 2006)
• Jesse Unruh (1922–1987), American Speaker of the California State Assembly

Sportsmen[link]

• Riddick Bowe (born 1967), American boxer
• Shirley Crabtree (1929–1997), British professional wrestler
• Cecil Fielder (born 1963), American former baseball player
• Nelson Frazier, Jr. (born 1968), American professional wrestler
• Don Garlits (born 1932), American drag racer
• Gary Goodridge (born 1966), Canadian kickboxer and mixed martial artist
• Vladimir Guerrero (born 1975), American professional baseball player
• Matt Holliday (born 1980), American professional baseball player
• Eugene Lipscomb (1931–1963), American football defensive lineman (1953-62)
• Shaquille O'Neal (born 1972), American basketball player
• Rick Reuschel (born 1949), American former baseball player
• Eric Rupe (born 1963), American BMX racing rider
• Dan Wilkinson (born 1973), American professional football player

Others[link]

• Glenn Hughes (born 1951), British bassist and singer
• Big Daddy Kane (born 1968), American rapper
• Ed Roth (1932–2001), American illustrator and Kustom Kulture pioneer

Characters[link]

• A character in the Tennessee Williams 1955 play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
• Big Daddy (BioShock), a heavily armored adversary in the video game BioShock
• Big Daddy (Transformers), characters from Transformers
• A comic character in the comic Buster based on Crabtree
• A character in the syndicated comic strip Raising Duncan by Chris Browne
• A character in The Simpsons episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"
• Wanda's Dad in The Fairly OddParents
• A zombified main character from the movie Land of the Dead
• The name of the former leader of Millennium in Gungrave
• Blanche's father on The Golden Girls
• A bazooka wielding fighter in a convertible car in Age of Empires
• Vincent Price's cameo role in the 1963 movie Beach Party
• A character from the comic book series Kick-Ass
• A character in the Disney movie The Princess and the Frog

Other uses[link]

• Big Daddy (1969 film), 1969 horror film
• Big Daddy (1999 film), a 1999 comedy film starring Adam Sandler
• Big Daddy (album), a 1989 album by John Cougar Mellencamp
• Big Daddy 103.9, was a former on-air brand of a Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada radio station CHNO-FM from January 1, 2006 - May 21, 2010.
• Big Daddy (band), a novelty band who covered 80's & 90's songs in 50's & 60's style
• Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce, a food company based in Oklahoma
• Big Daddy's House, a Food Network cooking show
• Sossusvlei, a dune in the Namib Desert
• "Big Daddy" (song), the lead single from Heavy D's sixth album, Waterbed Hev

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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. (April 2009)

Todd Gaither^[1], also known as Sauce Money, is a rapper who worked with Jay-Z in his early career and was featured on Big Daddy Kane's album Daddy's Home on the track "Show N' Prove" alongside Scoob Lover, Shyheim, Jay-Z, and Ol' Dirty Bastard

He was featured on Jay-Z's debut, Reasonable Doubt, on the DJ Premier-produced "Bring it On", on In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, on the track "Face Off", and on Jay-Z's third album, Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life, on the track "Reservoir Dogs" with The LOX and Beanie Sigel.

Gaither is credited as a co-writer for Puff Daddy's single "I'll Be Missing You".

He released his debut album, Middle Finger U, on Priority Records in 2000. The album featured two guest spots: one from Jay-Z ("Pregame") and Puff Daddy ("Do You See"); it also includes one track produced by DJ Premier. He released one single from this album, "For My Hustlaz". In 2004, he was featured on the single "Easy" from the P-Money's album Magic City. In 2006, he appeared at Jay-Z's 'I Declare War' concert to perform "Reservoir Dogs".

Sauce Money released a 2008 single entitled "Listen 2 Me", sampling the Oompa-Loompas from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The song is currently available on Sauce Money's MySpace page.

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Allmusic entry
• Sauce money bio

Arsenio Hall
Hall at the 1989 Emmy Awards
Born	(1956-02-12) February 12, 1956 (age 56) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, television host
Years active	1979[1]–present
Children	Arsenio Jr. (with Cheryl Bonacci)[2]
Website
Official website

Arsenio Hall (born February 12, 1956)^[3] is an American actor, comedian, and former talk show host. He is best known for hosting The Arsenio Hall Show.^[4]

Hall is also known for his appearance as Alan Thicke's sidekick on the talk show, Thicke of the Night. He was the winning contestant on NBC's reality show, Celebrity Apprentice 5, after defeating singer and American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken in the Celebrity Apprentice live finale.^[5]

Early years[link]

Arsenio was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Fred and Anne Hall. His father is a Baptist minister.^[6] Hall performed as a magician when he was a child. He graduated from Warrensville Heights High School in Warrensville Heights, Ohio in 1973.^[7] After he graduated, he attended Ohio University, where he was on the speech team with Nancy Cartwright and Leon Harris.^[3] He then transferred to and graduated from Kent State University.

Career[link]

He later moved to Chicago, and then Los Angeles, to pursue a career in comedy, making a couple of appearances on Soul Train. In 1984, he was the announcer/sidekick for Alan Thicke during the short-lived talk show Thicke of the Night (a role for which he has on occasion noted his confusion with Monty Hall). Arsenio was the original voice of Winston Zeddemore in the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters from 1986–1987. In 1988, he co-starred in the comedy film Coming to America with Eddie Murphy.

Talk shows[link]

In 1986, the Fox network introduced The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, created to directly challenge The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After a moderate start, ratings for the show sagged. Behind-the-scenes relations between Rivers and network executives at Fox quickly eroded, and Rivers left in 1987.^[8] Subsequently renamed The Late Show, it featured several hosts including Ross Shafer, Suzanne Somers, Richard Belzer, and Robert Townsend before it was cancelled in 1988.^[9] Hall was also chosen to host the show in the fall of 1987, and his stint proved to be immensely popular, developing a cult following which eventally led to Hall landing his own show on another network.^[10]

From January 2, 1989, until May 27, 1994, he had a Paramount contract to host a nationwide syndicated late night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show. The show became a breakout, late-night success, especially rating high among the coveted younger demographic and known for its audience's distinctive alternative to applause: chanting "Woo, Woo, Woo!," while pumping their fists. The practice soon became such a ritual that by 1991 had become a "pop-culture stamp of approval"—one that Hall said had become "so popular it's getting on people's nerves."^[11] The gesture made it into films of the time: the title character played by Julia Roberts did it in a polo scene in Pretty Woman (1990), and characters played by Penny Marshall and Michael J. Fox did it in The Hard Way.^[11] In Disney's Aladdin (1992), the Genie character voiced by Robin Williams performs the gesture while mimicking the physical appearance of Hall. This popular gesture can also be found in the 1993 Mel Brooks' comedy, Robin Hood: Men in Tights. It was also seen in the movie Passenger 57, in which an old woman confuses the character played by Wesley Snipes with Arsenio Hall. After saving the day, the passengers on the hijacked plane do the gesture toward the protagonist.

He also had a rivalry with Jay Leno, after the latter was named host of The Tonight Show, during which Hall said that he would "kick Jay's ass" in the ratings game.^[12]

Perhaps one of the show's most noted guest stars was then-Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Bill Clinton, who performed a rendition of Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel on the saxophone during his appearance in June 1992.

However, the ratings for Hall's program began to struggle and he also butted heads with Paramount, his distributor. The tension arose from Hall's invitation to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in February 1994. Hall gave the entire hour to Farrakhan and did not do anything else besides conduct an interview. The program was canceled in May 1994.

Hall used his fame during this period to help fight worldwide prejudice against HIV and AIDS, after Magic Johnson contracted the disease; Hall and Johnson filmed a PSA about the disease that aired in the early 1990s.^[13]

Recent radio and television work[link]

Since The Arsenio Hall Show ended, Hall has made many appearances on television (including a short-lived 1997 sitcom called Arsenio), starring in Martial Law with Sammo Hung from 1999–2000, and hosting the revival of Star Search in 2003-2004. On the latter program, he tried to popularize the catch phrase "Hit me with the digits!". Hall appeared as himself in Chappelle's Show in March 2004, when Chappelle was imagining "what Arsenio is doing right now" in a dinner scene.^[14] Hall is a guest co-host on Wednesday evenings on The Tim Conway Jr. Show on KLSX 97.1 FM radio.^[15] Hall also hosted MyNetworkTV's comedic clip show The World's Funniest Moments and TV One's 100 Greatest Black Power Moves.^[16] Hall also appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher in May 2012 in a discussion commemorating the 1992 Los Angeles riots.^[17] Hall was considered to be the host of the syndicated version of Deal or No Deal and filmed a pilot (there were six taped).^[18][19] However, by the time the syndicated series began on September 8, 2008, Howie Mandel was the host. After this setback, Hall filed for bankruptcy in 2008. In his bankruptcy petition, he listed just $765 in assets against debts exceeding $190,000.^[20]

He also appeared regularly on The Jay Leno Show, and was a guest on Lopez Tonight.^[21] George Lopez credits Arsenio for being the reason he had a late night show; Lopez appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show more times than any other comedian. Lopez requested Hall be a co-host on Lopez Tonight (November 25, 2009) since he regarded Hall as his inspiration and the first "late night party show host".^{[22][23][24][25][26]} Hall has filled-in as guest host for NBC's Access Hollywood Live (2011) and CNN's evening talk/interview program Piers Morgan Tonight in 2012.

In 2012, Hall was a contestant on the fifth season of The Celebrity Apprentice, which began airing February 19, 2012.^[27] Hall represented his charity, the Magic Johnson Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing economic and social equality by engaging minorities in every aspect of their communities; increasing academic and innovative achievement; and raising HIV/AIDS awareness, treatment and prevention.

On May 20, 2012, in the live season finale, Hall was chosen as the Celebrity Apprentice winner, being "hired" by billionaire real estate investor Donald Trump over the other celebrity finalist, singer Clay Aiken. For winning Celebrity Apprentice, Hall won the $250,000 grand prize for his charity, in addition to any money he won for his charity for tasks he and his team won when he was a team leader on the show.^{[28][29][30][31]}

Awards and honors[link]

Awards[link]

• 1988 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Coming to America)
• 1989 American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Coming to America)

Honorary degrees[link]

• Hall received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio, Spring 1992.^[32]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• King, Norman (1993) [1992]. Arsenio Hall. New York: W. Morrow. ISBN 978-0-688-10827-4. 

External links[link]

• Arsenio Hall at the Internet Movie Database
• Arsenio Hall on Twitter
• Arsenio Hall on Facebook
• Arsenio Hall at AllRovi