From his humble beginnings as MC Boob, who encouraged us to ‘Do The Fila’, B quickly progressed to answer records (‘Take Your Radio’ was aimed at LL Cool J), duets with a teenage Roxanne Shante (‘Fly Shante’) and even had a single remixed by the mighty Boogie Down Productions (‘Serious’). Over the course of five solo albums, backed by the formidable DJ Tat Money and the Hilltop Hustlers crew, Steady B carved himself a place in Philly Rap history with his aggressive b-boy style throughout the second half of the eighties. Sadly, when his time in the sun was over he struggled to step aside gracefully, leading to the tragic tale which now finds him spending the rest of his days behind bars.

Another crew that sprung from the Hilltop, EST, producer Chuck Nice, and DJ Woody Wood immediately stood out from the pack thanks to an original, unorthodox vocal style and tight production. With a penchant for creating weird yet catchy slang (‘acknickulous’ and ‘bonkey’ spring to mind) and matching hard beats with melodic grooves, 3xD made a huge impression with their debut album. After falling out with their management, which saw their former crew turned against them both on records and in the street, the trio adopted a smoother musical angle for the second album before predictably shaving their heads and returning to Timbs and hoods, as was the thing to do in 1993. EST went on to  relocate to Atlanta and become a successful songwriter for R&B artists.

Currently sitting on death row following two stays of execution for murdering Philly’s first female black police officer during an attempted bank robbery with Steady B and their DJ from CEB, Cool C previously delivered two solid albums. C was a loyal soldier during his tenure with the Hilltop Hustlers, as he recorded ‘Juice Crew Dis’ at his manager’s instruction after Marley Marl stopped working with the Pop Art label and made videos mocking his former buddies Three Times Dope when they realised they were getting the short end of the royalty stick, much like Ice Cube vs. Jerry Heller.

Best known for ‘My Parta Town’, this crew of young upstarts made a name for themselves with high energy, hardcore anthems, and state-of-the-art scratching. Both of the full-length albums from the original squad still hold water to this day, a relic of a long-forgotten era of uptempo rap made for breakdancers and hoods alike. This faster style would later be embraced by English and Australian crews such as Hijack and Def Wish Cast.

Along with Ice-T, D paved the way for uncompromising street rap that wasn’t afraid to deal with the good, the bad and the ugly — all wrapped up in a blunted haze of weed smoke and liquor. The fact that his early work was recorded with nothing more than a drum machine (which Schoolly played as he made up rhymes on the spot) and his DJ, Code Money, accompanying him with freestyle scratching in what was the earliest approximation of rap as jazz improv to be released on record. ‘P.S.K’, ‘Gucci Time’, and ‘Saturday Night’ are still massive tunes that never fail to rock a party to this day and proved to be a huge influence on the Beastie Boys and Biggie Smalls to name but two.

Before Will Smith was a box-office boss (and a painfully predictable solo artist), he was the goofy story-telling sidekick of the incredible DJ Jazzy Jeff, holding it down for the middle class kids of PA. Both Rock The House and He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper… were refreshingly different takes on rap that were equal parts accessible and technically accomplished, pleasing both casual and hardcore fans alike. It certainly didn’t hurt having a world-class scratch DJ on side — who can forget hearing him debut the ‘Transformer’ scratch on wax?