3rd Bass were a Queens-based Rap trio that was around from 1988 to 1992. Along with the Beastie Boys they were one of the first white Hip Hop act to acquire both success and lots of respect from the scene.
MC Serch started his career as an mcee and dancer at clubs and block parties, and released a single called "Hey Boy" on independent label Idlers. Prime Minister Pete Nice was an English major at Columbia University and hosted a hip hop show on Columbia's student radio station, WKCR-FM. DJ Richie Rich was a local D.J.
Discography:
- 1989 - The Cactus Albumnote
- 1991 - Derelicts of Dialect
Kick 'em in the grill, Pete!
- Alternative Hip Hop
- And Starring: "The Gas Face" marks the first appearance of MF DOOM (who was rapping under a different name and with a different image than nowadays). He gets announced as "A special appearance by KMD's Zev Love X!"
- Hypocritical Humour: Sort of: "Pop Goest the Weasel" criticizes Vanilla Ice for not clearing his sample of "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie. The song itself heavily samples Peter Gabriel’s "Sledgehammer" and Stevie Wonder’s "You Haven’t Done Nothing". Howerver, those samples are cleared, as opposed to Vannilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby".
- Improbable Hairstyle: In their early days, MC Serch sported a hi-top fade with the 3rd Bass logo carved in the back. (As seen on their first album's cover and some of the music videos.)
- Large-Ham Announcer: Their Def Jam labelmate Don Newkirk plays that role on "The Gas Face".
- Singer Name Drop: Nothing uncommon in hip hop, but a special mention goes to "Wordz of Wisdom", where the lyrics state the group name as "3 The Hard Way". This is because the song was recorded before they changed their name to 3rd Bass.
- Shout-Out: They love to do this at the end of some songs:
- "The Gas Face": De La Soul, Prince Paul, DJ Subroc and KMD and Get Yours Posse
- "The Cactus": Sam Sever and Russell Simmons
- "Ace in the Hole": KMD, Kurious, Radio DJ Bobbito Garcia, Sam Sever, Prince Paul and Chubb Rock
- Take That!: Given their short carreer that consists only of two albums and one EP, they were involved in quite a lot of beef
- "Sons of 3rd Bass", the first actual song on their debut album is a diss trck against fellow white hip hop group, the Beastie Boys.
- The ending section "The Gas Face" includes some shots at MC Hammer, with the video featuring a giant hammer wearing sunglasses getting thrown at the floor by the group. They also made fun of his album title on a different track, which Hammer interpreted as them making a crude remark about his mother, which in turn led to Hammer putting a bounty on their heads.
- "The Cactus" ends with "Yo, we're Professor Griff, that means we're outta here, sucka!" referencing the then-recent firing of Professor Griff from Public Enemy.
- While their entire second album contains disses against Vanilla Ice, "Pop Goes the Weasel" is a diss track directed specifically at him for being a traitor to the hip hop scene by selling out to the pop scene and for sampling Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" without clearing the sample first. The video features a Vanilla Ice doppelgänger (played by Henry Rollins!) getting beaten up by the group.
