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Eight Million Stories: Hip-Hop In 1993

Faith Newman, Ralph McDaniels and Prince Paul at the Ace Hotel Sept. 25.
Ebru Yildiz for NPR
Faith Newman, Ralph McDaniels and Prince Paul at the Ace Hotel Sept. 25.

All year Morning Edition and NPR Music have been running radio pieces about rap albums released 20 years ago, in 1993. For a special episode of Microphone Check we invited a group of people who were working in hip-hop back then to meet us at the Ace Hotel in New York City and tell stories about that productive and creative year. At the audio link you can hear an edited version of the evening.

Our guests were:

Faith Newman — A&R at Def Jam and then Columbia, who signed Nas.

Ralph McDaniels — host of Video Music Box, music video director and producer.

Prince Paul — producer for De La Soul and the Gravediggaz, member of Handsome Boy Modeling School and solo musician.

Mike Dean — engineer and producer at Rap-A-Lot Records.

Stretch Armstrong — DJ for WKCR's Stretch & Bobbito radio show.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stretch Armstrong (left) and Prince Paul at the Ace Hotel Sept. 25.
/ Ebru Yildiz for NPR
/
Ebru Yildiz for NPR
Stretch Armstrong (left) and Prince Paul at the Ace Hotel Sept. 25.
Mike Dean at the Ace Hotel Sept. 25.
/ Ebru Yildiz for NPR
/
Ebru Yildiz for NPR
Mike Dean at the Ace Hotel Sept. 25.
Frannie Kelley and Ali Shaheed Muhammad at the Ace Hotel Sept. 25.
/ Ebru Yildiz for NPR
/
Ebru Yildiz for NPR
Frannie Kelley and Ali Shaheed Muhammad at the Ace Hotel Sept. 25.

Frannie Kelley is co-host of the Microphone Check podcast with Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
Ali Shaheed Muhammad is a world-renowned producer, songwriter and musician, and a founding member of A Tribe Called Quest, Lucy Pearl and production group The Ummah. He cowrote D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" and has worked with John Legend, Maxwell, Mint Condition, Angie Stone, Mos Def and Gil Scott-Heron among many others.