A3C Hip Hop Festival Blog

Artist Spotlight: Nappy Roots

Written by Mike Walbert | Sep 29

Performing Saturday, Oct 9th on the Allhiphop stage!

Nappy Roots debut independent album Country Fried Cess was released in 1999, which led to the group being signed by Atlantic Records. Their first album on Atlantic was 2002's biggest selling hip-hop album, "Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz". The multi-platinum album featured the hit-singles "Headz Up", "Awnaw", and "Po' Folks". The "Awnaw (Remix)" ft Marcos of P.O.D. appeared on Madden 2003.

Their next and last album with Atlantic Records was Wooden Leather, released in 2003, featuring the singles "Roun' the Globe" which was featured on Madden 2004 and "Sick and Tired" (featuring Anthony Hamilton). This critically acclaimed, major label follow up album, "Wooden Leather" featured production from Kanye West, David Banner and Lil Jon.

Since the release of Wooden Leather they are back to being independent artists, and have started their own label, N.R.E.G (Nappy Roots Entertainment Group) with distribution through Fontana/Universal Music Group. On July 31, 2007, they released their first album as independent artists, Innerstate Music featuring singles "Good Day" and "Keep It Real". This was actually an internet album, similar to a modern day mixtape. It was intended to be a precursor to their 2008 album, The Humdinger which was released on August 5, 2008.[2]

In 2008, the Nappy Roots returned to the spotlight with an internet campaign targeting the mega-popular hip-hop sites such as Allhiphop, HiphopDX, Sohh, 2dopeboyz, Dubcnn, XXL Mag and BallerStatus, etc.[3] The not so critically-acclaimed album, The Humdinger features guest appearances from Anthony Hamilton, Greg Nice, Greg Street and Slick & Rose, with production from Sol Messiah, Groove Chambers, Big Al, Joe Hop and more. The Humdinger entered the Billboard Rap Charts at #7 and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums at #13.

In 2011, NREG anticipates the release of 40 Akerz from Fish Scales and Skinny DeVille as well as an independent project from Big V.