Onyx

A combative and in-the-red style of hardcore rap brought Queens MCs Onyx unlikely Top Ten pop success in 1993 with "Slam." That instant hip-hop classic pushed the parent album Bacdafucup (1993) to Top 20 placement on the Billboard 200 and opened a route to the mainstream for similarly rowdy if otherwise distinctive hits by M.O.P.  and DMX, two of the many artists with whom central members Fredro Starr and Sticky Fingaz would later collaborate. After their second and third albums for Jam Master Jay's JMJ label, namely All We Got Iz Us (1995) and the Top Ten hit Shut 'Em Down (1998), and a couple independent releases early the following decade, Fredro and Sticky paused the group for a while. The mid-2010s saw them begin a prolific run of releases, ranging from #WAKEDAFUCUP (2014) and Onyx 4 Life (2021) to Versus Everybody (2022) and Blood on Da X (2023).