The duo's first release, "Flavor of the Month," was one of the hottest rap singles of 1991, and the ascendancy of Native Tongues groups De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest only improved Black Sheep's fortunes. Gee's connection to the newly christened Native Tongues family inspired Lawnge to form Black Sheep and recruit Dres as the group's MC. Looking for a record contract, Lawnge moved to New York - where he'd spent time as a child - and played a gig with DJ Red Alert, who introduced him to Mike Gee of the Jungle Brothers. Both were also hip-hop fans during the mid-'80s, Dres as an MC and Mista Lawnge as a DJ. Dres continued using the name Black Sheep for his subsequent works, including From the Black Pool of Genius (2010) and Tortured Soul (2018).īoth members, Andre Titus (Dres) and William McLean (Mista Lawnge), were natives of New York who grew up in North Carolina, Titus the son of a military man. The duo briefly reunited during the early 2000s, but Lawnge left soon after. Dres and Mista Lawnge scored a hit with 1991's A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, one of rap music's most entertaining debuts, but broke up after 1994's Non-Fiction failed to replicate the success of their first effort. Affiliated with the Native Tongues crew, the duo shared A Tribe Called Quest's penchant for jazz samples and De La Soul's playfulness, but they delivered their socially conscious lyrics with a slightly sharper sense of humor, often making fun of hip-hop conventions and even themselves. Black Sheep were one of the most inventive duos to emerge during hip-hop's golden era.
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