MC Breed

One of the first rappers to come out the Midwest in the early '90s, MC Breed experienced modest success while based in Flint, MI, before leaving the Midwest to work with the D.O.C. in L.A. and Too Short in Atlanta. Breed's debut album, MC Breed & DFC (1991), was released on the tiny independent label SDEG and, on the back cover, pictures Breed and Da Flint Crew (DFC) in their b-boy stances, donning gaudy Detroit Tigers apparel. The album merged the East and West Coast sounds of the time, being both lyrical and funky; it also spawned a successful single, "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'," which was later sampled for Ice Cube's "Wicked" and helped keep the album on Billboard's R&B chart for a whopping 52 weeks. Following this initial success, unprecedented at the time for a Midwestern rap act, Breed adopted more of a West Coast gangsta sound. He began working with D.O.C., who helped write and produce some of the songs on Breed's third album, The New Breed (1993). By this point, the Flint native had left the Midwest and DFC behind and was networking on all coasts. His efforts proved successful when his fourth album, Funkafied (1994), peaked at number nine on the Billboard R&B chart. However, Breed would never match the success of that album, and subsequent releases throughout the '90s — many of them featuring Too Short, whom Breed became close with when the two relocated to Atlanta — didn't chart nearly as well. Nonetheless, he remained prolific as an underground rapper, releasing generally an album a year and aligning himself with the Dirty South movement. In 2008, Breed suffered kidney failure while playing basketball in Atlanta. He died while asleep at a friend's home in Ypsilanti, Michigan on November 22 of that year. ~ Jason Birchmeier