Onyx's Sticky Fingaz
Photo: Carlo Allegri/ Getty images

We couldn't get enough of them. Their songs were our soundtrack, and we laughed, danced, cried and loved along with them. They flashed across our radio and TV burning brightly ... but where have they been lately? As you'll find out in this regular feature, sometimes the stories behind your favorite songs are more interesting than the hits themselves.

The late '80s and early '90s were ripe with hip-hop acts that scored massive hits and then slipped off the map. Fu-Schnickens anyone? We tracked down some of our favorites to find out what they're up to.

Who: Onyx

Biggest hit: "Slam"

Why do I know that name?: One of the first rap groups to embrace the power of the mosh pit, Queens, New York's Onyx busted out of the box with their 1993 debut, Bacdaf--up, thanks to the smash-mouth shout rap "Slam." Original members Fredro Starr, Sticky Fingaz, Big DS and DJ Suave Sonny Caeser caught the eye of late Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay, who signed them to his label, JMJ Records, and helped produce their first album. They further courted the rock audience by teaming with Biohazard on a "Slam" remix for the "Judgment Night" soundtrack. The hits dried up after that on two subsequent albums, but Sticky and Starr both launched lucrative acting careers that continue to this day.

What now?: "Onyx is a 20-year group," Starr said. "We're going to keep doing this like the Whispers and the Temptations. We may take it to Vegas and do a show with Naughty by Nature." Starr has appeared in more than a dozen movies and in the Brandy TV series "Moesha," while Sticky has landed roles in several TV series ("Over There," "The Shield"), including his current hit run in the TV version of "Blade," and dozens of films. Big DS died of cancer three years ago, but Onyx have soldiered on, playing shows around the world. They are considering doing a new album that will take them back to their hardcore, rock-inspired roots.

"We always catered to the streets, but 'Slam' built another market," Starr said. "We were the first ones to bring slam-dancing to hip-hop. That first album got so much flak for being crossover that we left that whole rock-and-rollish crowd behind on the next one and never capitalized on it. Now we're saying, 'Let's go back to those fans who were never satisfied and do the black rock album.' "

In the meantime, a second-generation version of the group, the teenage Yung Onyx, are out performing and prepping a debut album. Starr has just begun work on a pilot for a half-hour Showtime series called "The Hype" about a shock jock. Sticky is working on his third solo album, and he recently wrote, directed, produced and starred in two big-screen hip-hop musicals: "A Day in the Life" (featuring Mekhi Phifer, Michael Rapaport, Starr, Omar Epps and Clarence Williams III) and "Caught on Tape" (with Cedric the Entertainer, Vivica A. Fox, Bokeem Woodbine, Malik Yoba and Kel Mitchell).

Who: MC Lyte

Biggest hits: "Ruffneck," "Cha Cha Cha"

Why do I know that name?: Lyte never had the chart longevity of contemporaries like Salt-N-Pepa, but she was one of the first female MCs to call out the misogyny in hip-hop and put male MCs on notice. The Brooklyn, New York, queen debuted in 1988 with Lyte as a Rock, which featured such career highlights as "10% Dis," "Paper Thin" and the title track. Eyes on This (1989) spawned "Cha Cha Cha," which hit #1 on Billboard's Hot Rap Tracks chart, and the drug-violence tale "Cappucino."

What now?: Lyte released albums through the late 1990s and branched out into acting, appearing in episodes of "Moesha," "In the House" and "New York Undercover." She released a comeback album in 2003, Da Undaground Heat, Vol. 1, and has just returned to her indie roots by releasing two new singles on the BurnLounge digital download service. The songs — the DJ Premier-produced "The Wonder Years" and "Hot Damn," featuring Brand Nubian's Sadat X — are from her upcoming album, Back to Lyte, which is not yet scheduled for release.

"I'm doing it like back in the day, putting out singles and pushing them and promoting them until they have momentum," said Lyte, who was ordering some DVD dubs of her new video while speaking to MTV News. "It's exciting to be doing it alone, but it's scary too. You don't have that big-label shoulder to lean on." Now that her three-year run on the TV show "Half & Half" is over, Lyte is looking for a dramatic role, and she said her dual career has made for an interesting generation gap in her audience. On her recent slot on the Ebony Black Family Reunion Tour with Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Whodini and several others, Lyte would see older fans, who recognized her music from the beginning of her career, and their kids, who only knew her as an actress. "I'd talk to parents, and they'd be like, 'I had to tell them that you're more than an actress and tell them what you did,' " she said. "It's cool to be part of culture in a way that spans generations."

Who: Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock

Biggest hit: "It Takes Two"

Why do I know that name?: If you've been in a dance club anywhere in the world, you know Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock. Their 1988 hit "It Takes Two" is one of the all-time hip-house classics, along with its follow-up, "Joy and Pain." The duo, who had performed together since grade school with the group Sureshot Seven, broke out on their own in 1987 for a partnership that only produced a few hits but endures to this day.

What now?: "We're still doing shows," Base said of his partnership with Rock. "We're in the studio, and we have a production company called Funky Base Entertainment with artists like Mr. Streets, a reggaetón guy I found in Colombia." Base, who recently began work on a new solo album, said the pair still perform shows almost weekly, often as part of package tours with fellow '80s and '90s rappers. "I feel blessed to have a song like 'It Takes Two,' " he said. "We do shows all over, and guys who are 18 and 19 come up to us saying, 'I love this song!' I'm like, 'How old was you when this came out?' The weird thing is that when we do a show, the crowd still reacts like it's 1988 and the song just came out." EZ has kept busy with production work and DJ gigs in clubs in Chicago and New York.

Who: Young Black Teenagers

Biggest hit: "Tap the Bottle"

Why do I know that name?: At a time when political correctness was all the rage, YBT were the ultimate in un-P.C. acts. Mentored by Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee, the five-man crew — consisting of Knowledgable Child, First Born, ATA, Tommy Never and DJ Skribble (four white guys and one of Puerto Rican ancestry) — were clearly not black, though they were young and mostly teenagers. Their 1991 debut on Shocklee's Sound of Urban Listeners label featured an ode to "Married With Children" character Kelly Bundy, "Nobody Knows Kelli," and the not-ironic "Proud to Be Black." But it was their second — and final — album, 1993's Dead Enz Kidz Doin' Lifetime Bidz, that spawned a hit with the Rush-sampling ode to 40-ounce beers, "Tap the Bottle."

What now?: "Young Black Teenagers was like five years of college for me," said Skribble, an in-demand DJ who plays club shows four nights a week and has residencies at the Vegas club Cherry and the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. "That's how I learned about the music business. Hank gave us the name to spark some controversy. The whole idea was to make people open their minds to other kinds of people in hip-hop." YBT toured the U.S. and the world with Public Enemy, Anthrax and Sisters of Mercy, but Skribble's most vivid memory is how at their first show, in England, they were booed off the stage, a situation that changed just a few shows later in Germany, where crowds were won over. By the time "Bottle" came out, Skribble — who grew up with ATA and knew the other guys from the neighborhood — was on his way out. "We were overseas when 'Tap the Bottle' came out, and we came home to New York to do a show at the Palladium," Skribble recalled. "We heard it was #1 and saw 6,000 people jumping up and down to that song." He left the group shortly after, and YBT dissolved. Skribble was very visible on MTV in the '90s, spinning for shows like "The Grind" and "MTV Jams." He said he hasn't spoken to his bandmates since and doesn't believe any of them continued pursuing music careers.

 
Ever wonder what happened to Crazy Town? How about Snow? Ace of Base? Tell us which faded stars you'd like us to check up on, and you just might find them in a future edition of "Where Ya Been?" Send us your suggestions and we'll get digging...

Past "Where Ya Been" Artist Profiles:

• "Grunge Edition: Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, Mudhoney"
• "Marvelous 3 Now Down To One, SWV End 10 Years Of Resting Their Voices"
• "Sammie Graduating To Comeback, Third Eye Blind Can See Clearly Now"
• "Vitamin C Juicing Up A Comeback, Fastball Heading Back To The Mound"
• "Dream Wake Up, 'Sex' Burns Marcy Playground"
• "Willa Ford Strips Down, Jesse Camp Drops Out"

• 90's Hip-Hop: Where Ya Been?

• Onyx
• MC Lyte
• Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock
• Young Black Teenagers

Onyx
Photo: Def Jam

Many artists and fans alike cite a lack of creativity for the recent glut of uninspired rap albums. Onyx blame something else: lack of energy.

The bald-headed trio who exploded onto the hip-hop scene nearly a decade ago with smash singles "Throw Ya Gunz" and "Slam" from their riotous debut album, 1993's Bacdaf--up, hope to inject the same type of kinetic energy into the rap game as they did 10 years ago.

"Right now the game is fabricated with a lot of MCs that really don't focus on a lot of energy in the streets," said Fredro Starr, who is joined in Onyx by Sticky Fingaz and Sonee Seeza. "That's what we're bringing back: the streets and the energy. I've been going to a few rapping shows lately and I'm not impressed. It's like people are being lazy. People are just programmed to hear their voice, so they're being lackadaisical. We're in the trenches right now. We've got a lot to prove."

With Bacdaf--up: Part 2, due for a June release, Onyx want to prove that they are still the kings of hardcore grime. After the relatively lukewarm response to debut solo albums from Starr (2001's Firestarr) and Fingaz (2001's [Black Trash] The Autobiography of Kirk Jones), the group has plenty of motivation to come with another batch of irresistible musical fury.

"It's just energy, frustration and points to prove," Sticky Fingaz said of the follow-up to 1998's Shut 'Em Down. "It's not like a life frustration thing, more of a creative frustration. I feel like I had one of the most brilliant solo albums in hip-hop history. I felt like it went unnoticed, under the radar. But the people that did hear it were like, 'Yo, that sh--'s crazy.' I feel like I haven't reached my creative apex. I feel like I have a point to prove, which is good, because creatively when you're satisfied, you're creatively dead."

Onyx come to life on "Hold Up," a smoky club cut that features Havoc from Mobb Deep and X-1. They give props to females who lick bullet wounds and in general stick by their men on "She's Straight Gangster," while "Bring 'Em Out Dead" contains Onyx's classic manic energy. On "Gun Clap Music," they pay homage to some of hip-hop's fallen lyrical soldiers as Starr freaks a Biggie Smalls-esque flow, while Sonee Seeza raps similar to a signature Big Pun style and Fingaz incorporates a 2Pac-like delivery. Elsewhere, they offer a rowdy club cut with "Wet the Club" and give their feelings on the fleeting nature of life on "Feel Me."

Despite covering their bases, Onyx needed to spend some time recapturing the creative drive that made them one of hip-hop's most explosive crews. After all, they hadn't recorded together for a few years.

"We've been out of the loop with each other musically for a while," Fingaz said. "Me and Fredro had been doing movies, went to L.A. and did our own solo albums, but the chemistry is still there. When you're not with somebody for a long time, your spirit doesn't recognize time. It picks up right when ya'll were together the last time. It's like no time lapsed. We creatively just got right back in the loop. It wasn't really a thing. It was natural for us."

Starr concurs with his cousin, who feels that Onyx operate as an entity. "If Onyx was mind, body and soul, I would be the mind," he said. "Sonee Seeza would be the soul and Sticky would be the body. Sonee's the glue of the whole sh--, the middleman. He holds that middle verse down for the dudes in the streets."

Now, with scores of rappers claiming that they represent the streets, Onyx know that they need more than just hardcore music to connect with fans. It's a different musical climate than when they first emerged, when rap was much more political, optimistic and less concerned with money, cash and hos.

"When we did our first album, the contrast was so much bigger because there was nobody doing what we did," Fingaz said. "We were the originals. People were coming with, like, Digable Planets-type rap, trying to be conscience, kind of soft. We came with the raw, f--- that [style]. The contrast was ill."

Fortunately for Onyx, Starr and Fingaz have maintained a steady stream of TV and film roles that have kept their names and faces in the minds of millions of fans. (Starr had a recurring role on Brandy's "Moesha" and had a supporting role in "Save the Last Dance," while Fingaz has appeared in "Next Friday," among other films in the last few years.)

This visibility helped sustain a demand for Onyx and set the stage for their fourth album, its first on its own OPM imprint. "It's like we're empowering ourselves as businessmen," Starr said. "It feels good to go in the booth and spit this sh--."

• Onyx

Remixes of "Beautiful Day" and "Elevation," an acoustic version of "Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of," and the B-sides "Summer Rain" and "Always" will be included on U2 7, a limited-edition seven-song U2 CD available only at Target stores beginning Tuesday (January 22). ... Ginuwine will open for Janet Jackson on her 10-city tour. Janet, who hits venues beginning January 25 in Louisville, Kentucky and ending February 16 in Honolulu, is making up shows she missed on her All for You tour last year. ... A second "Moulin Rouge" soundtrack is due February 26, featuring the original film versions of songs performed by Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and others. Among the tracks on the album are saucy versions of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and Elton John's "Your Song." ... With this year marking Onyx's 10th anniversary in the rap game, the trio of Fredro Starr, Sticky Fingaz and Sonny Caesar are working on their fourth group album with producers Mike City, Scott Storch and D.R. Period. Sticky's new series, "Rampart," is scheduled to debut this spring on FX, and the bald MC said Dr. Dre has agreed to executive produce his next solo LP. ...

System of a Down brought the house down — literally — at Australia's Big Day Out festival on January 18 when their set was interrupted for 20 minutes by the collapse of a crash barrier. Event organizers rushed New Zealand band Shihad onto the second stage during the delay, System finished their gig unhindered and no one was seriously injured. ... Quirky cabaret crooner Rufus Wainwright will hit the road for a month-long string of 21 dates beginning February 8 in Boston to support his second album, Poses. ... Wainwright's velvety warble can be heard on When Love Speaks, an LP of 40 William Shakespeare sonnets read by actors such as Ralph Fiennes, Kenneth Branagh and Alan Rickman, due February 4. Wainwright, Annie Lennox, Bryan Ferry and Des'ree are among the artists who provide eight musical tracks on the album, which is the brainchild of conductor Michael Kamen, who led the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra through a concert with Metallica recorded for 1999's S&M. ... Thirty-two years after its last run featuring the likes of the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, the Doors and Joni Mitchell, England's Isle of Wight festival will return this summer. The multi-band concert is slated for June 3, though a lineup hasn't been cemented, according to the promoters' Web site. ...

KMFDM, who disbanded in 1999 (and whose main members continued as MDFMK), have reassembled, and they'll release ATTAK on April 16 through Metropolis. The group will preface the disc on February 6 with "BOOTS," which features the new song "Back in the U.S.S.A." and two mixes of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made for Walking." ... Vancouver's New Pornographers will launch a 13-date U.S. tour with the Frames on February 8 in Minneapolis and close with a March 2 performance at the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco. Their song "Mass Romantic" will be featured in the soundtrack to the film "Men With Brooms," which stars Leslie Nielsen, Paul Gross and Molly Parker. ... Drum'n'bass DJ/producer Dieselboy has struck a joint venture label agreement with System Recordings, and the first release on his new imprint, Human, will be a Dieselboy mix CD titled Project Human. Dieselboy will co-headline the Dirty Beat 2002 Tour with DJ Rap in February and will play the Planet of the Drums Tour with AK1200 and DJ Dara in April.

01.17.02

Kid Rock is scheduled to kick off a North American tour in support of Cocky on February 22 in Saginaw, Michigan. Openers have yet to be announced and the full itinerary has not been finalized, though the outing is expected to last through May. ... 'NSYNC want their baby back — their baby back ribs, of course. The meat-loving quintet sings the praises of Chili's popular menu item in a series of commercials that begins airing during the Golden Globe Awards on January 20. ... Southern California foursome Fu Manchu will launch an extensive U.S. tour on January 29 in Los Angeles to promote their latest album, California Crossing, due February 5. The trek, which will also feature Canadian aggro rockers Headstrong, travels across the country and back before wrapping March 10 in San Jose, California. ... Move It Like This, the new pack of dogs from the Baha Men, will arrive on March 26. The first single from the follow-up to Who Let the Dogs Out will be its title track, which will also appear in the film "Big Fat Liar." ... Gorillaz will issue G-Sides, a collection of songs previously unavailable in the U.S., on February 26. The disc will include the new cuts "Faust" and "The Sounder" as well as the B-sides "Ghost Train," "Hip Albatross" and "12D3." ...

The debut LP by Missy Elliott/Timbaland protégé Tweet is set for release on April 2. Her first single is "Oops (Oh My)." ... The Olsen Twins and Deftones aren’t the only acts covering Weezer. A Tribute to Weezer, featuring Dashboard Confessional, the Ataris, Midtown, the Stereo, Further Seems Forever, Elliott, Piebald, Mock Orange and others, will be released February 5 on Dead Droid Recordings. ... If you like to wake and quake, you'll be pleased to learn that Megadeth will release their first live album, Rude Awakening, on March 19. The LP will feature 24 tunes, including "Kill the King," "Wake Up Dead," "Hangar 18," "Mechanix" and "Peace Sells." ... Washington, D.C., duo Deep Dish are recording their first studio album since 1998's Junk Science and will promote their recent release Global Underground - Moscow with a dozen North American dates beginning January 18 in Miami. The double-disc mix album includes their remix of Dido's "Thank You," which is nominated for a Best Remixed Recording Grammy Award.

• U2
• Onyx
• Ginuwine

Former Onyx rapper Sticky Fingaz has teamed up with Eminem to record a new track, "What If I Was White," that will be featured on Sticky's Black Trash: The Autobiography of Kirk Jones album, due out in February.

Sticky Fingaz and Eminem had previously collaborated on another song, "Remember Me," on Eminem's multiplatinum The Marshall Mathers LP, and Eminem returned the favor by joining Sticky in the studio as the former was cutting his solo debut.

"[Eminem and I] have a lot of mutual respect," Sticky Fingaz said in a statement about their collaboration on "What If I Was White." "We worked for two or three hours in the studio at around 4:30 a.m.... He came in and kind of blessed the chorus."

Others guests enlisted for Black Trash, Sticky's first full-length project since Onyx's Shut It Down LP in 1998, include the Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon on "Money Talks" and Rah Digga, Canibus and Redman on "The State Vs. Kirk Jones."

During an interview with MTV News earlier this year, Sticky Fingaz described the roles guest artists portray on the judicial track.

"Canibus is the prosecuting attorney," Sticky said. "Redman is my attorney, Rah Digga's the judge. My man Perb [Lord Superb of the American Cream Team] is a witness. ... [The song is] crazy, and I ain't even gonna tell you the outcome."

Sticky Fingaz — whose real name is, in fact, Kirk Jones — has, like Eminem, adopted an alter ego. On Black Trash, he treats "Kirk Jones" as a completely different character, in the same manner Eminem uses the "Slim Shady" moniker.

Aside from his own solo work, Sticky Fingaz and one of his former Onyx bandmates, Fredro Starr, have also cut a new track together, "Soldier," for the latter's upcoming album, Firestarr, set for release on January 23.

Sticky Fingaz and Starr also both have separate motion pictures in the works, with Starr, who appeared in last year's "Light It Up" and "Black and White" flicks, set to co-star opposite Julia Stiles in "Save the Last Dance," slated to arrive on screens January 12.

Sticky, whose most recent flick, "The Price of Air," was released in September, is currently developing a long-form video project to accompany Black Trash.

Sticky has also completed a pair of other films, "Lockdown," due out in February, and "True Vinyl," which is also expected out early next year.

• Eminem
• Onyx

Rapper-actor Fredro Starr has reteamed with his former Onyx bandmate Sticky Fingaz to record a new track for Starr's upcoming album, "Firestarr," which is due out early next year.

Hailing from Queens, New York, Onyx featured Sticky Fingaz, Fredro Starr, Big D.S., and DJ Suavé Sonny Caesar. The group is best remembered for its 1993 LP, "Bacdafucup," which sold over a million copies and spawned a crossover single, "Slam."

Starr had originally planned to issue the solo record in October, but he has since delayed the release in order to cut more music with Sticky Fingaz and rap outfit Tha Outlawz.

Starr also apparently will be keeping his current rap handle. His label, Koch Records, had first announced that Starr would be changing his onstage moniker to Firestarr, but that will instead just be the title of his new album(see "Onyx's Fredro Starr Inks Deal, Adopts "Firestarr" Tag").

In addition to working on the "Firestarr" LP, Starr has just signed a seasonlong commitment to reprise his role as musician and romantic interest Quinton "Q" Brooks in the UPN TV series "Moesha."

Quinton proposed to Moesha during the show's September 6 season premiere, and Starr is scheduled to turn up, along with soul singer Ginuwine, for the October 16 episode of "Moesha."

Starr, who has appeared on the big screen in such films as "Clockers," "Black And White," and "Light It Up," has already completed his role in another flick, "Save The Last Dance," due out on January 12.

• Onyx

In the wake of wrapping his newest film project, ex-Onyx rapper Fredro Starr has just inked a new record deal with Koch Records and plans to issue his first solo album in October under his new tag, Firestarr.

The new, as-yet-untitled record will be Starr's first music-related release since Onyx's last album, 1998's "Shut 'Em Down." Starr has spent the majority of the last two years developing his acting career, including roles in such films as "Ride" and "Light It Up" (see "Onyx's Fredro Starr Joins Usher For New Film").

"Die 4 Rap" will be the lead single from the new Firestarr album, and Starr plans to shoot a video for the track in the next few weeks.

Starr isn't the only former member of Onyx branching out with solo projects, as one of his bandmates, Sticky Fingaz, plans to issue his own album, titled "Black Trash," later this year (see ").

In February, Starr completed filming "Save The last Dance," a movie in which he stars opposite Julia Stiles in a story that details the problems and issues facing an interracial high-school couple in Chicago.

"Save The Last Dance" was directed by Thomas Carter from a screenplay by Duane Adler, Cheryl Edwards, and Toni Ann Johnson. The film is tentatively set to arrive on screens on January 12, 2001.

• Onyx

Former Onyx rapper and sometimes hip-hop calendar boy Sticky Fingaz is now recording his first solo album, titled "Black Trash."

The album, Sticky's first full-length effort since Onyx's 1998 "Shut 'Em Down," features an all-star guest lineup that includes Redman, Canibus, Rah Digga, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, and R&B singer Dave Hollister. As Sticky recently explained to MTV News, all of the aforementioned artists pitch in on a track that puts sticky himself on trial.

"They on the same song," Sticky said of his collaborators. "See, what it is, the song that they on is called 'The State vs. Kurt Jones.' I'm playing Kurt Jones and I'm on trial for my life for some other stuff, know what I'm saying."