The Chosen Few Time Capsule: The 1991 Demos EP Feat. De La Soul

Picture it, Long Island, NY, 1986. The crack epidemic had taken its hold over the hood. In fact there had just been an edition of the popular American news show "60 Minutes" which featured a block in Amityville, soon to be known to some local artists as Horror City, which was suffering from heavy unemployment and the effects of the this new drug crisis. Some Zulu Nation cats had came out to Amityville for a block party. The Crash Crew were battling a local crew called The God Squad, which comprised of Rahmel, Mc Duel & MC Finesse. An underrage Brian Jackson aka B-Nice snuck into the battle. This night was the start of his transformation into an MC.

B-Nice and his boy B-Love aka Lovey Brown had met at Copiague High School through a mutual passion for music. B-Nice played drums in the school chorus and picked up DJ'ing skills from friends of his brother who was 7 years his senior. Nice's grandfather was a close friend of the father of De La Soul's Maseo and the boys had met at an early age. They started to hang out through mutual friend DJ Stitches, reputedly one of the founding members of De La Soul. As you know, De La were a big deal in the late 80's and while writing their [incredible] second album "De La Soul is Dead" they guest-produced and featured on The Chosen Few project to help their boys and fellow Amityville artists. They took the demo to Puffy in 1991 who was then with Uptown, to Lyor Cohen at Rush and to Chrysalis and Virgin among others. They got great feedback, but no deal. As often happens the group disbanded but morphed into a new group Fourty Dogs. The demos were locked away and never heard again...