Da Brat Biography
Shawntae Harris, 14 April 1974, Chicago, Illinois, USA. A forerunner of the new breed of female hip-hop artists Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown, the foul-mouthed Da Brat became the most successful female rapper of all time in 1994 with her platinum-selling debut Funkdafied.
Harris’ first musical experience was as a drummer in her church choir, but her big break came in 1992 when she won a local MC contest sponsored by Yo MTV Raps. The prize for winning was a meeting with the hugely successful teenage rap duo Kriss Kross. The duo introduced her to their producer/manager Jermaine Dupri, who promptly signed the rapper to his So So Def label. Dupri set about styling Da Brat as a female version of Snoop Doggy Dogg, underpinning her in-your-face rapping style with his trademark G-funk rhythms. Released in June 1994, Funkdafied shocked the male-dominated world of hip-hop when it debuted at number 1 on the Billboard rap chart and also broke into the Top 20 of the Hot 200. The title track, which was built around a sample of the Isley Brothers’ ‘Between The Sheets’, was a million-seller which topped the rap singles chart for an incredible 11 weeks. Da Brat’s success was all the more encouraging in that it was achieved without recourse to any of the blatant sexual exploitation that marked the careers of the female rappers who followed in her wake. Her own follow-up, Anuthatantrum, was a partially successful response to critics who insisted she was just another of Dupri’s pawns. It included the hit single ‘Ghetto Love’, featuring TLC’s T-Boz. After a lengthy hiatus during which she attempted to establish an acting career, Da Brat returned to the studio to work on her third album, 2000’s Unrestricted. A charge of reckless conduct relating to a nightclub incident in Atlanta shortly before the album’s release did little to harm Da Brat’s popularity, with the rapper achieving a R&B chart-topper and a slot in the mainstream Top 5. A role in Mariah Carey’s ill-fated movie Glitter preceded the release of Da Brat’s fourth studio album, Limelight, Luv & Niteclubz.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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