When Rap Ruled The World:

A White Boy MC’s Photo Album, 1986-1991

Ed. note: Inside, you'll find some of Peter Nash's (formerly Prime Minister
Pete Nice) personal memory box from his early days as the cane-wielding
MC of hip-hop group 3rd Bass. It's full of gaudy jewelry, tough-guy posing,
unfortunate fades, and candid shots of some of the most famous hip-hop
stars from the '90s before they were legends. Oh, and Gilbert Gottfried.
Enjoy!

Freestylin' with EPMD and DMC at Elroy Cohen's 1988 wedding in the
Dominican Republic. I got some more flix of PE wearing yarmulkes at the
ceremony, but I'm having trouble finding them

Russell Simmons on the hunt with a 3rd Bass "Steppin' to the AM" t-shirt
on at Jack the Rapper in Atlanta.

A classic from LA circa 1989 with the lil' fella, the late Eazy-E. I think Dre
is in the background thinking, "I gotta find me a white-boy MC to produce
in the future." And that's MF Doom in there too, before the mask.

From the PE/3rd Bass European Tour: Flav knocked on our hotel room
doors at like 7 a.m. in Glasgow, Scotland, and wanted me and Serch to
go feed some pigeons with him. Not kidding.
We ended up feeding pigeons, took 20 kids to Mickey D's for breakfast
(on Flav), and, finally, went to a magic store where Flav bought platform
shoes, fake shit, and a stockpile of fake blood capsules. He's got that
stuff in the bag. By the time we got to Germany the next day Flav put the
fake blood to use: he dropped to the floor in an airport, fake convulsions
and spat up mad blood. He stood up and pointed and laughed at me and
Serch saying "Yeah Boooooyee...its the fake blood from the magic
store, G!"


The Golden Age of Rap...How'd Hammer get in there?
Like Rap Masters said, "Living the American Dream."



On stage performing "Steppin to the AM" for "It's Showtime at the Apollo
Theatre" in 1989. We pretty much ripped it for the Apollo crowd, but I
remember Serch punched a hole in the wall backstage thinking we didn't
rip it enough.

Ticket from 3rd Bass at the Apollo Theatre August 31, 1989.

Ad for 3rd Bass Jungle Bros, and Tribe show at the Ritz in NYC March 2,
1990. I remember Africa was rocking some sort of amazing technicolor
dream coat and I think Kool Herc was in the house that night.
It was a "who's who" of Old School.

LL showed up to our album release party in LA and I guess he was upset
with the response to his "Walking With A Panther" album, so he proceeded
to jump on stage and unveiled some "Mama said Knock You Out" shit.
He pretty much stole the show and we took this flick afterwards.

With Gilbert Gottfried in the Def Jam offices on Broadway and Great
Jones. Gilbert showed up for the "Gas Face" video scenes at the office
in some clothes he probably had from the '70s. By the end of the video
shoot he was shouting out, "I gotta get me some up-and-coming porno
bitches."

I found this polaroid in a stack of stuff the other day. It was taken by
Charlie Ahearn, of Wild Style fame, for an Interview magazine article
in the winter of 1990.

With Professor Prince Paul, the super-producer of De La Soul on the set
of the "Gas Face" video in 1989. First time I met Paul was backstage at
the Latin Quarters for a Stetsasonic show. We all got there in an Aerostar
with Walter and our-then manager, Lumumba Carson.

Winter, '88: This is probably the earliest photo of me and Serch together
on the M-I-C at Hotel Amazon on Rivington Street. Def Jam's late-great
Dave Funkenklein took the photo which was recently given to me by
Chris LaSalle of Hellcat Records.

Spring, '85: A Pre-3rd Bass shot of the "Servin' Generalz": Lord Scotch
(the 1st white MC); Shameek aka Cool Papa Sha; and the Prime Minister
at K&I Jewelers in the Albee Square Mall on Fulton Street in Brooklyn.
You could see Bizmarkie, Kane or Clark Kent at K & I on the regular.
Scotch (aka. Kid Benneton) went to Music and Art with Serch, Dana Dane
and Slick Rick and introduced me to Serch at the Latin Quarters in '86.
His bro, Jonathan Lethem, wrote about him in his book, Fortress of
Solitude.

We got one of our breaks at the OMNI in Atlanta opening up for Big
Daddy Kane on the LL tour in '89. All the talk was that Kane and Slick
Rick had some beef and couldn't be in the same room together.
I remember they accidentally ended up in an elevator together.
I remember drinkin' 40oz's with King Sun on the bus after the show.

Honest Abe Lincoln would've been proud to see Too Short and 3rd "Base"
rock the Prairie Conv. Center in Springfield IL...

The Good Old Days..."Rap rules the 90s"...Word Up!

It wasn't too often the musician you sampled was down with the program.
But jazz great Grover Washington, Jr. (hand on my shoulder) was down
with us sampling his horn line from the song "Mr. Magic "on the Cactus
album's "Monte Hall" (AJ Daulerio's favorite).

Opening up for De la Soul at the Ritz NYC, 1989. Note the precise
and tight "3rd Bass" shape-up Serch is sporting, compliments of the
late-great DJ Subroc from KMD

From the archives: A Flyer with a piece by SAKE-One from the first
hip hop radio show at Columbia Univ: The Prime Minister Peter Nice
and DJ Clark Kent's "We Could Do This Show" 1985-6.


Via