Treach and Kay Gee sit in with Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg to speak on the past, present, and future of Naughty By Nature.

Treach and Kay Gee sit in with The Breakfast Club, speaking on the group’s recent fallout with Vin Rock.

Yesterday, out of nowhere, Treach took to Twitter to blast former Naughty By Nature partner, Vin Rock, typing “Vinnie from NAUGHTY BY NATURE is Officially FIRED!! Anything he does besides shows til Sept is Frugazy!! Fuck him & the Ground he Walks!!”. Vin Rock responded with a Tweet of his own, stating “I’m waking to drama. Spoke to my publicist. Silence is Golden. In the meantime Business 101: You can’t Fire the Owner ;-)”.

After that, Treach released this Vin Rock diss track, “Tall Midget”. Go figure.

Found by legendary crate-digger DJ JS1, this track has been sought after since it was recorded in 1993. Recorded for the Who’s the Man soundtrack (as seen in the footage from the Onyx DVD), Biggie’s song ended up being his first single “Party and Bullshit”. Huge thanks to DJ JS1 who was nice enough to give it to Sticky Fingaz of Onyx. A higher quality version was put on the Onyx album “Cold Case Files 2″ available at OnyxDomain.com

BOOM!

Let’s face it, Naughty By Nature haven’t necessarily had a plethora of new musical output over the past decade. Aside from Treach’s excellent guest verse on Celph Titled and Buckwild’s Nineteen Ninety Now, and a handful of other guest verses, they have mainly spent their time touring the world off of their catalog of hits they recorded between 1991 and 2002. Their highest profile activity was in 2008 when they received a VH1 Hip-Hop Honor. So, to the naysayers, it was probably an impossible feat for them to get back in the lab and cook up some tasty auditory treats. Then they started leaking some songs at the beginning of 2011, performed on Letterman, appeared on Live From HQ and anticipation began to grow for their album. Now we are at the end of 2011, and after many delays, it is safe to say that that feat has been successfully achieved with the release of Anthem Inc.

As they have done throughout their career, Anthem Inc. blends the commercial sensibilities of pop hooks, catchy choruses and traditional song structure with good production and Treach’s still rapid-fire delivery. The album starts off with “Naughty Nation” and an almost air-raid sounding horn, giving warning that Treach, Vin Roc, and Kay Gee are back on the scene. Throughout much of the album, Naughty puts across a positive and uplifting message, such as the one for the youth to choose the right path on “Flags.” However, they also deliver some of the hard-edged song concepts they are known for like early leak/video “I Gotta Lotta.”

Those who only know Naughty by their anthems, their five top ones rerecorded on this album at much quicker speeds, probably are unaware that their albums always have deep album cuts. Poverty’s Paradise may have been known for their anthems “Feel Me Flow” and “Craziest” but it also contained solid album cuts such as “The Chain Remains” and “Holdin’ Fort.” Anthem Inc. is no different; weighing in at twelve new tracks and the five previous classics. There are enough deep cuts to make this album have some replay value beyond the here-and-now.

Despite the strengths that this album displays, there are a few minor drawbacks to it. The overabundance of guest appearances, while all work and are placed properly, detract from the chance to hear more of Treach and Vinnie. Speaking of which, Vinnie is hardly on the album. You would think that in a decade he would be able to come up with some verses to contribute to the album, but his potential verses are taken up by different guests throughout. Additionally, some of the production tries too much to copy what is getting radio play these days, an example of which is “I Know What It’s Like” could easily be confused for an Akon track if you were to remove Naughty from the mix.

All in all, this album stands up as a solid effort and worth some replay value. It is good to have Naughty back on the scene, and hopefully they will work some of these new songs into their sets as they continue to tour the world on their anthems. Maybe someday in the future, some of the songs on Anthem Inc. will be rerecorded as they become anthems for our present era.

The 2011 Soul Train awards had a fitting tribute to the late Heavy D, featuring Big Daddy Kane, Doug E. Fresh, Goodie Mob, Naughty By Nature, Kurtis Blow, and more.
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Naughty By Nature recently took another trip overseas. This time they landed in England and performed in both London and Manchester with Ice Cube and W.C.

Shout out to DJ Crazy Toones.

Touré talks Grammys with Naughty By Nature, winners of the very first Best Rap Album Grammy in 1996.

Naughty By Nature “FLAGS” featuring Balewa “Bilal” Muhammad & Jaheim -
Starring: Treach, Ice-T, Marc John Jefferies and Dennis Johnson. Produced by Naughty By Nature for Illtown Films. Written by Treach & Directed by Jay Rodriguez & Rock Davis for Itchy House Films. Stay tuned for the “Death Cut”… coming next week.

Wow, new mixtape here from Naughty by Nature, a free 7 track release featuring the NJ legends. Download link is below.

Naughty by Nature feat. Garden State Greats: The Mixtape (Mixtape)

New video from Naughty off their new album Anthem Inc. This one has that old school grimey feel to it. The new album from Naughty By Nature will their seventh full album and will hit stores in Summer 2010.

It’s 2010, guard your grill, knuckle up….. Looks like NBN are at it again, with a slightly updated version of “Get To Know Me Better”, which leaked online mid-last year. The new, final version of the track now features Pitbull joining them on the already poppy track. Naughty’s trying on some new flows for size here, for better of for worse…..

Naughty By Nature + Pitbull – “Get To Know Me Better” (MP3)