Legends of Hip Hop Come to Hudson Valley 9/12, Features Naughty By Nature, Coolio 9/12

The Legends of Hip Hop, featuring Naughty By Nature, Coolio, Tone-Loc and Rob Base, take over the Mid Hudson Civic Center on Saturday, September 12th.

Naughty By Nature was discovered by Queen Latifah while performing in a talent show. In 1991 the band released their self-titled album Naughty by Nature, which received Platinum success and produced an inescapable Top Ten hit in "O.P.P." "O.P.P." made Naughty By Nature crossover stars, yet their ghetto sensibility and gritty street funk made them popular in the hip-hop underground as well. The New Jersey born trio repeated their platinum success with their album, 19 Naughty III , producing yet another ubiquitous crossover smash in the "hey! ho!" chant of "Hip Hop Hooray"; . Naughty By Nature followed up with two Gold albums, Poverty's Paradise, which won a Grammy for Best Rap Album, and Nineteen Naughty Nine: Nature's Fury. In anticipation of an album release in the fall, Naughty By Nature has just released two new singles, "I Gotta Lotta" and "Get To Know Me Better".

Though ultimately credited with carrying the West Coast rap musical subgenre into the mainstream, Grammy Award winning rapper and actor, Coolio, endured a decidedly shaky and obstacle-laden road to success. He started rapping when he was fifteen, but it wasn't until he was 30 - well over the hill in hip-hop time - that he rose to fame with his 1994 debut single "Fantastic Voyage", and his 1995 single "Gangsta's Paradise", the title track for the film, Dangerous Minds, was a huge hit and became Coolio's first number one pop single. "Gangsta's Paradise" won Coolio the Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. Coolio recently released a new album, "From The Bottom 2 The Top". In 2008, he began hosting a cooking show online called Cookin' With Coolio and premiered Coolio's Rules on the Oxygen network.

Eighties rap pioneer Tone-Loc was the second rap act ever to reach #1 on Billboard's album charts. In 1989, his album "Loc'd After Dark" spawned the hit singles "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina". After recording his 1991 follow-up album, "Cool Hand Loc", the singer put his familiar raspy voice to work on TV and in film, landing roles on the TV series Roc and in films including Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Heat.

Best known for his 1988 platinum hi-hop classic "It Takes Two", Rob Base rode his hit into dance clubs providing a touchstone for the style known as hip-house. His second single, "Get On The Dance Floor" continued his dance appeal.

The Legends of Hip Hop taking over the Mid Hudson Civic Center on Saturday, September 12th. The Mid Hudson Civic Center is located at 14 Civic Center Plaza in Poughkeepsie. Showtime is 7:30 pm. Tickets are $32.50 general admission and go on sale on Saturday, August 8th at the Mid Hudson Civic Center Box Office, order by phone through Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or on the web at www.ticketmaster.com.