Bushwick Bill

• Genre: Texas/ H-Town
• Hometown: Houston

About

A vertically challenged Jamaican dancer residing in Houston, Bushwick Bill got his rhyming start as a member of the Geto Boys in the late 1980s. An unabashedly raw Gangsta Rap crew from the notorious Fifth Ward neighborhood, they blew up nationwide on the strength of their classic 1991 single "Mind Playing Tricks On Me." The song thrust them into the spotlight and helped sell countless copies of their album We Can't Be Stopped, the cover of which shows Bill talking on an old school celly while being wheeled to the hospital with a major-league eye injury. Not coincidentally, "Ever So Clear" -- the first single from his 1992 solo album Little Big Man -- vividly describes his drunken tussle with his girl and baby that ended with a bullet in his eye. Despite his troubles, Bushwick Bill has continued to record both with the Geto Boys and on his own, releasing two more solo albums and occasionally appearing in videos. His unique style (both physically and on the mic) has won him a broad fan base, and there is little doubt that he will return to the limelight eventually.

- Brolin Winning