Nov 3, 20265 min read

Today in Hip Hop: November 3

A platinum battle record from the eighties, a Toronto birthday, a Cash Money landmark and a queen taking her first Hot 100 crown, all on one date.

OMYGOTTI

Toronto hip-hop artist | 730K+ Facebook

1987

Kool Moe Dee Asks How Ya Like Me Now

Kool Moe Dee released his second solo album, How Ya Like Me Now, on Jive Records on November 3, 1987. The record carried the singles How Ya Like Me Now, Wild Wild West and No Respect, and it climbed to No. 4 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 35 on the Billboard 200 on its way to platinum status.

The album is also remembered as a battle move. Its cover showed a red Kangol hat, the trademark of rival LL Cool J, being crushed under a Jeep wheel, and the title track took direct aim at the younger star. Coming out of the Treacherous Three, Moe Dee was defending the first generation of MCs in public, on wax, with a hit record attached.

My take: Rap history heads know this date. A founding era MC went platinum while telling the new school to put respect on the craft, and the genre has been having that same argument, in new clothes, ever since.

1989

NAV Is Born in Toronto

Navraj Singh Goraya, known to the world as NAV, was born in Toronto on November 3, 1989, and raised in the Rexdale neighbourhood. He turns 37 today. The XO singer and producer broke through as a songwriter and SoundCloud era artist before his own records took over, with the debut album Reckless reaching No. 8 on the Billboard 200 in 2018.

NAV — Photo: Shotbytwinky via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The run kept climbing from there. Bad Habits in 2019 and Good Intentions in 2020 both debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, a back to back that put a Rexdale artist at the top of the American album chart twice in fourteen months. Few Toronto stories underline the city pipeline better than his: local beats, an XO co-sign, then the chart summit.

My take: Toronto birthdays get their flowers on this page. NAV built his sound in Rexdale and took it to No. 1 twice, and that path matters for every young producer in this city uploading from a bedroom right now.

1992

Positive K Drops His Debut Album

Brooklyn MC Positive K released his debut album, The Skills Dat Pay Da Bills, on November 3, 1992. The record is anchored by its single I Got a Man, a back and forth between the rapper and a woman who keeps shutting him down, and that single climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart.

The song became one of the defining rap singles of its year because the concept did the heavy lifting. Instead of a boast, the hit was a rejection played for comedy, with the woman winning every exchange. It remains the record his name is attached to first, more than three decades on.

My take: One perfect concept can carry a whole career. I Got a Man is still the template for a comedy rap single that respects the joke and the craft at the same time.

1998

Juvenile Turns Up 400 Degreez

Juvenile released 400 Degreez, his third studio album and his first on a major label, on November 3, 1998, through Cash Money and Universal. Mannie Fresh produced the entire record, and it peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

The singles Ha and Back That Azz Up carried New Orleans bounce onto national radio, and the album has since been certified four times platinum. HotNewHipHop, in its anniversary coverage, calls it the best selling album in Cash Money history, the release that turned a regional label with a landmark distribution deal into a national power.

My take: This is the day the South stopped asking for a seat. 400 Degreez proved a New Orleans label could keep its identity, keep its producer in house, and still outsell the coasts.

2001

Mary J. Blige Takes Her First Hot 100 Crown

Family Affair by Mary J. Blige reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 3, 2001, and stayed there for six straight weeks. The Dr. Dre produced single, taken from her album No More Drama, was the first Hot 100 chart topper of her career, a surprising fact for an artist who had already been the Queen of Hip Hop Soul for a decade.

Stereogum, in its chart history of the song, notes that it ended a long logjam at the top between Alicia Keys and Jennifer Lopez, and that it remains the only Hot 100 No. 1 of Blige career. A party record with no drama in it, built by an artist famous for singing through pain, turned out to be her biggest commercial moment.

My take: The title of the album was No More Drama, and the single kept the promise. Mary earned that six week run, and the song still empties a dancefloor of excuses the second it comes on.

2023

Jeezy Forgives, But Does Not Forget

Jeezy released his thirteenth studio album, I Might Forgive... But I Don't Forget, on November 3, 2023. The project arrived as a double sided statement about his personal life and his business history, and it peaked at No. 5 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

By 2023 Jeezy had largely stepped into an elder statesman role, publishing, speaking and recording on his own schedule rather than chasing the release calendar. The album title alone told listeners where he stood: closure on his terms, memory fully intact.

My take: Thirteen albums in, the title is the thesis. Jeezy has made a second career out of turning street lessons into boardroom language, and this record is that voice on wax.