Atlanta, GA · hip hop · conscious hip hop

Arrested Development

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Early-'90s Atlanta collective who put southern, rural, spiritual concerns into hip-hop before anyone else did — 'Tennessee' and 'People Everyday' still radiate communal warmth.

Arrested Development formed in Atlanta in the late 1980s, led by rapper and producer Speech and turntablist Headliner. Speech had met the group's elder figure Baba Oje as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and together they built out a rotating collective of singers and dancers that offered an Afrocentric, socially conscious alternative to the gangsta rap dominating hip-hop at the time.

Their 1992 debut, 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of..., set boom-bap drums against soul, gospel and folk textures, with lyrics addressing rural southern life, poverty and spirituality. The album topped the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll, sold more than six million copies worldwide, and produced the singles "Mr. Wendal" and "Revolution," the latter written at Spike Lee's request for his Malcolm X biopic.

The group's success made history: at the 1993 Grammys they became the first hip-hop act to win Best New Artist, adding the award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, and Rolling Stone named them Band of the Year.

Their 1994 follow-up, Zingalamaduni, sold poorly, and the group disbanded in 1996. They reunited in 2000, releasing music independently through Speech's own label, and later sued the Fox network over its unrelated use of the Arrested Development name for a television sitcom.

In 2005 they won the television contest Hit Me, Baby, One More Time performing "Tennessee," donating the prize money to UNICEF, and in 2008 joined the Black Eyed Peas for a peace concert in Jerusalem aimed at Israelis and Palestinians.

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hip hopconscious hip hop