Publication: URB [US]
Date: April 1996
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Title: "Ninety-9"
Written By: Tracii McGregor

"This one guy used to wake me up everyday for a whole six months! He'd be like, "Girl, get up. What'cha doin'? Just get out of the train!'" Ninety-9 is reminiscing back to her days of old. Growing up in Mount Vernon, a city literaly populated by rappers, Nine had no choice but to traverse into the city to avoid the cattle call of young rappers trying to get put on in her neighborhood. "I knew I had to leave there to get anything done, so I went downtown," she says.

Almost religiously, Ninety-9 would board the number 2 train, meet up with other new school griots such as Reg E. Gaines, Jasiri, Kevin Powell, Sha-Key and Beans to perform at various rap/poetry functions around Manhattan. It was at one such reading at The Fez that she met Cat Jackson, a representative from Paisley Park who signed her to a coveted Warner Chappell publishing deal. A seasoned musician (she plays several instruments, has a degree in music, and writes all her own material), Ninety-9 was soon even composing songs for the purple one himself. It was while working with the artist formerly known as Prince, that she further gained self confidence and self-discipline.

"If I thank Prince for anything, I thank him for getting a lot of that shit right out of my system," she divulges. "He also showed me sides of the business you just did not want to see. People that I worshiped, I got to see the other side of what they were doing."

Two summers ago, Ninety-9 joined Sha-Key, who was invited to tour Lollapallooza '93 with the Pharcyde, George Clinton, the Beastie Boys, and others. The Beastie Boys especially, were so impressed by Nine's poetics that a few weeks after the tour, Adam Yauch made an offer. After a slight bidding war, she signed to their Grand Royal Records and moved to Los Angelesto begin work on her debut.

"I was actually kinda scared," admits Ninety-9. "I thought I would have to go home and sit on the train to get the feel for a certain song. But being in Los angeles has actually heightened images I thought I would forget about New York. I just sit down in my house and remember everything the way it was." Tentatively titled _1971_ ("for my old crew" she says), the album is a true B-Girl exploration of her universe through beats, rhymes, and poetry.

"I wanted everything to be consistent," Nine explains. "Coming out of poetry and having that hanging over my head, I wanted to be lyrical but have complete stories - no writting about frogs and cheeze wiz! It's cool to be abstract, but the world is not abstract.

"I write about being a girl but take it to the next level," she continues. "Most females don't realize it, but with hip-hop, you can get into more than just the whole 'I'm a cranky bitch' thing. I come with my own version because there's so many other sides to being a woman that are fresh."