Audio Two was the

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

, New York hip hop duo of emcee Kirk "Milk Dee" Robinson and DJ Nat "Gizmo" Robinson, most famous for its first hit " Top Billin'".

History

Top Billin' by Audio Two US 7-inch vinyl Side A

The duo's debut single, "Make it Funky", was released in 1987, but it was the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

, "Top Billin, that became the chart hit. The beat — made by Milk Dee and produced by Daddy-O of Stetsasonic — and Milk Dee's lyrics would be sampled and referenced time and time again, even by the group itself: both the group's full-length debut, 1988's ''What More Can I Say?'' and its 1990 follow-up, ''I Don't Care: The Album'', were titled after lines from the song. However, the duo would never recapture its initial success. The singles of its second album, "I Get the Papers" and "On the Road Again," were only moderate hits. It was a time of rapid change in the hip hop market; gangsta rap was rising in popularity, and Audio Two found itself unsuccessfully struggling to maintain recording contracts and a fanbase. Audio Two did, however, pave the way for the duo's labelmate

MC Lyte Lana Michele Moorer (born October 11, 1970), better known by her stage name MC Lyte, is an American rap music, rapper, Disc jockey, DJ, actress and entrepreneur. Considered one of the pioneers of female rap, Lyte first gained fame in the late 19 ...

, who launched her career with the hit single I Cram to Understand U (Sam). Lyte's 1998 album ''Seven & Seven'' featured a remake of "Top Billin — with the original instrumental — this time a duet between her and Milk. It has been a widely circulated rumor that both members of Audio Two were brothers of MC Lyte; however, this is untrue. In 1994, Milk released a solo EP titled ''Never Dated'' on

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's American Recordings. While the EP was notable for its single "Spam," a duet with the Beastie Boys' Adrock with

drum programming Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, sampler and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These m ...

by Mike D, aside from the devoted Beastie Boys fanbase the album generated little interest. Milk eventually rediscovered success by producing the singer Eamon, who recorded the 2004 hit "

Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back) "Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back)" is the debut single of American singer-songwriter Eamon. The song was co-written by Eamon, Kirk Robinson and Mark Passy. It was released on November 10, 2003, as the lead single from his debut album, ''I Don't W ...

." In 2007, Milk Dee recorded a verse for a remix of " I Get Money" by 50 Cent, thanking all the music artists that sampled "Top Billin'," which earned him royalties. In recent years, Audio Two member Gizmo became a recording engineer under the name "You Can Ask" Giz. His audio work has appeared on albums by

Donell Jones Donell Jones (born May 22, 1973) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is most notable for the hits " U Know What's Up", " Where I Wanna Be", and his cover of Stevie Wonder's " Knocks Me Off My Feet". Jones' first studio ...

Calvin Richardson Calvin Richardson (born December 16, 1976) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter. In 1999, he released his debut solo album ''Country Boy''. Career In the mid 1990s, Richardson went solo and signed with Universal Records. His debut alb ...

Jaheim Jaheim H. Hoagland (born May 26, 1978), known mononymously as Jaheim, is an American R&B singer. He was signed by Naughty by Nature's Kaygee to Divine Mill Records in 2000, and released his debut album '' Ghetto Love'' in 2001. His second effor ...

History

Discography

Studio albums

Unreleased albums

EPs

Singles

As lead artist

References

Notes

Citations

External links