Mountain Brothers was an American

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

group originally from

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Named after the legend of 108 mountain bandits depicted in the Chinese novel ''

Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (), also called ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' or ''All Men Are Brothers'', is a Chinese novel from the Ming dynasty that is one of the preeminent Classic Chinese Novels. Attributed to Shi Nai'an, ''Water Margin'' was one of the e ...

'', Mountain Brothers are considered cultural pioneers, being one of the first Asian American hip-hop groups and also for the lack of sampling of other music in construction of their own. Mountain Brothers released two critically acclaimed albums, ''Self Vol 1'' and ''Triple Crown'', the first of which is widely considered to be an independent hip-hop classic. Some of their more notable songs included "Paperchase," "Galaxies (The Next Level)," and "Thoroughbred." The last of the three is featured in remixed form on CHOPS' album ''Virtuosity''. They produced national radio and TV commercials for Sprite on the ad "Rhymes from The Mind" and Nike on the ad "Players Delight". They also produced a music video for "Galaxies (The Next Level)". Styles Infinite also released two 12" singles, "Fresh Air/Aquarian Mind" and "Easy on the Ears/Finishline".

Career

The group formed in 1994 after all attended the

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

State College, Pennsylvania State College is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough and Home rule municipality (Pennsylvania), home rule municipality in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a college town, home to the University Park, Pennsylvania, University Park ...

. They shared a common interest; making music which is how they became friends. There was an electronic music lab at Penn State which they took advantage of by using it as their recording studio. Mountain Brothers' goal was to get signed to a major label so their music could be known nationwide. Their method was to send their demos to a variety of music labels; somewhat anonymously. Chops stated, “We didn’t want people to prejudge based on us being Asian so we would send a demo and a letter saying, ‘We have a picture, but it doesn’t matter what we look like if you don’t like our music.’ People that knew music, it was their job to like music, so they loved our music and then we sent them our picture; their mind was blown!” The group became the first Chinese-American rap group to sign with a major music label when they signed with

Ruffhouse Records Ruffhouse Records is an American record label founded in 1989 by Chris Schwartz and Joe Nicolo as a joint venture with Columbia Records. In 1999, Schwartz and Nicolo closed the label, and Schwartz and Kevon Glickman continued with RuffNation ...

in 1996. Ruffhouse released them in 1998 after only releasing a promotional single. The group disbanded in 2003 shortly after the release of the album ''Triple Crown''. CHOPS is the only member still active in hip-hop, working with artists such as

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, and

Paul Wall Paul Michael Slayton (born March 11, 1981), better known by his stage name Paul Wall, or the Ice Man, is an American rapper and DJ. He has spent much of his career affiliated with Swishahouse, and has released several albums under the label and ...

. He also provided music for the

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

reality television show '' Rob and Big'', the soundtrack for the independent film ''

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'', and contributed music to the soundtracks for the films ''

Brown Sugar Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content or produced by t ...

'' and '' House of Wax''. Peril-L is currently a medical researcher and collector of vintage furniture and Styles Infinite is a doctor. In June 2012, they reunited and recorded new material for a compilation by CHOPS. They released the music video for their song "Keep On" on September 25, 2013.

Members

*CHOPS (Scott Jung) *Peril-L (Christopher Wang) *Styles Infinite (Steve Wei) Additional band members performed with Mountain Brothers during certain live performances, including *DJ Roli Rho from 5th Platoon *The Black Republicans

Discography

Albums

*''Self: Volume 1'' (1999) (Pimpstrut Records (self-released)) *''Triple Crown'' (2003) ( Babygrande) *Self: Volume 1.5 (2019)

EPs

*''Microphone Phenomenal'' (2002) ( Babygrande)

References

External links

CHOPS official site CHOPS MySpace page Music Video for "Galaxies (The Next Level)Interview with Mountain Brothers
{{Authority control American hip-hop groups American people of Chinese descent American rappers of Asian descent East Coast hip-hop groups Rappers from Philadelphia Hip-hop groups from Philadelphia Musical groups established in 1994 Musical groups disestablished in 2003 1991 establishments in Pennsylvania