The Nonce was a hip-hop duo from

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, that was active in the 1990s, releasing material from 1992 to 1999. As part of the

Project Blowed Project Blowed is an open-mic workshop, its affiliated underground hip hop crew and record label based in Los Angeles, California at 3333 Leimert. This hip hop function started in 1994 and features many music groups, emcees, dancers, music pro ...

collective, working with

Aceyalone Edwin Maximilian "Eddie" Hayes, Jr. (born September 30, 1970), better known by his stage name Aceyalone, is an American rapper from Los Angeles, California, United States. He is a member of Freestyle Fellowship, Haiku D'Etat and The A-Team. He is ...

, among others, the duo developed a reputation for smooth, jazzy, classy production, complemented by laid-back, smart rhymes, paying homage to the old school emcees they grew up listening to in the mid-1980s. "For the nonce" is an archaic phrase meaning "for now" or "for the moment."

History

1990–1995

In 1990, after their high school graduation, The Nonce began recording its first album. This album would, however, go unreleased, due to creative differences with their production company, until the master recordings were rediscovered in 2017. The following year, the album was finally released, appropriately titled ''1990''. In 1992, the duo signed with Wild West Records and released their first single, "The Picnic Song". However, it would be nearly two more years, because of internal wrangling with the label, before the duo would release their biggest single to date, "Mixtapes", in 1994. In 1995 a full-length album, '' World Ultimate'', was released on

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (, ; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is a co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popularize hip hop by produci ...

's American Recordings label (via Wild West Records). In 2005, to commemorate the album's 10-year anniversary, a Japanese reissue surfaced in limited quantities. There were also plans to reissue the album on vinyl, though as of 2008, no official reissue had surfaced.

''The Sight of Things'' and previously unreleased material

After ''World Ultimate'' came an EP, ''The Sight of Things'', in 1998. In 2005, previously unreleased material from the Nonce was issued in the form of two compilations: ''Advanced Regression'' and ''The Right State of Mind''.

Sach solo material

Nouka Basetype, now known as Sach, began to release solo material in 1998 with the cassette-only album ''Seven Days To Engineer''. He followed that up in 2002 with the Mary Joy released LP, ''Suckas Hate Me''. 2005 saw the release of his third solo album, ''Sach 5th Ave''. In 2018, Sach published a book of poems and paintings entitled ''Rhyme Book Bibliomancy''. He also produced tracks for numerous Los Angeles underground hip hop artists such as Global Phlowtations, Ganjah K, Medusa, Figures of Speech, Studious Steve, and Freestyle Fellowship.

Death of Yusef

On May 21, 2000, Yusef "Afloat" Muhammad was found dead of unknown causes on the side of Freeway 110 in Los Angeles. He was 28 years old.

Discography

Albums

* '' World Ultimate'' (1995) * ''World Ultimate'' (new edition) (2005) * ''1990'' (2018) (album recorded in 1990)

EPs

* ''The Sight of Things'' (1998) Wild West Records/Fluid Recordings

Singles

* ''The Picnic Song'' (1992) Wild West/American Recordings/Warner Bros. Records * ''Mix Tapes'' (Promo) (1993) Wild West/American Recordings/Warner Bros. Records * ''Mix Tapes / Keep it On'' (1994) Wild West/American Recordings/Warner Bros. Records * ''Mix Tapes (The Remixes)'' (1994) Wild West/American Recordings/Warner Bros. Records * ''From the Ground Up'' (1994) Wild West/American Recordings/Warner Bros. Records * ''Bus Stops (Where the Honeys is At...)'' (1995) Wild West/American Recordings/Warner Bros. Records * ''Live & Direct/ADR Most Requested'' (1997) Wild West/American Recordings/Warner Bros. Records * ''Turnin' it Out'' (1999) Wild West/American Recordings/Warner Bros. Records * ''Haiku Busho Sach San/The Only'' (2006) Fluid Records

Compilations

* ''Advanced Regression'' (2005) * ''The Right State of Mind'' (2005) * ''Advanced State of Regression'' (2006) * ''The Only Mixtape – Mixed By Bachir'' (2010)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nonce, The Musical groups from Los Angeles Hip-hop groups from California Warner Records artists 1992 establishments in California Musical groups established in 1992 Musical groups disestablished in 1999 Project Blowed American hip-hop duos Musical duos from California