Big Daddy Kane

One rhyme. That's all it took. In fact, it was one line within the rhyme that did it. Never mind that his wordplay and cadence in the song were already a notch above that of his therefore better-known peers. Even though he was a relative newcomer to the Hip-Hop scene circa 1987 (on wax, at least, since he'd already been performing backup onstage for his cohort, Biz Markie), the young man born Antonio Monterio Hardy scarcely 20 years before sounded like he belonged right up there with well-established rap royalty. Even those who heard him for the first time had absolutely no doubt: this was something whole 'nother echelon. From the moment he rapped alongside the clown prince of beat-boxing on "Just Rhymin' With Biz" (nothing more-or-less-than a brag' 'n' boast-filled beatdown of the proverbial microphone), collective heads nodded, jaws dropped, and faces screwed themselves ugly with "Ho-o-o-o, shit!" Recognition that this kid from Bed-Stuy, this pimp-channeling mic controlled who unabashedly called himself Big Daddy Kane, had just changed the game. All it took was one line.