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Artist
Al Tariq
12+ albums
underground hip-hopHip-Hopnew yorkrapNY middle 90izz dope
about
Berntony Smalls is the birth name of rapper Al’ Tariq. Formerly known as Kool Ass Fash/Fashion. Early on he was influenced by two classmates, one of which would go on to Iconic stardom, the original Cut Creator and LL Cool J. He was also mentored by behind the scenes DJing and Producing heavyweight, Drew Ski/Dr. Butcher. In 1990 he started his career as a solo artist working with Psycho Les and JuJu, who would become the production team The Beatnuts! In 1991 the producers where brought on board by Chris “Baby Chris” Lighty to produce acts on his fledgling record label Violator. After writing half of Chi-Ali’s debut album and performing on a few songs (most notably “Let the Horns Blow” feat: Dres of BlackSheep, Dove of DeLa Soul, Phife Dog of A Tribe Called Quest and Chi-Ali) Relativity Records decided to offer The Beatnuts a record deal that would include Fashion in a newly formed HipHop group. During the recording of what was to be the groups debut album with Kool Fash as the featured emcee, Fash was hit with a felony indictment for drug dealing and was sentenced to 1 to 3 years in New York State Prison. He would actually do 11 months. Six of them being in the states Shock Program. A military boot camp style of prison reform that has a lower recidivism rate than conventional prison. Upon his release from prison in April of ‘93 he rejoined the group and rode the success of a song Les and Ju recorded while he was in prison. Reign of the Tec. The group recorded the critically a
