by Frannie Kelley and Ali Shaheed Muhammad

All year . For a special episode of Microphone Check we invited a group of people who were working in hip-hop back then to meet us at the and tell stories about that productive and creative year. At the audio link you can hear an edited version of the evening.

Our guests were:

Faith Newman — A&R at Def Jam and then Columbia, who signed Nas.

Ralph McDaniels — host of Video Music Box, music video director and producer.

Prince Paul — producer for De La Soul and the Gravediggaz, member of Handsome Boy Modeling School and solo musician.

Mike Dean — engineer and producer at Rap-A-Lot Records.

Stretch Armstrong — DJ for WKCR's Stretch & Bobbito radio show.