Mountain Brothers was an American hip hop group originally from

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

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

Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''. The story, which is s ...

'', 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 Pennsylvan ...

State College, Pennsylvania State College is a home rule municipality in Centre County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania Sta ...

. 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, is an American rapper and DJ. He has spent much of his career affiliated with Swishahouse Records, and has released several albums under the label and collabor ...

. He also provided music for the

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reality television show ''

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'', the soundtrack for the independent film ''

Dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...

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

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'' 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 CHOPS is the stage name of Scott Jung, also known as Scott Chops Jung, an Asian American hip hop producer, rapper and former member of the Asian American Hip-Hop group, the Mountain Brothers. Jung grew up in Philadelphia and has Chinese ancestry ...

. 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 Babygrande Records is an American independent record label based in New York City, founded by Chuck Wilson. Babygrande is distributed by The Orchard and represented by the Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood. History Babygrande Records was ...

)

EPs

*''Microphone Phenomenal'' (2002) (

)

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 from Philadelphia Musical groups established in 1994 Musical groups disestablished in 2003 1991 establishments in Pennsylvania