Father

b. Timothy Brown, New York, USA. Father’s debut album included the Top 20 US hit, ‘I’ll Do 4 U’, and a powerful scene-setter between Father and Lady Kazan. On his return in 1994 for a belated third album, Sex Is Law, he dropped the MC suffix he had previously employed. It tied in with a switch in image too, from lovers rock hip-hop to down and dirty gangsta pimp. Gimmicky raps such as ‘69’ were the order of the day, as Father perved his way through a succession of saucy rhymes. There was a nod to the New Jack Swing movement with tracks produced by Teddy Riley and Pete Rock, who added an En Vogue sample to ‘R&B Swinger’. Other samples included the Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’. The sexual lyrics were given a brief respite on his duet with Little Shawn, ‘For The Brothers Who Ain’t Here’, a touching commemoration of loss in the ghetto.