Stagga

In the early 2000s, ARTISTdirect Records signed at least two promising white rappers. One of them was Poverty, a very sociopolitical, somewhat KRS-1-ish MC from Portland, OR. Another was Stagga Lee, a native of Yonkers, NY (just north of New York City) who has cited Nas and Kool G. Rap as major inspirations. Stagga has a very East Coast-sounding flow, and unlike some white rappers--the Beastie Boys and the White Boys, for example--he doesn't sound white. The MC gets his name from the song "Stagger Lee," which was a #1 hit for R&B/blues singer Lloyd Price in 1957. Stagga start...