Malik B.

Philadelphia rapper Malik B. brought energy, grit, and a streetwise toughness to his rhymes both as a founding member of hip-hop legends the Roots and through a series of solo efforts. In addition to appearing on the earliest Roots albums, Malik released strong records of his own like 2015's collaboration with Mr. Green, Unpredictable. Malik B. was born Malik Abdul Basit in 1972. The Philadelphia native watched the evolution of East Coast hip-hop in real time as he grew up, and by the late '80s, he had begun playing with high school friends in the conglomeration that would ev...