Naughty By Nature

The New Jersey trio Naughty by Nature took hard-edged rap mainstream with ’90s hits like “O.P.P.” and “Hip Hop Hooray.” • Treach, Vin Rock, and DJ Kay Gee met in high school in East Orange, New Jersey. They released one album as The New Style before mentor Queen Latifah suggested a new name, Naughty by Nature. • Based around a sample of The Jackson 5’s 1970 classic “ABC,” Naughty by Nature’s 1991 breakthrough single, “O.P.P,” reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. • The group made the whole world wave its arms from side to side with the anthemic 1993 smash “Hip-Hop Hooray.” The single peaked at No. 8 on the Hot 100, giving Naughty by Nature their second Top 10 hit. • Their brash fourth album, 1995’s Poverty’s Paradise, won the Grammy for Best Rap Album. • On the poignant 1997 single “Mourn You Til I Join You,” Treach pays tribute to the late 2Pac, whom he’d befriended on the set of the 1992 film Juice. • Naughty by Nature trekked across North America as part of the 2019 Mixtape Tour, where they performed alongside Salt-N-Pepa, Debbie Gibson, and more.