If you were a Rap fan in the early nineties, chances are you were banging out to the sounds of West Coast Gangsta Rap. At that point in Rap history, the pulse of the culture beat in Los Angeles and in the aggressive, brash Rap style South Central boys brought to the table. Coincidentally, at about this same time, East Coast Rap lost its identity. The stark shift in thematic material was a far cry from the Rock-infused sound of Run DMC or the Party Rap style of MCs like Kool Mo Dee or Big Daddy Kane. This new trend of hard-edged content left all of New York searching for a new set of voices to echo their own street realities. It was only a matter of time; pre-Giuliani-facelift New York claimed some of the roughest projects and hardest neighborhoods around. They just needed a movement, and a sound.

By the mid-nineties, two things had happened to change the fate of New York Hip-Hop. One was the emergence of a heavyset former drug dealer from Brooklyn. He hit the scene with his Bad Boys, and they were able to recreate the gangsta playa model with an East Coast spin on it. The other was a work of singular Hip-Hop magnificence called Illmatic. Penned and spit by a 19-year-old upstart named Nas, the album was an ode to Hip-Hop and to New York, but more specifically, to the soon to be legendary project section known as Queensbridge. Prior to Nas, Queensbridge had already left an imprint on the Rap game, producing such notables as MC Shan and the legendary Marly Marl. However, the rise of Nas gave way to a new breed of Queensbridge MC. These MCs made a name for themselves as rhymers unafraid to delve into the grimy element of the New York streets. The music was as hard as anything coming from out west, and it was authentic.

Among these QB young gunners were of course Mobb Deep, Cormega, Capone, and one TaJuan Perry, better known as Big Noyd. Noyd got his start on Mobb Deep’s 1993 debut album, Juvenile Hell, but it was his contribution to another Mobb Deep classic, The Infamous, that would bring him to prominence. Noyd was featured on the song “Give Up the Goods,” and the sickness of his verse led to him being handed a 300,000-dollar contract with Tommy Boy Records. His debut, Episodes of a Hustla, hit the streets in 1996 at an inopportune time for Noyd, as he was incarcerated and unable to promote the project. His legal situation led to problems of all kinds, and the effort failed to gain any traction.

His next collection, Only the Strong, would not hit stores until 2003, but it served to re-establish Big Noyd to the Rap public. The album boasted features by Mobb Deep and production by Havoc, which made it a favorite on the New York streets, where the Mobb had become legendary. Its street success led to Noyd being able to resuscitate his recording career and release new material regularly. He followed it up with a string of albums that stuck to his old Mobb Deep-influenced formula, until he tried his hand at a crossover work entitled Illustrious that dropped in 2008. The effort featured no Mobb Deep features and no Havoc production and was not as hard-edged as his previous work. Although he received the most radio and video airplay he'd ever had in his life, the streets felt betrayed, and Noyd fell out of favor with some of his QB brethren.

Now, things have come full circle for both Noyd and for New York Hip-Hop. New York is once again searching for a musical identity, having once again seen the Rap throne usurped by another region, this time a little further south on the map. Noyd wants to be one of the NY rappers to fill this void, and his new album, Queens Chronicle, could be the first step to that. Hitting stores Feb. 2nd, the record is a return to the hardcore for him, and with Mobb Deep in an uncertain place due to the incarceration of Prodigy, it's a chance for him to shoulder the Infamous load alone. It’s obvious that New York needs its veterans now more than ever, and Noyd is ready to step up.