Biography
The West Indies provided the early environment for MCs Babe-Face Kaos, Y-Tee, and Mister Man—Y-Tee having been raised in Jamaica and Mister Man along with Kaos in Trinidad—where reggae shaped their initial musical outlook even as hip-hop exerted its own pull. After each relocated to New York, the three formed da Bush Babees in 1992 once Mister Man caught a performance by Kaos. The resulting partnership between those two expanded when Mister Man proposed recruiting a reggae toaster, bringing Y-Tee into the fold. Live engagements quickly generated major-label attention, so the trio delivered a handful of office auditions and secured a Reprise contract within three months of the group’s start. Production on their 1994 debut Ambushed came from Jermaine Dupri, Nikke Nikole, J. Prins Matteus, Mark Batson, Salaam Gibbs, and the members themselves. Follow-up releases arrived with 1995’s Remember We and 1996’s Gravity.