Cool C

Cool C belonged to Philadelphia's Hilltop Hustlers crew, and his relaxed delivery registers most clearly on the 1989 singles "I Gotta Habit" and "Glamorous Life." His first solo outing appeared in 1987 with "Juice Crew Dis," a recording that attracted notice for the criticisms it leveled at the New York-based crew overseen by producer Marley Marl and featuring Kool G Rap together with Big Daddy Kane. Two 1988 singles issued on Hilltop and City Beat earned Cool C a contract with Atlantic, which resulted in the full-length releases I Gotta Habit in 1989 and Life in the Ghetto in 1990. He later paused his solo work to form C.E.B. with Ultimate Eaze and Steady B; the trio delivered Countin' Endless Bank on Ruffhouse in 1993. Several years afterward his situation deteriorated sharply when he was convicted of murdering a Philadelphia police officer during a bank robbery attempt, receiving a sentence of death by lethal injection that has been postponed on multiple occasions.