Frost

Frost first gained notice under the moniker Kid Frost as an early trailblazer of Latin hip-hop, issuing some of the genre’s initial tracks and widening opportunities for fellow bilingual rappers. Born Arturo Molina Jr. on May 31, 1964, he passed part of his childhood on military bases in Guam and Germany yet grew up chiefly in East L.A. He began rapping in 1982 and also mastered breakdancing, entering the elite ranks of Uncle Jamm’s Army. He took the stage name Kid Frost to honor Ice-T, an artist he regularly faced in contests at parties and clubs while the West Coast rap scene was still emerging. In those years he put out multiple 12-inch singles, among them “Rough Cut,” which featured N.W.A’s DJ Yella, and “Terminator.” After stepping away from the genre for a period, he reentered the scene in the late ’80s by linking with producer and DJ Tony G, born Gonzales. Their 1990 single “La Raza” introduced Kid Frost to a broad public and stood as a cherished rallying cry among Chicano hip-hop listeners. Driven by his smooth, laid-back delivery, the upbeat debut Hispanic Causing Panic appeared on Virgin that same year and ranked among the earliest complete Latin hip-hop albums, alongside Mellow Man Ace’s Escape From Havana from the year before.

Following “La Raza,” Kid Frost formed the bilingual-rap collective Latin Alliance, which included A.L.T., Lyrical Engineer, and Markski; the outfit issued its sole album in 1991. The next year Kid Frost delivered his sophomore effort, East Side Story, a loosely thematic project that yielded the singles “No Sunshine” and “Thin Line.” Virgin then released him from the roster, prompting him to shorten his name to the more seasoned Frost before signing with Eazy-E’s Ruthless imprint shortly before the rapper’s death from AIDS. The 1995 album Smile Now, Die Later recast Frost as a hardcore urban MC over Latin-tinged G-funk productions; it became his first release to enter the Top 40 of the R&B charts, and the single “East Side Rendezvous” achieved modest success. He followed with When HELL.A. Freezes Over in 1997, after which he parted from Ruthless. He next appeared on the independent Celeb label, issuing the two-volume set That Was Then, This Is Now across 1999 and 2000. More than a decade after his debut, Frost returned with the fittingly titled Still Up in This S#*+! on Hit-a-Lick in 2002; Koch later handled its wider distribution. That same year he curated the Latino-rapper compilation Raza Radio for 40 Ounce Records. Since then he has issued two further albums under his own name: Welcome to Frost Angeles in 2005 and Till the Wheels Fall Off in 2006.