Kid Frost

Frost—initially performing as Kid Frost—emerged as an early trailblazer in Latin hip-hop by issuing some of the style’s earliest tracks and opening doors for additional bilingual MCs. Born Arturo Molina Jr. on May 31, 1964, he lived briefly on military bases in Guam and Germany with his family yet grew up chiefly in East L.A. Beginning to rap in 1982, he also mastered breakdancing and joined the elite crew Uncle Jamm's Army. Honoring Ice-T, he took the name Kid Frost and frequently competed against him at parties and clubs during the West Coast hip-hop scene’s formative years. In that period he put out several 12" singles, among them “Rough Cut” (featuring N.W.A’s DJ Yella) and “Terminator.” After stepping away from rap temporarily, he reentered the scene in the late ’80s through a partnership with producer/DJ Tony G (born Gonzales). Their 1990 single “La Raza” introduced Kid Frost to a broad listenership and became a cherished anthem among Chicano hip-hop followers. Driven by his smooth, laid-back delivery, the upbeat debut album Hispanic Causing Panic appeared on Virgin that same year and ranked among the first full-length Latin hip-hop releases, alongside Mellow Man Ace’s Escape From Havana from the prior year.

Following the success of “La Raza,” Kid Frost formed the bilingual-rapper collective Latin Alliance, which included A.L.T., Lyrical Engineer, and Markski; the group issued its sole album in 1991. Kid Frost delivered his second album, East Side Story, the next year—a loose concept project that yielded the singles “No Sunshine” and “Thin Line.” Virgin then let him go, after which he shortened his name to the more mature Frost and joined Eazy-E’s Ruthless label shortly before the rapper’s death from AIDS. The 1995 release Smile Now, Die Later recast Frost as a hardcore urban rapper over Latin-inflected G-funk beats. It marked his first album to enter the Top 40 of the R&B charts, while the single “East Side Rendezvous” achieved modest success. He continued with When HELL.A. Freezes Over in 1997 yet soon departed Ruthless. Resurfacing on the smaller Celeb imprint, he issued the two volumes of That Was Then, This Is Now across 1999–2000. More than a decade after his debut, Frost put out the fittingly titled Still Up in This S#*+! on the indie label Hit-a-Lick in 2002; Koch later handled its distribution. That same year he curated the Latino-rapper compilation Raza Radio for 40 Ounce Records. Since then he has released two further albums under his own name: Welcome to Frost Angeles in 2005 and Till the Wheels Fall Off in 2006.