Kingspade

In the early 2000s Johnny Richter (Tim McNutt) and D-Loc (Dustin Miller) stepped away from the Orange County rap-metal outfit the Kottonmouth Kings to launch the strictly rap project Kingspade, even while retaining the California hardcore punk and Beastie Boys eclecticism that had shaped their earlier work. Remaining within the Suburban Noize roster, the duo now delivered stoner rhymes over productions built on heavy Southern bass and G-funk party grooves rather than rap-rock fusion. The two had already been childhood friends in Placentia, CA, long before the Kottonmouth Kings assembled. Richter was not an original Kottonmouth member yet counted the entire band among his acquaintances; after another participant exited, he became an official MC/vocalist in time for the group’s second album, Hidden Stash (1999). Kingspade first surfaced on the Kottonmouth Kings’ sixth LP, Fire It Up, in 2004. Drawing a fresh audience from Suburban Noize’s dedicated cult following, the pair issued their self-titled full-length that August and returned in 2007 with PTB, an acronym for “P-Town (as in Placentia) Ballers.”