Lateef & The Chief

Lateef from Latryx joined forces with Chief Xcel from Blackalicious to form the politically and socially conscious rap group Lateef & the Chief, creators of the phrase "hard music for hard times." Lineage on either West Coaster side leads back to relatives who belonged to or supported the Black Panthers, a shared heritage that sparked an immediate friendship after the pair first connected in 1992 inside the basement studios of KDVS-FM at the University of California, Davis. Hours of discussion about cherished hip-hop records followed, prompting them to collaborate. A sequence of singles issued under the Soulsides moniker gradually developed into the group and label known as Quannum. Drawing its title from the defiant eighteenth-century African communities that arose within slave colonies, the Maroons project was conceived once Blackalicious completed the NIA album, yet both artists soon faced commitments to separate endeavors. The resulting full-length debut, Maroons: Ambush, surfaced in 2004 through the Quannum Projects imprint.