Lighter Shade Of Brown

Lighter Shade of Brown emerged in 1990 from Riverside, California, as part of the early-nineties wave of Latin rap acts when teenager Robert Gutierrez, known professionally as ODM or One Dope Mexican, connected with Bobby Ramirez, who performed as DTTX or Don't Try to Xerox. The pair immediately recorded demos and landed a contract before the year ended, making their first appearance on the 1990 Pump release Brown and Proud, issued through the hip-hop arm of Quality Records. Although they never reached the commercial heights of Cypress Hill, they earned favorable notices and ranked among the stronger Latin rap groups active at the time. Their second effort, Hip Hop Locos, arrived in 1992 and opened the door to a Mercury contract; there they supplied tracks for the Latino-focused film soundtracks Mi Vida Loca and I Like It Like That. The 1994 album Layin' in the Cut met with disappointing results, prompting the duo to step away from recording for a while. They resurfaced in 1997 on the smaller Oakland imprint Thump Records, working in tandem with the Greenside label to deliver a self-titled project that featured guest appearances by Rappin' 4-Tay and Dwayne Wiggins of Tony! Toni! Toné!. Thump followed with a greatest-hits compilation in 1999, after which the group issued their fifth album, If You Could See Inside Me, which yielded the minor hit single “Sunny Day.” Late that same year Gutierrez began working as a radio DJ in the Los Angeles market.