shut em down radio interview with mc ren MC Ren, is an American rapper from Compton, California. He is the founder and owner of his own record label Villain Entertainment. His moniker is derived from the middle letters in his first name (Lorenzo).
Ren began his career signed as a solo artist to Eazy E’s Ruthless Records in early 1987, while still attending high school. By the end of 1987, after having written almost half of Eazy E’s debut album Eazy-Duz-It, he was included in the influential gangsta rap group N.W.A with Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and DJ Yella, which popularized the use of explicit lyrics in rap to detail the violence of street life. After the group disbanded in 1991, he stayed with Ruthless, putting out several platinum and gold selling albums, before leaving the label in 1999. MC Ren subsequently released his debut album Kizz My Black Azz in 1992. It reached platinum. MC Ren’s next album, Life Sentence, was scrapped while he converted to the Nation of Islam[citation needed] (which he has since left and converted to orthodox Islam)[citation needed] with guidance from DJ Train. Shock of the Hour in 1993 was released the next year. It also features the single “Mayday on the Front Line” which appeared in the film CB4. MC Ren soon fell on hard times when DJ Train died in a burning house before the release of The Villain in Black (1996). The album sold relatively well for a brief period. Before leaving Ruthless Records, Ren released Ruthless for Life (1998) which proved a small comeback, selling moderately well. In 2000, he appeared on the song “Hello” which featured Dr. Dre and Ice Cube on Ice Cube’s War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc) album. He joined the Up In Smoke Tour that same year just to rap this verse on this track. He appeared on the posse cut “Some L.A. Niggaz” from Dr. Dre’s 2001 album.
MC Ren released the straight-to-DVD Lost in the Game in 2004. His most recent work has appeared on some more politically oriented projects such as with Public Enemy, specifically Paris’ album Hard Truth Soldiers Vol. 1 as well as on Public Enemy’s album Rebirth of a Nation. Paris stated in an interview with Rapstation.com that “MC Ren is retired and won’t be doing a full-length album as far as I know. I get at him for verses, that’s about it.”
MC Ren appeared on the VH1 Hip Hop Honors talking about Eazy-E in the tribute to him. As of late 2007, Ren was supposed to be in work with Long Beach-based rapper RBX alongside Big Rocc on the group Concrete Criminals and although a debut album was promised, nothing came out of it. In 2009, MC Ren finished his fourth studio album entitled Renincarnated which was released under his own record label Villain Entertainment on October 31, 2009. Renincarnated was only released in the US. In 2014 MC Ren released a new single called Rebel Music. Ren is also working with his former N.W.A band mate Ice Cube on a remix of his new single Rebel Music.
Studio albums
1993: Shock of the Hour
1996: The Villain in Black
1998: Ruthless for Life
2009: Renincarnated
2014: Rebel Music
Extended Plays
1992: Kizz My Black Azz
With N.W.A
1988: Straight Outta Compton
1990: 100 Miles and Runnin’ EP
1991: Niggaz4Life
Original Source
