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Bios: KRS-ONE, Boogie Down Productions, D-Nice, Ms. Melodie & Harmony
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Government Name
Laurence Krisna Parker (A.K.A. Kris Parker, The Blastmaster & The Teacha) (Born August 20, 1965 in Brooklyn, NY)

Boogie Down Productions Members
Original (1986 - 1987):
KRS-ONE (Bacronym: Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everone) (A.K.A. Kris Parker, The Blastmaster & The Teacha) (Born Laurence Krisna Parker, August 20, 1965 in Brooklyn, NY)
Scott La Rock (Born Scott Sterling March 2, 1962 - Died August 25, 1987 in The Bronx, New York, NY (Shot))
D-Nice (Born Derrick Jones, June 19, 1970 in The Bronx, New York, NY)

Post-Scott La Rock Additions (Disbanded 1993):
Kenny Parker
Ms. Melodie (Born Ramona Scott in Brooklyn, New York, NY)
Scottie Morris
Harmony (Born Pamela Scott)
Willie D

Albums
Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded
KRS-ONE - Return Of The Boom Bap
KRS-ONE - A Retrospective
KRS-ONE - The Mix Tape
KRS-ONE - Kristyles
KRS-ONE - Keep Right
KRS-ONE - Maximum Strength

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Blazin'
Booth Blasters Rip-Up The Mic!!
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Bulworth
Caught Up
CB4 (B.D.P.)
Common - Uncommon Classics
The Corruptor
Dangerous Ground
D.I.T.C.
DJ Premier - Crooklyn Cuts Volume III: Tape A
Dr. Dre Presents...The Aftermath
He Got Game
Heavy D And The Boyz - Nuttin' But Love
High School High
Immortal Technique - Bin Laden (Single)
In Tha Beginning...There Was Rap: Tha Originals (B.D.P.)
Kid Capri - Soundtrack To The Streets
Kurupt - Tha Streetz Iz A Mutha
Talib Kweli - Eardrum
Menace II Society (B.D.P.)
Paid In Full/Dream Team (B.D.P.)
Paris Presents: Hard Truth Soldiers Vol. 1
Pharoahe Monch - Y'all Know The Name
Ras Kass - Nature Of The Threat
Rhyme & Reason
Shai - Destiny
Slam
The Source Presents Hits From The Vault Vol. 1: The Pioneers (B.D.P.)
Statik Selektah - Spell My Name Right (The Album)
Sway & King Tech Featuring DJ Revolution - This Or That
Tech N9ne - Rare Compilation
Thug Radio Mixtape 14: Ridin'
Thug Radio Mixtape 17: Still No Surrender
Viva La Revolución Volume I: Get Up, Stand Up (Thug Radio Mixtape)
Warren G - Long Beach Veteran Mixtape
Welcome 2 Tha Chuuch Mixtape Volume 2
Xzibit - Restless

Bio From All Music Guide
KRS-One (born Kris Parker) was the leader of Boogie Down Productions, one of the most influential hardcore hip-hop outfits of the '80s. At the height of his career — roughly 1987-1990 — KRS-One was known for his furiously political and socially conscious raps, which is the source of his nickname, "The Teacher." Around the time of 1990's Edutainment, BDP's audience began to slip as many fans thought his raps were becoming preachy. As a reaction, KRS-One began to re-establish his street credibility with harder, sparer beats and raps. BDP's 1992's Sex and Violence was the first sign that he was taking a harder approach, one that wasn't nearly as concerned with teaching. KRS-One's first solo album, 1993's Return Of The Boom Bap, was an extension of the more direct approach of Sex and Violence, yet it didn't halt his commercial decline. Still, he forged on with a high-quality self-titled 1995 effort and 1996's Battle for Rap Supremacy, a joint effort with his old rival MC Shan. After 1997's I Got Next, he put his solo career on hiatus for several years, finally returning in early 2001 with The Sneak Attack. The following year brought two full releases: the gospel effort Spiritually Minded and The Mix Tape, the latter including a single ("Ova Here") that stood as a response to Nelly, only the latest hip-hop figure to feud with the Blastmaster. In 2003 KRS-One released two albums, Kristyles and D.I.G.I.T.A.L., while the next year brought only one, Keep Right. In 2006 Life came out on the small, California-based Antagonist Records. The following year KRS-One reunited with Marley Marl to create Hip Hop Lives, a lackluster attempt to preserve the golden age of hip-hop. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Boogie Down Productions' Bio From All Music Guide
Boogie Down Productions was one of the most important and influential hip-hop groups of the latter half of the '80s. Led by the often brilliant and incendiary MC KRS-One, BDP were pioneers of both hardcore and political (or "conscious") rap — and if that seems contradictory, it also illustrates the scope of KRS-One's talent for chronicling and even shaping his culture. Musically, BDP usually employed spare, minimal backdrops that accentuated KRS-One's booming delivery, and they were also among the very first hip-hop artists to incorporate elements of Jamaican ragga and dancehall into their style. Early on, BDP devoted itself to brash but realistic narratives of ghetto life, which made them a street-level sensation; however, after the murder of original DJ Scott La Rock, KRS-One — who now essentially was BDP — devoted himself to socially and politically conscious material that earned him the nickname "the Teacher." In the process, he helped pave the way for both gangsta rap and the positive, Afrocentric Native Tongues movement — a legacy no other rapper can claim. KRS-One retired the Boogie Down Productions moniker in the early '90s to release records under his own name; to this day, he remains one of hip-hop's most outspoken and respected intellectuals.

KRS-One's real name is Laurence Krisna Parker, or simply Kris Parker; some accounts hold that he was born with the "Krisna" moniker, while others suggest it was a nickname given to him during his youth for his interest in spirituality. Born in Brooklyn's Park Slope area in 1965, his Trinidad-born father was deported not long after his birth, and he later adopted his stepfather's last name of Parker. Early in his teens, he dropped out of high school and left home, migrating to the South Bronx; although he survived mostly on the streets and in homeless shelters, he continued his education by studying extensively in public libraries. During this period, he became interested in hip-hop culture, writing his own raps and tagging graffiti under the name KRS-One (originally an abbreviation for "Kris Number One" but later turned into the acronym "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone"). At 19, he spent a brief time in jail for selling marijuana; after his release, he met social worker Scott Sterling at a Bronx shelter in 1985. Sterling was also a DJ who performed under the name Scott La Rock, and when the two became friends, they decided to form a rap group, which they called Boogie Down Productions.

BDP's first independently released single was 1986's "Crack Attack," and they soon completed a full-length album for the small indie label B Boy Records (which was rumored to be a front for a pornography operation). The record, Criminal Minded, earned them a rabid cult following on the streets when it appeared in 1987, and today is considered an early classic of hardcore rap. KRS-One's detailed depictions of urban realities — drugs, survival through violence, promiscuity, hip-hop turf wars — were sometimes harsh and sometimes gleefully celebratory. He hadn't yet developed a unified message, but his was the voice of a rebellious, intelligent young street poet, and it connected mightily with his audience. Meanwhile, La Rock's bare-bones production sometimes interpolated pop and rock samples, and the ragga inflections of the classic "9mm Goes Bang" produced a groundbreaking early fusion of hip-hop and reggae. The record's strong street buzz attracted the attention of RCA affiliate Jive, which signed the duo to a record contract. Unfortunately, not long afterward, La Rock was shot dead trying to break up an argument at a party in the Bronx.

Shattered by the loss of his best friend, KRS-One picked himself up and decided to continue Boogie Down Productions as a tribute to La Rock's memory. He recruited his younger brother Kenny Parker as a regular DJ, and also employed side members like D-Nice and Ms. Melodie (the latter, born Ramona Scott, was also his wife for a time). Convincing Jive to stick with his new crew, KRS-One completed By All Means Necessary in 1988, which marked the first time he took on the role of "the Teacher." Also considered a landmark, By All Means Necessary was one of the first rap albums devoted primarily to social commentary, and contained militant, deeply personal message tracks like "My Philosophy" and "Stop the Violence." The same year, during a BDP/Public Enemy concert, a young fan was killed in a fight; galvanized into action, KRS-One founded the Stop the Violence Movement and organized the all-star charity single "Self-Destruction," which raised half a million dollars for the National Urban League in 1989.

Also in 1989, Boogie Down Productions returned with an even more politicized, intellectual album, Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop. BDP's auxiliary personnel expanded to include several more members, like Scottie Morris and Ms. Melodie's sister Harmony, but the sound wasn't any more fleshed out; in fact, it was resolutely skeletal, the antithesis of what KRS-One perceived as a new, unhealthy pop-crossover mentality overtaking hip-hop. Taking on issues like black-on-black crime, police brutality, education, and spirituality, KRS-One found his audience growing and the mainstream paying attention to his message. The New York Times invited him to write editorials, and he found intense demand for his views on the college lecture circuit. However, many critics found that his intellectual credibility got the better of him on the next BDP album, 1990's Edutainment. Despite a minor hit single in "Love's Gonna Get'cha (Material Love)," Edutainment was roundly criticized as being full of preachy, didactic lecturing, which also came at the expense of compelling musical backing. KRS-One further alienated his audience via a 1992 altercation with hippie-fied pop-rappers P.M. Dawn. After the group jabbed at him as "a teacher of what?" during a magazine interview, KRS-One and part of BDP stormed P.M. Dawn's New York concert, physically throwing frontman Prince Be off the stage and launching into their own set. KRS-One later explained that he was opposed to hip-hop taking such a soft, crossover-oriented direction, although P.M. Dawn had never claimed street credibility, and it seemed an odd approach from the founder of the Stop the Violence Movement. Amid negative reaction from his own fans, he later apologized publicly.

In the meantime, BDP kept recording. 1991 saw the release of Live Hardcore Worldwide, one of the first live hip-hop LPs. It was basically a way to get the material from Criminal Minded back in print, in a format where royalties could be collected (an ongoing dispute with B Boy Records was tying up the original recordings). The same year, he made a high-profile guest appearance on R.E.M.'s "Radio Song," and recorded the album Civilization vs. Technology with the education-oriented side project H.E.A.L. Bowing to requests from fans, BDP returned to the harder-hitting beats of its earlier material on 1992's Sex and Violence, which some critics hailed as a return to form, but failed to recapture his former audience. By this time, KRS-One was divorced from Ms. Melodie, and had pared down his supporting cast to Kenny Parker and Willie D. For his next project, KRS-One decided to simply put Boogie Down Productions to rest and record under his own name; his solo debut, Return Of The Boom Bap, was released in 1993. Since then, he's released several more solo albums, and maintained an active presence in the media and on the lecture circuit. - Steve Huey

D-Nice' Bio From All Music Guide
D-Nice became Boogie Down Productions' DJ after the death of Scott LaRock (the man who discovered him), prior to group's second album, By All Means Necessary. However, his first production was actually "Self Destruction," the single released by the Stop the Violence Movement; the project, put together by KRS-One and the DJ, featured Big Daddy Kane, Doug E. Fresh, and MC Lyte. Born Derrick Jones, D-Nice left BDP in 1990, after the Edutainment album, to go solo. Call Me D-Nice, released in 1990 on Jive, featured a pair of Billboard rap-chart hits in "Call Me D-Nice" (number one) and "Crumbs off the Table" (number 17). Unlike KRS-One, his lyrical content was rarely politically charged, but "Glory" took a look at the black man's role in the Civil War. The less-successful To tha Rescue followed the next year. After that, he took on occasional production duties for the likes of LeShaun, Nuttin' Nyce, and Hi-Five. - Andy Kellman

Ms. Melodie's Bio From All Music Guide
A former member of the Boogie Down Productions family and the ex-wife of that group's KRS-One, Ms. Melodie — born Ramona Parker in Flatbush, Brooklyn — only stepped out for one solo record, but the formidable rapper made memorable appearances on BDP's records, and she was also part of the Stop the Violence Movement's "Self Destruction," as well as H.E.A.L.'s (Human Education Against Lies) releases (all of which were projects instigated by KRS-One). Her lone solo album, 1989's Diva (Jive), featured production from her aforementioned ex-husband, the Awesome 2, and Sam Sever. She also appeared briefly in Keenan Ivory Wayans' I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. - Andy Kellman

Harmony's Bio From All Music Guide
Harmony's brief career as a solo artist was aided by Boogie Down Productions' KRS-One. In 1990, she released her lone album, Let There Be Harmony, on Jive. Produced by KRS-One and frequent BDP associate Sidney Mills (D-Nice, Ms. Melodie, Steel Pulse, Shinehead), the album displayed Harmony's knack for switching between singing and rapping. Much like anyone else remotely connected to BDP, Harmony's subject matter stuck to societal concerns within her community. The album peaked at number 77 on the R&B/hip-hop chart. - Andy Kellman

Official Site: KRS-ONE's MySpace, The Stop The Violence Movement's MySpace, Temple Of Hip-Hop, Scott La Rock, D-Nice & D-Nice' MySpace