Black Sheep is an American hip hop duo from Queens, New York, comprising Andres ‘Dres’ Titus and William ‘Mista Lawnge’ McLean.
Both members of Black Sheep hail from New York, but they actually met quite a way away, in Stanford, North Carolina - both of their families had moved there. They formed their group in 1989, and it didn’t take too long for them to meet with genuine success - their first album, ‘A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’, dropped in October of 1991, and eventually went gold in their native U.S. after hitting number thirty on the Billboard chart. The record also earned them the honour of being the first hip hop act to appear on The Tonight Show since the departure of Johnny Carson, and his replacement with Jay Leno.
Their second full-length record, ‘Non-Fiction’, didn’t quite meet with the same level of commercial success, perhaps owing to the lack of big-hitting singles like ‘Flavor of the Month’ and ‘The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)’. Nevertheless, Black Sheep remained revered in the hip hop world, and continued to tour sporadically until their initial dissolution in 1995. They reformed in 2000, and have put out two records since - ‘8VM/Novakane’ in October 2006, and ‘From the Black Pool of Genius’ - ostensibly a solo effort from Dres - in 2010. Live performances are currently occasional, but remain well-received.
Finn Askew
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