About Me
Welcome to The Gravediggaz Official MySpace page... Some things you should know about the gravediggaz...formed in 1994 when Prince Paul, the producer of De La Soul, combined 3 extremely talented but yet-to-be famous rappers(Rzarector aka RZA, Frukwan aka Gatekeeper and Too Poetic aka Grym Reaper) to assemble a very unique and extraordinary rap group.
Prince Paul had previously worked with RZA (at that time known as Prince Rakeem), and he is the one who thought of the name "Gravediggaz" and the whole concept behind it. Frukwan and Prince Paul used to be in the same rap group, Stetasonic, and Too Poetic was called up after Prince Paul had heard his solo album.
The Gravediggaz started out with hard core lyrics and rough beats, and their style was quickly labeled 'horror core'. First ones to originate horrorcore.
Their debut album, "6 Feet Deep" (Entitled "Niggamortis" in Europe) featured the sharp, horrifying lyrics of the Gravediggaz members along with guest appearances by Shabazz, Killah Priest, Dreddy Kruger and others, while Prince Paul supplied the dark beats and scratches.
The album did quite well, but people weren't ready for such music yet. Their video clips received very little rotation, and MTV even banned one of the videos - "Diary of a Madman", probably because the song contained lyrics about death, brutal pain inflicting and killing, and the video itself was no less gruesome.
Their next LP ("The Pick, The Sickle and the Shovel"), which saw light 3 years later, stated the essential change of The Gravediggaz.
Through spiritual and creative growth, the group presented one of the best Wu-Fam albums ever, and put The Gravediggaz in a prominent spot of the hip-hop world.
The Pick, The Sickle And The Shovel featured a whole new style, not as dark as the previous album, but lyrically, it was far superior. The songs paint a vivid picture of the life on the streets and reality in the ghettos. The albums consists of fifteen explosive and various tracks, from the underground-laced "Dangerous Mindz" to the emotional "Hidden Emotions", the Apocalyptic "Repentance Day" or the scientific "Twelve Jewelz", the album assures true listening pleasure for every hip hop head.
The difference between the two albums didn't occur just because of the members' lyrical development and search of a different direction, but also because of the track producing: Prince Paul produced most of the first album, but his job on the second album was only to 'oversee' the entire project, and except for the outro, the whole album was produced by RZA and his fellow Wu-Producers, as well as three tracks by Grym Reaperand a track by Gatekeeper.
According to The Gravediggaz, their mission is to "resurrect the mentally dead", and they do so by mind-challenging lyrics and spiritual beats, which take the listener to another level of rap music. "These are songs that can be mentally smoked for a true natural high", says Frukwan.The Gravediggaz were supposed to release their third album, but a tragedy occured on April 1999: "Grym Reaper" was diagnosed with a deadly colon cancer, and was given only three months to live. But he struggled and fought the disease as hard as he could and lived far longer than predicted. During that time his friends from the Gravediggaz and many other artists put up concerts to fund his expensive medical treatments, until on Sunday, July 15, 2001, Anthony Berkeley passed away, almost two years longer than the time he given by the doctors.Although he died tragically at a young age, "Poetic" contributed a lot to the hip-hop scene and will be remembered as a very talented rapper and person.R.I.P
