InI (hip hop group)

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InI
InI members
Background information
Origin	Mount Vernon, NY
Genres	East Coast hip hop
Years active	1990–1997
Labels	Elektra
Associated acts	Pete Rock, InI Mighty Lockdown
Members	Rob-O Grap Luva Ras G Marco Polo DJ Boodakhan

InI was an American hip hop group composed of Rob-O, Grap Luva, Ras G a.k.a. I Love H.I.M., Marco Polo (now known as Jolomite), and DJ Boodakhan.

The group started working on their debut album together with producer Pete Rock in the mid-1990s, and signed a deal with Rock's newfound imprint Soul Brother Records through Elektra. In 1996, the lead single from their album, Fakin' Jax saw release and became an underground hit.^[1] Unbeknownst at the time, this single ultimately ended up being the group's only release on the label. Rock later revealed that management shifts were to blame for the album changing title from The Life I Live to Center of Attention before eventually being shelved:

“When I finished the InI album, there was a guy who was the president who approved of InI and got them signed to Elektra...But once Sylvia Rhone came into the picture things didn’t work out between me and her. We didn’t have the greatest relationship. She came in with some of her own insights, which I didn’t approve of, and I felt she didn’t understand real Hip-Hop music. She came in with the brand new polished sound, which was, to me, it was like water to skin. It just rolls off of you. It doesn’t stick to you…I felt like me and her, I didn’t feel like we would have a great relationship with our thought processes going in different directions.”^[2]

Following the disputes with Sylvia Rhone, Rock's relationship with Elektra Records quickly turned sour, which led to his distribution deal with them ending, along with the demise of Soul Brother Records. As a result, two releases Rock was working on at the time (InI's Center of Attention and Deda's The Original Baby Pa) never came out due to legal complications surrounding the ownership of the masters.

Despite the initial lack of an official release, the album eventually became one of the most bootlegged albums in hip-hop's history.^[3] In 2003, it finally saw an official release after being included on Lost & Found: Hip Hop Underground Soul Classics, a double LP of Pete Rock's mid-1990s production work, originally canceled by Elektra Records.^[4]

In 2016, Center of Attention was made available for streaming, along with other unreleased recordings Rock had been working on at the time.^[5]

Despite the fact that Pete Rock is not an official member of the group, it became synonymous with his name. He produced almost every track on Center of Attention, and his younger brother Grap Luva formed a crucial part of the group. Rock had two guest verses in the album on tracks "Fakin Jax" and "Think Twice", with additional ad-libs and background vocals on almost every track.

The Song "Step Up" was featured in the video game Skate It. Working with EA games, Pete Rock also has a song called "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" which was featured in the video game Madden NFL 12, which was released April 2, 1992.

InI had released a demo-tape called "Krossroads", and "Concerned", Grap Luva describes this as their earliest tapes. Concerned appears to be called "For Your Own Concern" although it was called "Concerned" by the InI group. Friend of Grap Luva from France was responsible for sharing the "concerned" track. "The beat is sick" - Grap describes. The song talks about safe sex; thus the title, to be concerned. The verse Rob-o had spit on "To each his own" from InI's album was the same verse which he had used on the early tape "Concerned".

After Center of Attention got shelved, the group members went their separate ways, with only two of them staying in the music scene to pursue solo careers. Grap Luva released a few limited 12" singles in the new millennium and aspired toward achieving his true interest in being a beat boy and producer. He appeared, and produced on various albums and singles from artists such as DJ Spinna, J-Live, Pete Rock, , Kev Brown and Marley Marl.^[4] Rob-O released many singles and an 8-track album named "Superspectacular" through an imprint called St. Nick Entertainment and in 2006 he came out with a compilation album "Rhyme Pro", a mix of the older 12" singles with a few new songs sprinkled throughout.^[6]

InI - The Life I Live (Centre of Attention) Album[]

Recorded: 1995

Released: Shelved (Never Officially Released), one of the most bootlegged albums in hiphop history

Track Listing:

Intro (H.I.M.)

No More Words

Step Up

Think Twice (feat. Pete Rock)

Square One

Life I Live

Kross Roads

To Each His Own (feat. Large Professor & Q-Tip)

Fakin Jax

What You Say

Props

Center Of Attention

Grown Man Sport

Mind Over Matter

Original Test Pressing Vinyl Unreleased Track Listing[]

Side A:

A1. "Intro" (Produced by Rob-O)

A2. "The Life I Live" / "Interlude"

A3. "Square One" / "Freestyle Interlude"

A4. "Fakin Jax"

A5. "Step Up" (Produced by Grap Luva) / "Interlude" (Produced by Rob-O)

A6. "Interlude" / "Kross Roads"

A7. "Vocal Skit" (Pete Rock) (Produced by Rob-O)

A8. "Center Of Attention" / "Interlude"

A9. "Mind Over Matter" / "Freestyle Interlude"

Side B:

B1. "Freestyle Interlude" / "Grown Man Sport" (Ft. Meccalicious) /

B2. "Interlude" / "Think Twice"

B3. "Interlude" / "To Each His Own" (Ft. Q-Tip & Large Professor)

B4. "Interlude" / "Props"

B5. "Keep On" / "Freestyle Interlude"

B6. "What You Say"

B7. "Vocal Outro" (Produced by Rob-O)

• Meccalicious and Pete Red, not typically known as official members of the group perform verses to the interludes and freestyles throughout this test pressing recording. As the "unsigned hype" Meccalicious, and Pete Red have been recorded to many Pete Rock Instrumentals and released on bootleg/white label vinyls, these are extremely rare tracks and are full length versions to the skit interludes existing on the above InI test pressing album.

A3: Freestyle Interlude (excerpt of Pete Red's verse from "Meccalicious feat. Pete Rock & Pete Red - Meccalicious")

A7: Vocal Skit (Pete Rock)

A9: Freestyle Interlude (excerpt of Meccalicious' verse from "Meccalicious feat. Pete Rock & Pete Red - Meccalicious")

B1: Freestyle Interlude (intro excerpt of Pete Red's verse from "Meccalicious feat. Pete Rock & Pete Red - Meccalicious")

B5: Freestyle Interlude (excerpt of Meccalicous' verse from "Meccalicious feat. Pete Rock & Pete Red - Meccalicious")

B7: Vocal Outro (Pete Rock)

A2: interlude (instrumental)

A5: interlude (instrumental)

A8: interlude (instrumental)

B2: interlude (instrumental)

B3: interlude (instrumental)

B4: interlude (instrumental)

• The Test Pressing album includes "Mind over Matter" & "Centre of Attention", which the 1995 Bootleg did not
• The Test Pressing release excludes "No More Words" which appeared on many of the bootlegged releases around 1995 during its recording

Iconography[]

The album cover is the childhood picture of Haile Selassie (former Ethiopian emperor aka Ras tafari), a name which Jamaican Rastafarians adopted.

Discography[]

• Center of Attention (1995)

References[]

External links[]

• Fakin' Jax music video