Spice 1
Robert Green was one of the most technically capable rappers on the West Coast in the early 1990s and one of the least commercially rewarded relative to that ability.
Early life and origins
He was born in Corsicana, Texas, and raised in Hayward, in the East Bay. The Bay Area scene around Too $hort and E-40 was where he developed, and Too $hort was directly involved in getting him signed.
Album discography
Spice 1 (1992), 187 He Wrote (1993), which reached the top of the R&B albums chart, AmeriKKKa's Nightmare (1994), 1990-Sick (1995) and a long independent catalogue since. His first four albums were all certified gold.
What he is known for musically
Speed and rhythmic complexity. He rapped faster and with more internal rhyme than most of his West Coast contemporaries, and his flow-switching inside a single verse was ahead of what the region was doing at the time. The content is standard gangsta rap narrative; the delivery is not.
Collaborations
He recorded with 2Pac repeatedly, including on All Eyez on Me, and with MC Eiht, Method Man and Too $hort. His guest verses are frequently the best thing on the records that carry them.
Standing
He never had a crossover hit and has released independently for most of his career. Among Bay Area listeners and among technically-minded rap fans his early 1990s run is considered close to untouchable.
Too $hort and the Bay Area
Too $hort brought him to Jive, and the East Bay scene of the early 1990s — Too $hort, E-40, the Click, Richie Rich — was where he developed. That scene had its own economy and its own sound, largely independent of Los Angeles, and he is one of its most technically capable products.
187 He Wrote
The 1993 album topped the R&B albums chart and is his commercial and critical high point. It is relentless in a way that later gangsta rap rarely matched, and the rapping on it is faster and more intricate than the subject matter usually attracted.
Working with 2Pac
They recorded together repeatedly, including "Jealous Got Me Strapped" and material that appeared on All Eyez on Me. Their working relationship was close enough that Spice 1's account of that period is one of the more reliable primary sources on it.
Independence and later work
He has released independently for most of his career and continues to. The early-1990s run of four gold albums is what his reputation rests on, and among listeners who care about technical rapping it rests very securely.