3rd Bass

3rd Bass
Left to right: MC Serch, Pete Nice, & DJ Richie Rich in 1990.
Background information
Origin	Queens, New York City New York, Brooklyn, New York City New York, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Years active	1987–1992 1998–2000
Labels	Def Jam Columbia SME Records
Associated acts	Prince Paul The Bomb Squad KMD Downtown Science Kurious Nas
Past members	MC Serch Pete Nice DJ Richie Rich

3rd Bass was an American hip-hop group that rose to fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was notable for being one of the first successful interracial hip-hop groups. They split up in 1992 and again in 2000 after a failed reunion. The group released two studio albums in their initial career and both of them were certified gold by the RIAA.

MC Serch (Michael Berrin), Prime Minister Pete Nice (Peter J. Nash), and DJ Richie Rich (Richard Lawson) were the three founding members of the group. Richie Rich was a local D.J., while Nice was an English major at Columbia University and hosted a hip hop show on Columbia's student radio station, WKCR-FM. Serch performed at clubs and block parties, and released a single called "Hey Boy" on independent label Idlers.

Record producer Sam Sever (real name Sam Citrin) convinced Nice and Serch to work together in 1987. First they called themselves 3 the Hard Way, referenced in the song "Wordz of Wisdom". But, before recording the whole album they changed their name to 3rd Bass. Sever, Prince Paul, and The Bomb Squad produced their 1989 debut, The Cactus Album, a critically acclaimed LP that went gold and contained a minor hit in "The Gas Face." The accompanying video, which featured a bevy of humorous cameo appearances that included Gilbert Gottfried, Flavor Flav, Salt-n-Pepa, Kid 'N Play and EPMD, garnered respectable MTV airplay and the single peaked at #5 on Billboard's Top Rap Singles, though it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100.