The Year Onyx's 'Slam' Crashed Pop Radio

This year marks the 20th anniversary of a remarkable year in hip-hop. Over the 12 months of 1993, Dr. Dre, De La Soul, Salt 'n' Pepa, Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest, the Wu-Tang Clan and more than a dozen other rap artists released or promoted albums that helped to change the sound of America.

One of those was the debut of the rap group Onyx whose raucous single "Slam" became an unlikely hit on MTV and pop radio. The song was on the leading edge of a media change of heart.

Pop rap from the likes of MC Hammer was anything but "hard." Back then, Rick Cummings was the program director of Los Angeles pop radio giant Power 106.

"Vanilla Ice and Hammer weresingle, "Ah, And We Do It Like This," which sounded like a novelty pop hit.

"We called it the 'country style' back in the days," says Starr. "I used to go down south when I was 13, 14, and I would come back home to Queens, from summer down south I was down south for like two months. People was noticing. 'Yo, you sound like you was from the country.'"

Pop radio didn't bite, and the record bombed. Even at the specialty rap shows. Onyx was dropped from the label.

"I walked away and I was like, hurt, depressed, and everything," says Starr. "I wanted to just jump off a building after that."

While Starr and his band-mates nursed their wounds, hardcore rap continued to sell by word-of-mouth, and pop radio continued