Speech and Eshe from Arrested Development joined “Closer Look with Rose Scott” for our continuing discussion series “Hip-Hop at 50.”
From the beginning of their career, their journey brought them through Atlanta. The group described their 1993 Grammy win for Best New Artist as “surreal.” It came during a diverse era for all kinds of hip-hop.
But as competition grew, Speech says a lack of support from the hip-hop community also grew. He says Arrested Development was taking up more space and showing different directions that hip-hop could go.
“It was initially love,” Speech said.
He added that the South had yet to define itself amid the East Coast-West Coast rap battle of the 1990s, so it was important to Arrested Development to have a concept.
