N2Deep

Best known for the hit "Back to the Hotel" from their debut album, California-based Chicano rap group N2Deep formed in Vallejo in 1989 with James "Jay Tee" Trujillo and Timothy "TL" Lyon. A third member, John "Johnny Z" Zunino, left the group as MC to devote himself to production and business. After releasing their first single, "Work That Body", in 1990, N2Deep signed with the high-profile Profile Records label and recorded their gold-selling debut album, Back to the Hotel (1992), whose title track peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The sale of the label to a major company left the band without a contract, even though they had just recorded an album that remained unreleased until its release in 2002 under the title Unreleased Game 1993: The Lost Album. N2Deep then signed with Bust It for the following album, 24-7-365 (1994), which failed to make the same impact. Three years later, N2Deep resurfaced on another label, Swerve Records, with The Golden State (1997), featuring contributions from PSD, Mary Jane Girls, Dru Down, Mac Dre and Baby Beesh. The latter two are featured again on The Rumble (1998), alongside Roger Troutman of Zapp, The Mossie, Slow Pain and other guests. This was more of a Jay Tee solo album, like Slightly Pimpish/Mostly Doggish (2000), before the rapper continued under his own name with So Cold (2001). However, N2Deep did not officially break up and continued to perform under this name, with the arrival of Joe "Lofty" Battle in 2008. On January 22, 2011, Battle and his wife died in a motorcycle accident.

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