Stars who have emerged from the city of Compton include Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar and today’s birthday boy Anthony Anderson, who still pays tribute to his hometown. Let’s start with his birth in 1970 and check out some more August 15 milestones:

1970: Anthony Anderson is Born

Straight outta Compton, a crazy famous actor named Anthony Anderson was born 48 years ago today.

“[The movie] Straight Outta Compton is a true depiction of my childhood,” Black-ish’s Emmy-nominated star told Elle in 2016. “We are all the same age—Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E. We grew up in the same era down the street from one another. Their music was the soundtrack to my life. Watching Straight Outta Compton was a stroll down memory lane.”

1989: Bobby Brown Drops “Rock Wit’Cha”

The run of singles from Bobby Brown’s hit album Don’t Be Cruel continued with the release of the album’s fifth single “Rock Wit’Cha.” Produced by L.A. Reid and Babyface, the song landed at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 on the Top R&B Singles chart.

”I’m not just a singer, or a dancer, or a performer,” he admitted to Rolling Stone in 1989 when he was 20-years-old. ”I want to be a lot of different things. People don’t know what Bobby Brown is. I want to be mysterious. I don’t want people to be able to label me. I just wanna be Bobby, the Man Who Does Everything.”

1995: B.G. Knocc Out and Dresta Drop Real Brothas

Brothers and Compton natives B.G Knocc Out and Dresta, who collaborated with Eazy-E in 1993, dropped their first joint album Real Brothers two years later on this day. The sample-heavy full-length features riffs from Aaliyah, Lakeside, Teddy Pendergrass and the Honeydrippers, to name a few. The brothers dedicated the song “50/50 Love” to Eazy’s memory.

“I believe in my heart somebody did something to Eric,” B.G. Knocc Out told HipHopDX in 2011. “Whether it was Jerry [Heller], whether it was [his widow] Tomica [Woods-Wright], I have yet to really know the truth about it. But, for a person to have full-blown AIDS [that quickly is suspicious]. My little brother, his father died from full-blown AIDS. . .  from sharing a needle [‘cause] he was [an addict]. Now, I seen this man go through these stages, from HIV to full-blown AIDS. And, when you get a cold, any little thing like that, your whole immune system shut down. So you have to go into the hospital just to recover.

"Now, to be around Eric for the last three years of his life and he never had an episode like this – never ever – something is strange, something is real odd," he continued. "And then you gon’ come out and tell me when the man go in there for bronchitis, you gon’ come out and tell me this man had full-blown AIDS. And we done been to New York, we done been to Chicago in below zero weather [and] he never got sick. He never had an episode. Like, c’mon bruh. Who are you kidding?”

2000: Buju Banton Releases Dubbing with the Banton

Produced by Jamaican beatsmith Donovan Germain, Dubbing with the Banton is a collection of minimally dubbed-out instrumentals of Buju Banton hits by studio vets like Coxsone Dodd and Sly Dunbar.

“He was always ready to work,” Germain shared with Reggaeville in 2014. “He was at the studio every single day. And if the studio opened at ten o’clock, he would be there by ten o’clock until we closed for the night. He was very committed to his craft and very talented. Every generation gets a very talented artist. Shabba for the generation before and Buju for his generation, like I think Chronixx is right now. It was just natural for him to excel because of his commitment to the music. He didn’t compromise the standard in the music.”

2000: Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz Let the World Know We Still Crunk!!

The second album from Atlanta’s Kings of Crunk Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz (Lil’ Bo and Big Sam) guest stars Too $hort, Jazze Pha, Chyna Whyte, Ludacris, Three 6 Mafia and more repping ATL, Memphis and the Bay Area. The album was the group’s first for TVT Records, which would be their home until the label went bankrupt in 2008.

“In 2000, I got signed to TVT,” Lil Jon, who began as a DJ, recalled to Complex in 2010. “The first single off of that was ‘Bia Bia,’ and that was my first introduction across the U.S. to the clubs, and that’s still a record that gets played today in the clubs.”

 2006: Cherish Introduce Themselves with Unappreciated

After the album that was intended to be their first was shelved, Atlanta sister act Cherish (twins Fallon and Felisha King with their older siblings Farrah and Neosha King) recorded and released Unappreciated, which was released on Capitol via Sho’Nuff Records, the label by producer Jazze Pha, who crafted several of the songs on the album, such as the dramatic title track. But it was the contemporary clubby bounce of the Don Vito and Cheese produced “Do It To It” featuring Sean Paul of the rap duo YoungbloodZ that took them beyond the ATL and into international rotation, helping catapult the album into the No. 4 slot on the Billboard 200 chart and Gold certification for sales in excess of 500,000 copies.

2006: Cham Tells His Ghetto Story

Damian Beckett transformed from the Jamaican dancehall artist best known as Baby Cham to merely Cham in 2005, and his second album (and major label debut) Ghetto Story followed on this day the following year.

“Baby Cham is for the ladies, but Cham was basically launched after my second album,” he explained to Respect in 2014. “During the time when we were working on the album, the idea was that nothing about my music was baby anymore, so we decided to take the “baby” off and use Cham only.  In terms of the music and life on a whole, I had grown so much so that there was nothing baby about me anymore. That’s why we decided to go with Cham on that album.”

2006: Lyfe Jenning Rises with The Phoenix

Two years after his debut album 268- 192, Lyfe Jennings returned with The Phoenix, a No. 2 hit on the Billboard 200 that earned his first Gold certification. His rugged soul is complimented on the album by rap guests Young Buck, Three 6 Mafia and Project Pat, and he turns in a tender take on 2Pac’s “Keep Ya Head Up.”

“People be like, ‘Yo, I took it to a whole ‘nother level on this album. . . and it’s completely a way,’” he told DJ Hyhpen and J.Moore in an interview that aired on Seattle radio station KUBE in 2006. “I did not do that. I came with the same. . . The truth is working for me and so I talk about situations that occur every day as opposed to just a weekend at the club. It’s crazy how you spend maybe 5% of your life at the club, but yet 95% of music is talkin’ about that 5%.”

2006: Obie Trice’s Sophomore Album Second Round’s on Me is Released

The second full-length from the D12 rapper for Eminem’s Shady Records following his 2003 debut Cheers, Second Round’s on Me debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and features production from Em, J.R. Rotem and Akon, the latter guesting on the song “Snitch.”

"I took a long look at my life, at the city of Detroit, at rap music, at everything,” Obie told DJBooth in 2006. “A lot of sh*t has happened since Cheers and I've got some things to tell the world. I held no punches on Second Round."

2006: Obie Trice Also Releases “Jamaican Girl” Featuring Brick & Lace

Taken from the sophomore album Second Round’s on Me, “Jamaican Girl” was released as a single the same day the album dropped. It was produced by Eminem and features Jamaican dancehall sister duo Brick & Lace (Nailah and Nyanda Thorbourne) charming Obie on the hook.

 

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