"Northern State is just what rap music needs right now: young, female-centric insight and intellect that amuses as it amazes." The Village Voice
"...old school and totally original,...literate and full of New York sass,...deeply catchy and underground in spirit" - 4 stars - Rolling Stone
Hesta Prynn, DJ Sprout and Guinea Love have known each other forever.
Sprout met Hesta Prynn in elementary school on Long Island when they were still Robyn Goodmark and Julie Potash (now Julie Goodman). Long before they were friends, their families went on ski trips together and Sprout even babysat for a young Hesta Prynn a few times. Later on, Prynn was introduced to Sprout's best friend from High School, Correne Spero (once rhyming under Guinea Love, now just Spero) and possibly to a few other things as well...
The Northern State that u know and luv eventually came about due to a little something called beer n' weed. For real though, the girls were living in NYC post-college, Julie was into downloading old skool hip hop and Correne and Robyn would come over to Prynn's apartment to dance in the living room. One night Correne brought up the idea that the three could actually do this-- form a group and make hip hop music themselves. Hesta Prynn recalls that she was like "well let's not call it something over-the-top-feminist like Hester Prynn or something" and an MC, and a band, were born.
The girls immediately got to work, meeting every Tuesday night to write rhymes and piece songs together. One day Sprout was driving on Long Island on the Northern State parkway, and they were hard up for a name- you can figure out the rest.
After small performances for close friends and family at Thanksgiving and Julie's housewarming party, Northern State received an offer/challenge in April of 2001 to open for a friend's band on the Lower East Side. They got a band together, made flyers, called everyone they had ever met, packed the place, and kept getting invited back. Honing their skills, writing new rhymes, and constantly updating and improving the live show, they began booking more gigs around the city.
In January of 2002, Northern State holed up in Ithaca, New York for a few days to record their four-song demo, Hip Hop You Haven't Heard.
They returned to the city, submitted their demo to various NYC publications and used it to continue booking shows in bigger and better venues, vowing to always "step it up" and fulfill their promise to one another to make each show better than the last.
The buzz around NYC grew based on Northern State's live performance and self-promotion, and a few months later they opened up Time Out NY and the Village Voice to see their own faces. To their amazement it wasn't long before Robert Christgau gave the demo a four star review in Rolling Stone and their story began appearing in places like SPIN, MTV, and New York Magazine. Emails were rolling in from all over America from old boyfriends, camp friends, and new fans who had sampled the songs on the home-made Northern State website and wanted more. Northern State rode the wave of hype, staying focused on their music and continuing to improve their skills as live MCs.
The Hip Hop community took notice and the ladies found themselves opening for the X-Ecutioners and De La Soul, where they took notes on the LI legends' insane crowd control skills. They jumped at any chance to play with other female musicians and filled opening slots and played outdoor festivals on bills with Le Tigre and The Donnas. Next came a call from the Roots, a group highly respected by NS for their similar dedication to innovative live hip hop, and they headed to the UK to open on a string of Roots tour dates.
In the summer of 2002, Northern State once again scraped a little money together, following up their demo with another independent recording, Dying in Stereo. First only available on northernstate.net, the CD is now out on Startime Records in the US and Wichita Records in the UK and is available in stores.
The girls continue to kill it in their live show, with the help of their 4 person backing band, consisting of the Groove Brothers and Katie Cassidy, adding beat-box, samplers, guitar, and live harp, to drums, percussion, and bass to produce their biggest, most hip-hop, live sound to date.
Northern State signed "the deal" with Columbia Records in Feb of 2003 and are currently touring in support of Dying in Stereo while beginning work on their next record. They are psyched to have the resources to deliver the record they have been wanting to make, full of new sounds and collaborations with a few of their hip hop heroes.
