Ugly Duckling, Fistful of Dynamite

Ugly Duckling is a hip hop group that formed in 1993 in Long Beach, California. Ugly Duckling’s members are Dizzy Dustin, Young Einstein and Andy Cooper. The group’s style is alternative hip hop, influenced especially by old school performers such as the Native Tongues. Most of their songs follow the creed that hip hop is about having fun and often mock the clichéd gangsta emcees who dominate the mainstream.

An example of this can be heard in the song “A Little Samba” and in “Smack,” in which they rhyme about the enormous wealth about which mainstream emcees brag, and the ridiculous nature of their possessions, such as gold name plates on their cars, pet sharks, and jetting off to Bermuda on private planes.