Kid ‘n Play rap legend, Christopher “Play” Martin, recently underwent a serious surgery that left fans concerned. With his health in question, many turned to social media to express their support and well wishes.

From his hospital bed, Play took to Instagram to update his fans on his condition. In a heartfelt post, he shared, “I want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and positive thoughts. Surgery went well, and I’m on the road to recovery. It’s been a challenging journey, but I’m thankful for the incredible medical team that has been taking care of me.”

In the video (below), Play explained that he recently had to undergo emergency surgery on his neck and spine. Apparently, doctors had to remove a vertebrae in his neck/spinal area, replacing it with two screws and two rods. Play confessed to having been in excruciating neck/spine pain for a while, and having constant tingling sensations, along with limited mobility in one of his hands.

 

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A post shared by Christopher “Play” Martin (@the_playgroundz)

Play’s vulnerability and gratitude resonated with his followers, who flooded the comments section with messages of love and support. Many fans also threw it back to Kid ‘N Play’s chart-topping hits, expressing their appreciation for the music that played a significant part in their lives.

The surgery came as a surprise to many, because Play had kept his health struggles private. However, in his Instagram post, he shed some light on the situation, saying, “I didn’t want to burden anyone with my health issues, but I realized it’s important to share my journey. I hope that by being open about my experiences, I can inspire others to take care of their health and seek help when needed.”

Play’s decision to speak out about his surgery shines highlights the importance of prioritizing one’s well-being. It serves as a reminder that even our legends face challenges and have vulnerable moments. So Play’s is candidness is highly commendable.

As Play continues his recovery, we’re sending him love and light on his journey back to 100% health.

The post Get Well Soon: Kid ‘n Play Legend, Play, Speaks From Hospital Bed After Emergency Surgery appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Remember Shari Headley, also known as “Lisa McDowell” of the ‘McDowell family’ on Coming To America? Well our girl, “Lisa” may have married “Prince Akeem” (Eddie Murphy’s character) and became the ‘Princess of Zamunda’ in the movie, but in real life she was married to an artists from back in the day who was dominating 80’s hip hop for a while.

We’re not quite sure how they kept this one on the hush back in the day, but somehow they did.

Shari Headley Was Married To…

Her ex-husband is Play of the rap group, Kid N’ Play! Who knew?!! Sing it with me now: “Oh la-oh-la-aye-aye! Rollin’ rollin’ roll with Kid N’ Play now!” Christopher “Play” Martin and Shari Headley are no longer married. They married in May 1993, divorced in 1995, and have one son together, Skyler Martin.

By the way, Shari is now 57 years young and looking just as beautiful as she did back in ’88. Check her out below, rapping a in a behind-the-scenes video from the Coming To America sequel…

 

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A post shared by Shari Headley (@shariheadley)

And cheesin’ it up with co-star, Eddie Murphy…

Here’s an Old School Fun Fact about Play

He was a hip hop teacher at North Carolina Central University until budget cuts forced the school to lay him off in 2009. After students learned about his firing, they began a petition to demand that Martin be given back his teaching position. Play also serves as a professional-in-residence with the Institute for Hip Hop and Music Industry Studies that Clemons directs at Florida A & M University, and he devotes time to the non-profit group Campaign for Change.

Word on the Old School curb is that Play was also preaching at one point in time, but we couldn’t get that confirmed as of yet, so that’s still in our stash of rumor mill stories…not verified facts. We’ll keep you posted on that one though.

Christopher “Play” Martin is now 59 years young…and every now n’ then, he and his fellow group member, Kid, reunite. It would be cool to see an Old School concert with them doing their signature dances that everybody used to try to mimic at the clubs and school dances back in the day.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view

The post “Coming To America” Star Married & Has A Kid With Rap Legend Who Turned His Life Around appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Here, at I Love Old School Music, we are proud truth diggers, who are always diggin’ for truth. This time, we did a lil’ diggin’ and came up with some pretty interesting history regarding rap legends, Busta Rhymes, and Kid N’ Play’s, Christopher “Kid” Reid.

Kid and Busta were clearly two totally different types of rappers, so it may seem unexpected that they’re even being mentioned in the same sentence. However, they have one factor in common- the Mother of their adult children. Yep, things got pretty interesting back in the day, and their daughters are very beautiful women today.

First, A Few Fund Facts About Kid’s & Busta’s Past With Ex

Kid Reportedly Married Their Kids’ Mom First
At the height of his career, then 20-something year old Kid reportedly married the Mom of his and Busta’s kids: “Within the span of a year and a half, I went from touring and being single to being married with…kids. It was crazy.”

After Split From Kid, Ex Linked Up With Busta
Following their ex’s split from Kid, things sparked between she and Busta in the late 90’s. However, Busta’s relationship with her seemed a bit more complex than Kid’s.

Busta Had Child With Daughter’s Mom And Another At Same Time
Things apparently were a bit complex with Busta’s relationship with their children’s Mother, because he had two daughters born in 1998- one with Kid’s baby mama and one with another woman. He’s been a father to both of them though.

Busta Was Then Blessed With Another Child The Next Year, With Different Mom
Busta Blessed With Another Child The Next Year, With Different Mom Apparently Busta’s relationship with Kid’s baby mama didn’t last too long, because the following year (1999) Busta was blessed with another child (a son) by a different woman- his now ex-wife.

Meet Their Ex & The Children Busta & Kid Share With Her

Kid’s Daughters Are Beautiful

In 2017, Kid’s and Rhonda’s daughter, Cailin (pictured above, left), graduated from UC Riverside University as a bioengineering major. Kid is hella proud of course. His other daughter (pictured, R) is from a prior relationship.

Kid’s Son Is His Twin Though

Kid and his ex, Rhonda, are big uppin’ their son these days, for following his passion and becoming a successful fashion model. In one online post, Kid shared the above photo of their son, Cameron Reid, and captioned it with following:

“The youngun is killing it…..swag on 900 right now.”

Busta’s Daughter, Cacie

Busta’s & Rhonda’s daughter, Cacie, ain’t a kid anymore, but she was adorable back then. Cacie was born during the height of Busta’s career in 1999. At 21 years old, Cacie’s stunning and lookin’ exactly like her proud Pops.

Throwback Of How Their Baby Mama Used To Look, But There’s More…

The above photo is of Kid’s and Busta’s ex, Rhonda, holding daughter Cacie (Busta’s child); and son, Cameron, and daughter, Cailin- (Kid’s children)

More Recent Photo Of The Mother Busta’s & Kid’s Children

Not much has changed with Rhonda (pictured above, far left). She’s still a banger and still sportin’ her fly short hairdo.

One Big Happily Blended Hip Hop Family!

Kid had a bended family outing with not only his two kids with Rhonda, but also with Busta’s daughter, Cacie, as well. Looks like these days, it’s all love between the exes and their just one big happy hip hop family!

The post Rappers, Busta Rhymes And Kid, Have Children For Same Woman…They’re Daughters Are Stunning appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Remember Shari Headley, also known as “Lisa McDowell” of the ‘McDowell family’ on Coming To America? Well our girl, “Lisa” may have married “Prince Akeem” (Eddie Murphy’s character) and became the ‘Princess of Zamunda’ in the movie, but in real life she was married to an artists from back in the day who was dominating 80’s hip hop for a while.

We’re not quite sure how they kept this one on the hush back in the day, but somehow they did.

Shari Headley Was Married To…

Her ex-husband is Play of the rap group, Kid N’ Play! Who knew?!! Sing it with me now: “Oh la-oh-la-aye-ay! Rollin’ rollin’ roll with Kid N’ Play now!” Christopher “Play” Martin and Shari Headley are no longer married. They married in May 1993, divorced in 1995, and have one son together, Skyler Martin.

By the way, Shari is now 56 years old and is looking just as beautiful as she did back in ’88. Check her out in one of the first photos from the Coming To America sequel…

Here’s an Old School Fun Fact about Play

He was a hip hop teacher at North Carolina Central University until budget cuts forced the school to lay him off in 2009. After students learned about his firing, they began a petition to demand that Martin be given back his teaching position. Play also serves as a professional-in-residence with the Institute for Hip Hop and Music Industry Studies that Clemons directs at Florida A & M University, and he devotes time to the non-profit group Campaign for Change.

Word on the Old School curb is that Play was also preaching at one point in time, but we couldn’t get that confirmed as of yet, so that’s still in our stash of rumor mill stories…not verified facts. We’ll keep you posted on that one though.

Christopher “Play” Martin is now 55 years old and every now n’ then, he and his fellow group member, Kid, reunite. It would be cool to see an Old School concert with them doing their signature dances that everybody used to try to mimic at the clubs and school dances back in the day.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view

The post “Coming To America” Star Married & Has A Child With Rap Legend Who Turned His Life Around appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

ILOSM family we have all made mistakes in life and hopefully have grown wiser as a result. Sometimes, certain mistakes still make us look in the mirror and say ‘I was a damn FOOL for doing that!’ Today that’s the case for 80s/90s hip hop duo, Kid N’ Play (Chris “Kid” Reid and Christopher “Play” Martin) and the decision they made back in the day, which Reid now says was the one of the dumbest career moves of their lives.

Emotions Got The Best Of ‘Em

In an interview with HipHopDX, Chris “Kid” Reid revealed the decision he and his rap partner, Play should have never made. They turned down the opportunity NBC offered them to do what ultimately became “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” That was before the network offered t to Will “Fresh Prince” Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff. There is also an ironic twist that later involved Smith and Jazzy Jeff as well.

Chris “Kid”: “What went down at the time was that we got the cartoon series first with NBC — first rappers to ever have a cartoon. … We also had a sitcom deal with NBC at the same time, and we were developing that. This was before [The Fresh Prince of Bel Air] was on the air. So we were heading down that road, developing it with producers, about to hire people, this, that and the third, and then NBC came at us and said, ‘We still want to do the sitcom,’ and they also said, ‘but we want to cancel the cartoon series.’ […] They were phasing out cartoons, period. Well, we were so disappointed by that because we’re OGs, we came up on cartoons. So for us becoming cartoons was a big deal. And we were really upset that they were talking about canceling the cartoon. So we told them, and this is probably one of the dumber things we ever did, ‘We don’t want to do no night show with you. We don’t want to do no sitcom. If you cancel that cartoon, then you cancel us, we’ll go elsewhere.’ (laughs) So that slot for that show ended being the same slot for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That’s how that goes. They moved on, and they put Will in that spot. We made a mistake and took it too personal.”

DJ Jazzy Jeff Reveals Ironic Plot Twist

Emotions also were the guiding force behind a career altering decision Will “Fresh Prince” Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff made in the early 90s. Jazzy Jeff revealed they ironically were offered the lead roles in the House Party movies before Kid N’ Play were. Much like Kid N’Play were pissed off with NBC at that time, Jazzy Jeff revealed, in an interview, that he and Will were pissed with New Line Cinema, which ultimately led to them turning down that House Party offer. Gotta luv the irony of this one.

What had happened was that right around that time, New Line Cinema released the 4th installment of the classic 80’s film, Nightmare On Elm Street. Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff decided to capitalize off of it, without getting an approval. They released their 1988 hit, “Nightmare On My Street,” which heavily sampled “Freddy Krueger’s” voice. New Line was like ‘Aw HELL naw!’ and hit the duo with a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Smith and Jazzy then were offered two options by New Line: either pay their settlement out of pocket, or film two movies for them and have their settlements be deducted from their pay. One of the films was House Party, which told the story of a rapper and a DJ.

Feeling like they were being ‘punked,’ by the ‘work-your-debt-off 2-movie deal,’ they actually opted to pay their settlements outta pocket instead, passing on what later became one of the biggest 90s cult classic films. See what Jazzy revealed about this below:

DJ Jazzy Jeff: “What sucks about that was my reasons for not taking it [the lead role in House Party] didn’t have anything to do with the movie. It was more of the legal part that we were going through with New Line Cinemas. I don’t think we ever looked at it like, ‘Yo, it would be kind of dope if we did this.’ I think it was kind of like we had the ability to say no, so let’s just say no. […] We almost felt like they [New Line] were mad at us and this was our punishment. We never got from New Line Cinemas like, ‘You know what, quiet as kept, we really think you guys are really talented. … ‘ We kind of got, if your mom says listen, do you want a beating or do you wanna take sitting in your room tonight, you’re gonna take sitting in your room.”

Kid N Play ultimately landed the role after Smith and Jazzy turned it down, which wasn’t a bad look at all. According to TheChive, ‘House Party part 1 grossed $26,386,000 from a $2.5million budget. Part 2 made almost $20million with $19.1million for part 3.’

Overall, it seems that the universe put the right rap duos in the proper places that were meant for them at that time. I couldn’t imagine Fresh Prince of Bel Air, nor House Party starring anyone else.

The post Kid N’ Play Rejected Gig On A Legendary TV Show, Kid Confesses Major Regret Over It appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Remember Shari Headley, also known as “Lisa McDowell” of the ‘McDowell family’ on Coming To America? Well our girl, “Lisa” may have married “Prince Akeem” (Eddie Murphy’s character) and became the ‘Princess of Zamunda’ in the movie, but in real life she was married to an artists from back in the day who was dominating 80’s hip hop for a while.

We’re not quite sure how they kept this one on the hush back in the day, but somehow they did.

Shari Headley Was Married To…

Her ex-husband is Play of the rap group, Kid N’ Play! Who knew?!! Sing it with me now: “Oh la-oh-la-aye-ay! Rollin’ rollin’ roll with Kid N’ Play now!” Christopher “Play” Martin and Shari Headley are no longer married. They married in May 1993, divorced in 1995, and have one son together, Skyler Martin.

By the way, Shari is now 53 years old and is looking just as beautiful as she did back in ’88. Look at her…

Embed from Getty Images

Here’s an Old School Fun Fact about Play

He was a hip hop teacher at North Carolina Central University until budget cuts forced the school to lay him off in 2009. After students learned about his firing, they began a petition to demand that Martin be given back his teaching position. Play also serves as a professional-in-residence with the Institute for Hip Hop and Music Industry Studies that Clemons directs at Florida A & M University, and he devotes time to the non-profit group Campaign for Change.

Embed from Getty Images

Word on the Old School curb is that Play was also preaching at one point in time, but we couldn’t get that confirmed as of yet, so that’s still in our stash of rumor mill stories…not verified facts. We’ll keep you posted on that one though.

Christopher “Play” Martin is now 55 years old and every now n’ then, he and his fellow group member, Kid, reunite. It would be cool to see an Old School concert with them doing their signature dances that everybody used to try to mimic at the clubs and school dances back in the day.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view

The post Coming To America Star Married & Has Child With Rap Legend Who Turned His Life Around appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

ILOSM family we have all made mistakes in life and hopefully have grown wiser as a result. Sometimes, certain mistakes still make us look in the mirror and say ‘I was a damn FOOL for doing that!’ Today that’s the case for 80s/90s hip hop duo, Kid N’ Play (Chris “Kid” Reid and Christopher “Play” Martin) and the decision they made back in the day, which Reid now says was the one of the dumbest career moves of their lives.

Emotions Got The Best Of ‘Em

In an interview with HipHopDX, Chris “Kid” Reid revealed the decision he and his rap partner, Play should have never made. They turned down the opportunity NBC offered them to do what ultimately became “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” That was before the network offered t to Will “Fresh Prince” Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff. There is also an ironic twist that later involved Smith and Jazzy Jeff as well.

Chris “Kid”: “What went down at the time was that we got the cartoon series first with NBC — first rappers to ever have a cartoon. … We also had a sitcom deal with NBC at the same time, and we were developing that. This was before [The Fresh Prince of Bel Air] was on the air. So we were heading down that road, developing it with producers, about to hire people, this, that and the third, and then NBC came at us and said, ‘We still want to do the sitcom,’ and they also said, ‘but we want to cancel the cartoon series.’ […] They were phasing out cartoons, period. Well, we were so disappointed by that because we’re OGs, we came up on cartoons. So for us becoming cartoons was a big deal. And we were really upset that they were talking about canceling the cartoon. So we told them, and this is probably one of the dumber things we ever did, ‘We don’t want to do no night show with you. We don’t want to do no sitcom. If you cancel that cartoon, then you cancel us, we’ll go elsewhere.’ (laughs) So that slot for that show ended being the same slot for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That’s how that goes. They moved on, and they put Will in that spot. We made a mistake and took it too personal.”

DJ Jazzy Jeff Reveals Ironic Plot Twist

Emotions also were the guiding force behind a career altering decision Will “Fresh Prince” Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff made in the early 90s. Jazzy Jeff revealed they ironically were offered the lead roles in the House Party movies before Kid N’ Play were. Much like Kid N’Play were pissed off with NBC at that time, Jazzy Jeff revealed, in an interview, that he and Will were pissed with New Line Cinema, which ultimately led to them turning down that House Party offer. Gotta luv the irony of this one.

What had happened was that right around that time, New Line Cinema released the 4th installment of the classic 80’s film, Nightmare On Elm Street. Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff decided to capitalize off of it, without getting an approval. They released their 1988 hit, “Nightmare On My Street,” which heavily sampled “Freddy Krueger’s” voice. New Line was like ‘Aw HELL naw!’ and hit the duo with a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Smith and Jazzy then were offered two options by New Line: either pay their settlement out of pocket, or film two movies for them and have their settlements be deducted from their pay. One of the films was House Party, which told the story of a rapper and a DJ.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ4qb4qnStN/?tagged=housepartymovie

Feeling like they were being ‘punked,’ by the ‘work-your-debt-off 2-movie deal,’ they actually opted to pay their settlements outta pocket instead, passing on what later became one of the biggest 90s cult classic films. See what Jazzy revealed about this below:

DJ Jazzy Jeff: “What sucks about that was my reasons for not taking it [the lead role in House Party] didn’t have anything to do with the movie. It was more of the legal part that we were going through with New Line Cinemas. I don’t think we ever looked at it like, ‘Yo, it would be kind of dope if we did this.’ I think it was kind of like we had the ability to say no, so let’s just say no. […] We almost felt like they [New Line] were mad at us and this was our punishment. We never got from New Line Cinemas like, ‘You know what, quiet as kept, we really think you guys are really talented. … ‘ We kind of got, if your mom says listen, do you want a beating or do you wanna take sitting in your room tonight, you’re gonna take sitting in your room.”

Kid N Play ultimately landed the role after Smith and Jazzy turned it down, which wasn’t a bad look at all. According to TheChive, ‘House Party part 1 grossed $26,386,000 from a $2.5million budget. Part 2 made almost $20million with $19.1million for part 3.’

Overall, it seems that the universe put the right rap duos in the proper places that were meant for them at that time. I couldn’t imagine Fresh Prince of Bel Air, nor House Party starring anyone else.

The post Kid N’ Play Rejected Gig On A Legendary TV Show, Kid Confesses Deep Regret Over It appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Who’s Bringing It Back?

Well, that was then and this is now people. Apparently there’s an NBA legend who was barely old enough to appreciate the film in 1990, but has committed his money toward a reboot of House Party. That legend is 33 year old LeBron James. He and his SpringHill Entertainment business partner, Maverick Carter, are about to introduce today’s generation to the classic nostalgia of the 90’s film that created beautiful memories for us Old Schoolers.

Although LeBron was just 6 years old at the time that the first House Party installment was released, he said it impacted his life:

James: “This is definitely not a reboot. It’s an entirely new look for a classic movie. Everyone I grew up with loved ‘House Party.’ To partner with this creative team to bring a new House Party to a new generation is unbelievable.” -via The Hollywood Reporter

The script will be written by Atlanta TV Show writers, Stephen Glover and Jamal Olori.

Will James Star In New “House Party”?

We’ve all seen LeBron’s comical acting skills in several of his endorsement commercials. So it was only natural for fans to question whether or not he’ll be starring in the House Party reboot. Here’s what his partner, Maverick Carter, said about that:

“There’s no plan for it now, but he’s a fantastic actor, and if he wants a role, Stephen will find a great role to put him in.”

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Break It?

Here’s the thing, it’s a beautiful homage to the old school, that LeBron and his team are bringing back such a classic. Question is: With this new reboot of House Party, will they break something that didn’t need fixing, or enhance it instead? I’m not trying to be the ‘Negative Nate’ in this scenario, but we all know that sometimes classics are meant to remain in the era from which they came, just saying. However, only time will tell if LeBron James and his Springhill Entertainment team will do the 90’s House Party classic justice in 2018/19. Overall, his efforts are definitely applause worthy though.

The post Classic 90s “House Party” Movie Getting Reboot From Very Unexpected, Young Sports Legend appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Remember Shari Headley, also known as “Lisa McDowell” of the ‘McDowell family’ on Coming To America? Well our girl, “Lisa” may have married “Prince Akeem” (Eddie Murphy’s character) and became the ‘Princess of Zamunda’ in the movie, but in real life she was married to an artists from back in the day who was dominating 80’s hip hop for a while.

We’re not quite sure how they kept this one on the hush back in the day, but somehow they did.

Shari Headley Was Married To…

Her ex-husband is Play of the rap group, Kid N’ Play! Who knew?!! Sing it with me now: “Oh la-oh-la-aye-ay! Rollin’ rollin’ roll with Kid N’ Play now!” Christopher “Play” Martin and Shari Headley are no longer married. They married in May 1993, divorced in 1995, and have one son together, Skyler Martin.

By the way, Shari is now 53 years old and is looking just as beautiful as she did back in ’88. Look at her…

Embed from Getty Images

Here’s an Old School Fun Fact about Play

He was a hip hop teacher at North Carolina Central University until budget cuts forced the school to lay him off in 2009. After students learned about his firing, they began a petition to demand that Martin be given back his teaching position. Play also serves as a professional-in-residence with the Institute for Hip Hop and Music Industry Studies that Clemons directs at Florida A & M University, and he devotes time to the non-profit group Campaign for Change.

Embed from Getty Images

Word on the Old School curb is that Play was also preaching at one point in time, but we couldn’t get that confirmed as of yet, so that’s still in our stash of rumor mill stories…not verified facts. We’ll keep you posted on that one though.

Christopher “Play” Martin is now 55 years old and every now n’ then, he and his fellow group member, Kid, reunite. It would be cool to see an Old School concert with them doing their signature dances that everybody used to try to mimic at the clubs and school dances back in the day.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view

The post This ‘Coming To America’ Actress Was Married To A Legendary Rapper Who Has Turned His Life Around appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

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