Happy Birthday, MC Ren!

Today, June 16, marks the 49th birthday of hip-hop veteran MC Ren.

A driving force behind the legendary N.W.A, MC Ren first got his start as a solo artist on Eazy-E's Ruthless Records. The rapper's big break then came in 1988 when he penned more than half of the songs on Eazy's debut album, Eazy-Duz-It.

Ren's work on songs such as "We Want Eazy," "Nobody Move" and "Ruthless Villain" led to him landing a spot in the gangsta rap crew. From there, Ren got to immediately working on the critically-acclaimed Straight Out of Compton, penning the lyrics with Ice Cube for the songs "Fuck tha Police," "Gangsta Gangsta" and "Straight Outta Compton."

One year later, the rapper found himself in charge of the group's lyrics for the 100 Miles and Runnin' EP after Cube left the group. As the mastermind behind the project's five songs, Ren was also responsible for writing the Ice Cube diss, "Real Niggaz."

After the entire group disbanded, MC Ren dropped his first solo project, Kizz My Black Azz. The six-track EP sold over one million copies and was followed up in 1993 with Ren's debut album, Shock of the Hour.

Since then, MC Ren has gone on to release a few more projects, most recently dropping Reincarnated in 2009. The rapper also reunited with Ice Cube in 2014 for the "Rebel Music (Remix)" and linked up with Dr. Dre, DJ Yella and Cube at Coachella in 2016 for an N.W.A reunion.

Happy birthday, MC Ren, and many more!

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