Managed by the Flavor Unit, Rated Next was recorded in Gee's in-home recording studio.

The band came together out of necessity and was signed by the rapper Queen Latifah's production company, the Flavor Unit, based in New Jersey.

It is a few blocks from an old fire station that houses her management and recording company, Flavor Unit.

Just to hedge bets, however, her opening act, from the Flavor Unit stable, was Freddie Foxxx, rapping about gunplay.

The group was part of Queen Latifah's Flavor Unit collective.

Apache emerged from New Jersey in the late 1980s as a front man for the Flavor Unit, a hip-hop group.

He first appeared on the Flavor Unit album, The 45 King Presents The Flavor Unit, in 1990.

Names marked with an asterisk denote artists who were managed by Flavor Unit but were not part of the original crew.

Latifah's presence can still be felt locally through Flavor Unit, the Jersey City record label and entertainment company she established 10 years ago, but its music-industry influence has subsided.

Her posse, the Flavor Unit, is part of the scene; members help Latifah edit her raps, sometimes appear on stage with her, occasionally travel with her.