Tairrie B.

Tairrie B.’s first notable foray into music was as one half of the HI-NRG/synth-pop duo Bardeux in the mid-1980’s. She appeared on the single Three-Time Lover (and also graced the cover). After an apparent falling out with the group’s svengali (Jon St. James of SSQ and Stacey Q fame), Tairrie next released a solo album in 1990, The Power Of A Woman. She took a totally different direction, emerging as the only white female rapper on Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records, and the sound was ‘hardcore’ rap, not the pop-rap that most female rappers were into at the time (Her love of rap was explored on the short ‘shout-out’ cut on the Bardeux single – and she disses the whole Bardeux project on the track ‘Ruthless Bitch’). The album wasn’t a success, and Tairrie wanted to change up her sound by making it harder. She left Ruthless and formed the band Manhole (later named Tura Satana for legal reasons). Again Tairrie changed up her sound, this time shouting her raps over hardcore metal. Tura Satana broke up after their second album, and Tairrie formed another group, My Ruin, which was even harder, verging on death metal with Tairrie rapping, screaming and growling over heavy beats and guitars. She also formed spoken word duo The LVRS with boyfriend/bandmate Mick Murphy.