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RU - RWD

Before we begin, let me preface this post by stating that this is not intended to cast shade on any of these talented performers. View it instead as a celebration of all things a little bit different.

Some of rap’s most outlandish characters have been born with genetic conditions which might have held a lesser individual back in the entertainment game. Not these troopers though, who have proved themselves with hit records, regardless of what numbers came up in the genetic lottery.

Bushwick Bill

The ‘Little Big Man’, was a hip-hop fanatic from way back, starting off as a graff writer in New York before moving into breakdancing and eventually becoming a backup dancer for the ever-evolving line-up of Houston crew The Ghetto Boys. He was recruited to take-over microphone duties for the seminal Grip It: On That Other Level album, which most of us know as the re-tweaked GETO Boys album released on Rick Rubin’s Def American label, which added some extra Bushwick action such as Size Ain’t Shit. Not only was Bill born a little person, he also enjoyed a drink or twenty, which resulted in him having his eye shot out one night when he tried to force his baby moms to blow his brains out. Not to be discouraged, the resulting trip to the emergency ward was immortalised on the We Can’t Be Stopped album cover and the Ever So Clear video.

The Ying Yang Twins

The dynamic duo who provided the ultimate creep anthem known as Wait (The Whisper Song) were both dealt difficult cards when D-Roc has born prematurely with a left hand lacking fully developed fingers, while his brother Kaine has mild cerebral palsy. This hasn’t stopped them from clocking up a number of top ten club hits, recording with Britney Spears and giving us joints like Whistle While You Twurk a good thirteen years before Billy Ray’s pride and joy was making international headlines.

DJ Paul from Three 6 Mafia

This guy has managed to cram so much greatness into his career that I can hardly do him justice within the confines of a single paragraph. Born with a “baby arm”, he hasn’t let that stop him from winning an Academy Award for It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp, taking out top spot on 2011’s Famous Food (where he and Juicy J outwitted such characters as ‘Big Pussy’ from The Sopranos, a former Bachelor contestant and a bat-shit crazy Real Housewife of New Jersey, while also threatening to throw Elliott Spitzer’s hoo-er off a balcony) and releasing his own Smoked Out BBQ Sauce. A national treasure.

Fresh Kid Ice

As a founding member of the 2 Live Crew, Chris Wong is still the greatest Chinese-American to ever touch the microphone. In case there was any confusion, his first solo album was named The Chinaman (featuring timeless gems such as Long Dick Chinese), another LP was Freaky Chinese and eventually he founded Chinaman Records. What isn’t as clear, however, is what happened to his arm. There are a number of pictures from the early ’90s where he can be seen sporting a sling and various bands around his left arm, which led to speculation that he had some kind bionic arm fitted that he was paying off in instalments. Other theories are that he has lost full use of it due to a series of strokes. If the latter is true, he isn’t necessarily eligible to appear in this article, which would suck, so I’m going with the former.

Keep up with Robbie’s weekly ‘No Country for Old (Rap) Men’ here.