But in the process, No Doubt lost a member—keyboard player Eric Stefani. "Eric was my biggest musical influence," says Gwen. "He's the one that said 'you be the singer' when I was sitting on the couch watching the Brady Bunch and being as lazy as possible. So if it wasn't for him, I don't know what I would be doing. It was really hard when he left because I felt like this was his baby—his band. Stefani need not have worried. America has latched on to No Doubt's brand of vibrant, tuneful rock, with Stefani's smoothly intriguing show-tune vocals dancing in and out of a catchy stew of varied bass lines and guitar riffs. No Doubt is easily the band of the moment, and this fact is not lost on its members.

Notorious B.I.G

Biggie's solo debut was in the spring of 1993 with "Party and Bullsh*t" which appeared on the "Who's the Man" soundtrack. Later in 1994, he released the album Ready To Die which went platinum. That album included many hit songs including "Juicy", "Big Poppa", "Me and My B*tch", "Warning" and "The What". In June of 1995, Biggie released a maxi-single that contained two different remixes of "One More Chance" which originally appeared on the album Ready To Die. The single debuted at number one in the Billboard R & B Top 40 chart. Later in 1995, Biggie appeared on Junior Mafia's "Player's Anthem" and then again on "Get Money" and the "Get Money" remix in 1996. In the fall of 1996, Biggie appeared on the Bad Boy Remix of 112's "Only You". Biggie's new album was released on March 25, 1997. The album is called Life After Death. The first single from the album was "Hypnotize" and it is currently recieving lots of radio airplay along with many other cuts from the new double album.

LL Cool J

You'd be hard-pressed to find another solo hip-hop act with the durability and staying power of LL Cool J, the self proclaimed "soul survivor of a thousand beats". He was the first rap artist to go acoustic on MTV's unplugged back in 1991. He's the best of the old school, and it is still going strong. This one gets a big recommendation.

Many performers would be content having succeeded in the music, acting and literary fields, but LL continues to seek new challenges. Indeed, though LL Cool J has set the standard by which all other rappers will be measured, he is bedeviled by his own insistent drive. Ask him his future plans and he rattles off a long list of goals: "I'm in the process of launching my new label, P.O.G. Records, Ilion Books is in motion as well as my footwear line, Najee. I want to reach more people with my music, I would like to do action films, and I'd like to go international with my camp and help young people achieve their goals all over the world."

Warren then disappeared from the music scene for over a year. When he returned with "Take A Look Over Your sholder", he showed that he was a class act. The return single, "What's Love Got To Do With It" was a brilliant rendition of Tina Turner's hit. Adina Howard was on guest vocals, and the song was a hit all over Europe, and amazingly number two in the UK. Then a version of Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" was released and followed suit of the previous single.

Depeche Mode

Try to explain Depeche Mode. There can be few bands who have appeared so visible yet remain so obscure, who have talked so much about their lives and work but ultimately said so little. From the moment Depeche Mode appeared on the music scene fifteen years ago, the have remained guarded, giving away as little as possible. Deliberately, they speak only of their music, which is sometimes couched in mystery. Throughout their history, Depeche Mode has combined success with innovation, producing records that have mixed moving melodic lines and pop-star preening with completely synthesizer-driven noises, forever altering the sound of modern music. This site contains information and news on Depeche Mode, who can now fully claim to be the most popular electronic act in the world !!!