Underground-rap impresario Mike Ladd has recorded several LPs of sewer-level hip-hop, both under his own name and as the Infesticons. A big funk fan as a kid, he played drums in a punk band while living around New York during the early '80s and got into hip-hop in 1985. After years of freestyle rhyming (closer to urban poetry than straight-out rapping) and producing, Ladd released his first solo album Easy Listening 4 Armageddon in 1997 for Scratchie/Mercury. One year later, the Blah Blah single followed on Big Dada, and in 2000 his second LP Welcome to the Afterfuture appeared on his own Like Madd Music. Later that year, Ladd signed his new alias the Infesticons to Big Dada/Ninja Tune and released Gun Hill Road. Ladd also released a single for the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label, in their Blow Up Factor series. He returned in 2003, as Majesticons, to release the Beauty Party LP. ~ John Bush, Rovi