Tone Lōc

With his double-platinum debut album, 1989's Lōc-ed After Dark, Tone-Lōc became one of the first hip-hop artists to climb to Number 1 on the American pop charts. He was born as Anthony Terrell Smith on March 3, 1966, and raised in Los Angeles, California. Armed with a raspy voice and humorous lyrics, he released Lōc-ed After Dark in January 1989 and quickly became one of the year's biggest stars. The album became a Top 20 hit in Australia, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. In America, it followed Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill as the second hip-hop album to ever top the all-genre charts, thanks in part to the double-platinum success of the record's first single, "Wild Thing." Featuring a sample of Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'," the song charted at Number 1 in New Zealand, Number 21 in the UK, and Number 2 in America (where it was held from the top position by Paula Abdul's "Straight Up"). Another single, the Grammy-nominated "Funky Cold Medina," climbed to Number 3 in America and Number 13 in the UK. It, too, went platinum. Despite the runaway success of his debut release, Tone-Lōc failed to dent the American pop chart with his follow-up album, Cool Hand Lōc, although the single "All Through The Night" did climb to Number 16 on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles in 1991. After contributing songs to the movie soundtracks for Posse and Ace Ventura, Tone-Lōc focused on his film career, earning accolades both as a voice actor and onscreen presence through the 2010s.

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