Kool G Rap & DJ Polo

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo were a Queens, New York hip-hop duo consisting of rapper Kool G Rap (Nathaniel Thomas Wilson) and DJ Polo, and members of the Juice Crew. They gained early recognition through their appearance on the Juice Crew posse cut «The Symphony» before signing to Warner Bros. and releasing their debut album, «Road to the Riches», to critical acclaim.

The duo is widely credited with laying the groundwork for mafioso rap, pairing Kool G Rap’s dense, multisyllabic rhymes and vivid crime narratives with DJ Polo’s hard-hitting, sample-driven production. Tracks such as «Road to the Riches», «Rhyme Tyme», «Ill Street Blues» and «Streets of New York» exemplify this combination of technical lyricism and gritty, cinematic street storytelling.

Across several studio albums, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo became one of the most respected acts to emerge from the Juice Crew and late-1980s/early-1990s New York hip-hop, with their catalog cited as a direct influence on the mafioso and street-rap subgenres before the duo eventually went their separate ways.