Kid 'n Play is an American hip-hop duo from New York City that was most popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The duo was composed of Christopher Reid ("Kid") and Christopher Martin ("Play") working alongside their DJ, Mark "DJ Wiz" Eastmond.[1][2] Besides their successful musical careers, they are also notable for branching out into acting.[3]
The pair met while performing in rival high school groups the Turnout Brothers and the Super Lovers, and initially formed their duo under the name the Fresh Force Crew. In 1986 She's a Skeezer and Rock Me were recorded. By 1987 they had changed their name to Kid 'n Play.
Kid 'n Play recorded three albums together between 1988 and 1991: 2 Hype (1988), Kid 'n Play's Funhouse (1990), and Face the Nation (1991). Hurby "Luv Bug" Azor, the producer for Salt-N-Pepa (who had been a member of the Super Lovers with Play) served as Kid 'n Play's manager and producer during the early portion of their career. All three albums focused upon positive lyrics backed by pop-friendly instrumental tracks. Among the group's most successful singles were 1989's "Rollin' with Kid 'n Play" (No. 11 on the Billboard R&B singles chart), 1990s "Funhouse" (No. 1 on the Billboard rap singles chart), and "Ain't Gonna Hurt Nobody" (another No. 1 rap hit). The group's stage show highlighted their teen-friendly personalities, and dances such as their trademark, the Kick Step. Kid's visual trademark was his hi-top fade haircut, which stood ten inches high at its peak. Martin regularly wore eight-ball jackets.
Kid 'n Play were also notable for their dance known as the Kid n' Play Kickstep, first seen in their video "Do This My Way," and described in the song "Do the Kid n' Play Kickstep," from their first album, 2 Hype. Also affectionately known as the "Funky Charleston," it was influenced by the 1920s era dance The Charleston. The Kid n' Play Kickstep featured the new jack swing-aerobic dance moves typical of late 1980s urban street dancing. Unlike the original Charleston, the Kid n' Play Kickstep requires two participants instead of one. This dance also was made quite popular in Kid 'n Play's feature film House Party, in which Kid and Play have a dance competition with Tisha Campbell and Adrienne-Joi Johnson.
In addition to their music, Kid 'N Play have starred together in five feature films, all of them based around hip hop characters and themes. The duo also appeared on the soundtrack albums to these films. Four of the Kid 'n Play films were entries in the House Party series.The first two House Party films (1990's House Party and 1991's House Party 2) also featured the then-relatively unknown Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell, later stars of the TV sitcom Martin. House Party 3 (1994) featured hip-hop/R&B girl group TLC as the music group Sex as a Weapon. Kid 'n Play were absent from the fourth film House Party 4 (2001), which has no connection to any of the prior films or the subsequent film, House Party 5 (2013) in which the duo make a cameo appearance, revealing how successful their characters have become since the events of House Party 3. House Party was originally meant for DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. Years later in an interview with Halftimeonline.net DJ Jazzy Jeff revealed:
When we did 'Nightmare On My Street' New Line Cinema sued the daylights out of us, but they liked the record and they thought Will and I were talented from 'Parents Just Don't Understand.' So part of the settlement was that we had to pay them some money, but they offered us two scripts to do two movies. The first script was House Party, because if you think about the premise of House Party, one dude was a Dj and the other was a rapper, so House Party was set up for Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. We weren't thinking about doing movies back then. Then Kid N Play blew up off of that.
Class Act, produced in 1992, was a comedy in the same vein as the House Party films. For that film, Reid traded his trademark hi-top fade in for braids instead. The haircut is used as a plot device in the film.
Kid 'n Play even had their own NBC Saturday morning cartoon, Kid 'n Play, for one season from 1990 to 1991. On the show, Kid 'n Play were regressed to teenagers, but their recording careers remained intact, as did their comic personas. The real Kid 'n Play appeared in live-action wraparounds of the cartoons, but voice actors (again including close friend, Martin Lawrence) performed in the animated portions of the show. The show stressed positive role models, teaching kids how to get along and stay out of trouble. A 1992 Marvel Comics comic book based on the cartoon lasted nine issues. They also shot some segments for the PBS math show Square One TV and Sesame Street.
Kid 'n Play were featured in the Adult Swim animated special Freaknik: The Musical as themselves. They also returned to the House Party series, appearing in House Party: Tonight's the Night in which they reprise their roles from the first three films.