Onyx - Throw Ya Gunz

What this video is

Released November 27, 1992, 'Throw Ya Gunz' arrived at the peak of New York hardcore rap's ascendancy, when Def Jam and affiliated labels were weaponizing street-level promotion — vinyl to DJs, video to local outlets — to circumvent gatekeeping radio programmers who rejected the track's aggressive content. The single reached #1 on Billboard's Hot Rap Singles for two weeks and later charted in the UK (Top 40, 1993),…

Why it matters

A foundational artifact of New York hardcore rap and early 1990s Def Jam street aesthetics. The track reached #1 on the Hot Rap Singles chart and signaled the mainstream viability of unpolished, aggressive hip-hop performance. As the directorial debut of Diane Martel — who would become one of the…

The director

Born May 7, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York City. A high school dropout who built her early career in street art, dance, and choreography in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Directed the 1992 PBS hip-hop documentary Reckin' Shop: Live From Brooklyn before…