Prime Minister Pete Nice & Daddy Rich - Rat Bastard

What this video is

Released in January 1993, 'Rat Bastard' emerged from the post-3rd Bass split between Pete Nice and MC Serch, representing one of hip-hop's most public intra-group beef narratives of the era. The single preceded the Dust to Dust album (April 27, 1993) on Def Jam/Columbia/Sony, and the video's cinematic reference to The Untouchables frames the diss as a mythologized act of retribution. Produced by The Beatnuts, the…

Why it matters

A textbook example of early-90s boom bap video aesthetics: dark, warm, film-grain visuals aligned with hardcore lyrical content, fast editing synchronized to beat-driven flow. Historically notable as an early Brett Ratner directorial credit, demonstrating the hip-hop music video pipeline that fed…

The director

Brett Ratner (born March 28, 1969, Miami Beach, FL) graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 1990. He began his career directing music videos in the 1990s for Def Jam and other labels before his feature directorial debut with Money Talks (1997). He…