Andre Nickatina

Andre Lamond Adams was born in San Francisco on March 11, 1970 and grew up in the Fillmore District. He first showed up on the Bay Area rap scene in 1993 as Dre Dog, releasing The New Jim Jones that year and I Hate You With a Passion in 1995; the second one reached number 79 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. In 1997 he changed his name to Andre Nickatina, founded Filmoe Coleman Records and put out Cocaine Raps on it, along with Raven in My Eyes on the Bay Area indie Dogday Records.

The run that followed, Tears of a Clown in 1999, then Daiquiri Factory: Cocaine Raps Vol. 2 and These R the Tales in 2000, made his name on the West Coast underground. Conversation with a Devil arrived in 2003 as a CD-and-movie package. He has worked repeatedly with Equipto, including the three Horns and Halos records, and with Smoov-E and The Jacka.

In 2005 SF Weekly named him Best Local Hip Hop Legend and he won Best Underground Artist at the first Bay Area Rap Awards. A Tale of Two Andres, released in 2008 with Mac Dre, was a tribute to his late friend; the pair had only cut three songs together. His self-titled 2013 album debuted at number 46 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart, his best showing to date.

The Bands of the Bay profile was a placeholder more than a press kit: one member, a line calling him an original SF artist who still puts out hit albums, Mac Dre, Equipto and Mac Mall as influences, and links to andrenickatina.com and a MySpace page. Three votes had him at 8.7.