Fiercely underground Chicago rapper E.C. Illa honed his skills by battling in and around the Windy City with his clique the Ill State Assassins. The Caucasian rapper brought some underground respectability to a city's hip-hop school that (apart from Common Sense) was hungry for respect. After a slew of EP's and guest spots on other projects, E.C. dropped his debut solo effort the E.C Illa LP in 1996. Illa LP boasted 16 tracks of rugged Chicago chin-checks with production mostly conceived by the artist himself. E.C.'s high-strung style was clearly fashioned by a city of swirling influences, but his overall sound was more Old School East Coast than Left Coast. In 1996, E.C. caught enough respect to have his video for the single "Illa" featured on BET's Rap City long before Detroit's Eminem had achieved any crossover success.