Prof. Griff (Public Enemy)
Although Griff makes the live show more interesting to watch, he’s not exactly essential personnel in PE. In fact, he was so 
nonessential, he actually did get kicked out for almost 10 years after making some anti-Semitic remarks back in ‘89. All’s well on the Black Planet now, but if Griff gets the boot again? It’s not going to keep me from seeing PE when they come to town.
Danny Boy (House Pain)
Even though House of Pain no longer exists and lead rapper Everlast has gone country (?!), in their hey day they made being Irish look awful gangsta. Even when “Jump Around” comes on today, a little part inside of me feels 
the urge to, you know — jump around. We all remember Everlast and DJ Lethal (who went on to spin for Limp Bizkit), but alas, poor Danny Boy. HOP’s third member wasn’t really a hype man (of course, I never saw them in concert and so can’t really verify that), and his most memorable moment was one line on the group’s second single “Shamrocks and Shenanigans.” That’s it. So if House of Pain does a reunion tour and Danny Boy doesn’t get on board, will all be lost? Will the House of Pain Nation be outraged? Methinks not.
Sen Dog (Cypress Hill)
Just before Dre and Snoop blew out the doors for West Coast hip hop on the national stage, Cypress Hill was making 
inroads in the notoriously territorial east. In fact, some headz say it was hard to tell that they were a Left Coast group. Muggs was on the beats and turntables and B-Real stayed loco with the vocals, but a big morenito called Sen Dog kept the group anchored with an all-important job — echoing the end of B-Real’s lines. VERY important, mind you! He added emphasis, lest listeners miss the insight buried in those final words. And he made the group look little bit more intimidating — always important in hip hop. When Sen Dog left the group to record his solo album, I pictured him in the studio booth looking a little sad and a bit lost, forlornly waiting for the prompt from B-Real that never came.
Pras
Quick test. Recite one of Pras’s hottest lines. Okay, just a good punchline.* Alright, ANY of his rhymes. Kinda hard, ain’t it? I once read a review that said Pras would have to accept his status in the Fugees as forever being the 3rd O’Jay — you 
know, after Eddie Levert and Walter Williams. The third O’jay has been replaced three different times to date and you know what? Nobody ever even noticed. But to be fair, it just wouldn’t have been the same without Pras, otherwise there’d have been no distraction from hearing how lame Wyclef was next to Lauryn.
(* = see end)
Those other Wu Dudes
(U God, Masta Killah, Cappadonna, Killah Priest, and nem)
Picture this: The radio station announces that the Wu-Tang Clan is coming to town. You run out and 
buy tickets, maybe even a new outfit (do grownheads still do that?). The day arrives: it’s show time! The lights go down and you hear “From the slums of Shaolin: The RZA. The GZA, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon the Chef, Ghostface Killah and the Method Man will NOT be performing this evening.” WHAT!! The curtain comes up and out walks U God, Masta Killah, and Cappadonna. What would you do? Hell yeah, the same thing I would, step on three feet to get my damn money back!
*OK, in the interest of fairness, Pras did have two good lines in his career. Both from The Score (of course), the first was heard on “Ready Or Not”: I refugee from Guantanamo Bay / Dance around the border like I’m Cassius Clay.
The second was Pras’s uncharacteristically ironic, droll verse in “The Mask”: See cops got two faces like two laces on my Reebok / My knees knock, as I step back for a clear shot / Yo, Did you shoot him? Naw, kid I didn’t have the balls / That’s when I realized I’m bumping too much Biggie Smalls. Wow, if we’d seen more of this Pras, maybe he wouldn’t have been so expendable.
