The New York-based ap trio Northern State are no funky divas. Julie "Hesta Prynn" Potash, Correne "Guinea Love" Spero, and Robyn "DJ Sprout" Goodmark formed the hip-hop-centric ap outfit in 2000. They're college-educated and slick in checking rhymes, rearing to give ap a new face in the new millennium.

Potash, who earned a degree in theater and served on Hillary Clinton's 2000 senatorial campaign, first met Spero and Goodmark while attending Half Hollow Hills High School in Dix Hills, Long Island, in the early '90s. Spero, who's studied audio engineering, has a degree in women's studies from Oberlin College. Her pal Goodmark was a hippie who had an interest in the environment. She ended up with an environmental education degree and became a kindergarten teacher. Each had a fondness for Liz Phair, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, and Grand Puba. While hanging out at a party one evening in mid-2000, Spero and Goodmark thought it'd be funny if they were rappers. They went on to spend the next six months in Potash's East Village apartment writing songs and perfecting a hella cool, New York, white-girl-bred ap style.