Unsigned Hype: Total Pack

The duo Total Pack of Hollis, Queens, New York, were the Unsigned Hype artists in the December 1992 issue of The Source magazine. Active "for about a year" at the time of their appearance, rappers Kamal B. Wise and Cestyle met each other battling in 1988. Bobbito of The Stretch Armstrong Show on WKCR met Kamal at a nightclub, and was so impressed by the duo that they went on to have four guest appearances on the show. Writer Matty C describes their style as "hardcore hip hop without the guns and the curses" and "strictly verbal assault". Cestyle is also described as the beatmaker for the group, although it is mentioned that Total Pack were working on a studio quality demo with producer Money Moses, who had previously most notably worked with Pretty Tone Capone of Mobstyle. With their "exceptionally positive attitude, mad skills and raw fruit loops" (the latter expression for making beats is used twice in the article but bears no relevance to anything), the group seemed to have been poised for success.

Except they weren't. Their only official releases were two songs ("Battle Hymn" and "What's the Deal") on the Wild Pitch Records mixtape Wild Pitch Blends in 1994.

Though Matty C mentions the group having appeared on The Stretch Armstrong Show four times before they appeared in Unsigned Hype, according to this website that lists guests on the show, the pair had their first appearance together on the 14 January 1993 show (one month after appearing in UH). Kamal B. Wise appeared by himself in 1994 on 2 June. They then appeared together again twice in 1995, on 9 February and 17 August. Cestyle then made his only solo appearance in 1997 on the 13 July show.

Kamal seems to have not released any solo material. Cestyle, on the other hand, produced Non Phixion's 1996 debut single "Legacy". He appeared on The Korp's song "The Champion", which saw its only release as part of Stretch Armstrong's 1997 mixtape Lesson 1. The following year, Cestyle collaborated again with The Korp, appearing on their songs "We Comin'" and "Never Ending Story". Cestyle only put out one solo single, "Thumpathon", on Plasma Records, which has an unknown release date but is almost certainly early 2000s.

A compilation of unreleased Cestyle songs was released in 2014 by Chopped Herring Records, titled Parkhouse Music 1995-1998 EP.