Davy DMX

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Davy DMX, born David Reeves, got his start as a deejay in the late 1970’s in his hometown of Queens, New York.

He worked with many groups who wanted to employ the beats he created using the Oberheim drum machine from which he took his name.  He also was successful at using live instruments (many of which he plays himself) in his tracks.

He was a member of Orange Krush along with Larry Smith and Sal Abateillo (possibly Russell Rush). They are credited with a few singles in their own right such as “Action” 1981 for which Russell Simmons did a smurf vocal. But their chief credit was doing all the music for Run DMC’s first two albums. Orange Krush are also credited on Lovebug Starski’s “You Gotta Believe” and Sweet G’s “Games People Play” both on Fever 1983.

He went on to replace DJ Run as Kurtis Blow’s deejay (including the Madison Square Garden Performance opening for The Commodores).  He was also writing songs and playing guitar for some of Blow’s tracks.

His major solo single is “One for the Treble” released in 1984 which was followed by “The DMX will Rock” in 1985.

Here is a sampling of his other career highlights:
-Wrote and produced Run DMC’s “Pause”, “Not Just Another Groove”, co-produced “Beats to the Rhyme” and “Run’s House”, co-produced their “Tougher Than Leather” LP
-Produced Public Enemy’s “Hit The Road Jack”
-Co-produced the Fat Boys’ “Hard Core Reggae, wrote “Jailhouse Rap”, wrote and produced “Pump Me Up”, produced “The Fat Boys are Back” LP
-Wrote and produced Kurtis Blow’s “If I Ruled the World”, “Rockin”, “Hello Baby”, “AJ is Cool”, “The Breaks”, and “AJ Scratch Meets Davy D”
-Wrote Jimmy Spicer’s “Money: Dollar Bill Y’all”
-Wrote the Fearless Four’s “Problems of the World” and “F4000”
-Wrote Spoonie Gee’s “Big Beat” and “Street Girl”
-Wrote Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde’s “Transformation” and “Scratch on Galaxy”
-Produced tracks for Sparky D’s album “The is Sparky D’s World”
-Produced tracks for the Cookie Crew’s album “Born this Way” in the early 1990’s

Davy DMX also submitted “Davy’s Ride” an LP in 1987 at Def Jam. It featured a brilliant track called “Keep Your Distance” which featured Hurricane who later found fame as a solo artist but also was the Beastie Boys touring DJ.  A personal favorite of mine was “Have you Seen Davy.”

He was also a front man of an unusual Run DMC project called The Afros famous for a 1990 12″ called “Feel It”.

Currently Davy runs several successful businesses with his partner “Woody” Connor, Jr. including LO KEY Records, CE-LO Productions, Solo Sounds Studios, and D & J Books Distribution.  He toured as The Sugarhill Gang’s DJ in the summer of 1999.

Check Out “One for the Treble”

Additional information provided by Ed Roberts

Back to DJ’s Biographies

Author: JohnG

Administrator of OldSchoolHipHop.Com

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2 Comments

  1. One of the my favourite a records of all time. In fact it was the most expensive record that I bought in the 90s. well worth the money.

  2. One of my favourite electro records of all time.

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