Marley Marl

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MC Shan.  Roxanne Shante.  Heavy D.  Big Daddy Kane.  Biz Markie.  Chaka Kahn.  MC Lyte.  Craig  G.  LL Cool J.  Master Ace.  3rd Bass.  Boogie Down Productions.  En Vogue.  TLC.  Lords of the Underground.  Monie Love.  Shabba Ranks.  Da Youngsters.  Dr. Dre & Ed Lover.  KRS-ONE.  Capone & Noreaga.  The Alkaholiks.  Mic Geronimo.  Eric B. and Rakim.  Fat Joe.  Funkmaster Flex.

What do these artists have in common?  They have all had tracks or entire albums produced by Marlon Williams.  You may know him as Marley Marl.

He was born on September 30, 1962 in Queens, New York.

Marley made his name producing tracks for Roxanne Shante in her bid to upstage UTFO.

On a large number of Tuff City’s recordings Marley Marl is credited as having mixed them including Grandmaster Caz’s “Count Basie”, Funkmaster Wizard Wiz’s “Bellevue Patient”, and much of Spoonie Gee’s material on the label.

He recorded a song called “DJ Cuttin'” under the alias NYC Cutter for Pop Art in 1985.

He later became a the backbone of group of rappers known as the Juice Crew.

He is often credited with bringing a more accessible sound to the music.  With others he helped usher in the new era of sampling and was an early master of it.

The only track in which he actually emcees is “I Ain’t Bullshittin'” on Cold Chillin’ in 1990.

Over the past few years, he has been in a legal struggle with former label Cold Chillin’ Records (a label he nearly single handed brought from obscurity to the big time) claiming he was owed over $500,000 in back payments.  The suit was settled out of court and Marley received ownership of all the songs he produced for the label.

As you can tell from the list above, since he began in the early 80’s, he has been working steadily with an array of artists spanning old school to new school artists.

Watch Marley on the Turntables

Additional info by Ed Roberts


Back to DJ’s Biographies

Author: JohnG

Administrator of OldSchoolHipHop.Com

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