Archive for the ‘DeeJays’ Category
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
Members
Lil Roc-n-G (Gerard Burton)
MC C-Breeze (Curtis Harvey)
Gerard Burton was orginally from Carson, Ca. and Curtis Harvey was from San Pedro, Ca. by way of Rochester NY. Curtis moved San Pedro in the early 80′s.
They kicked off in 1984 on JDC records with the oft-sampled “Techno Scratch” which sampled Woody Woodpecker’s laugh.
In 1985 they surpassed themselves with the double AA side “We are The Knights” their only vocal track and a dub version entitled “The Knights Go to the Moon with Dog, Cat, Mouse and Woodpecker” (Honest!) and the template for house music the electro-hybrid “Jam Your Radio (Fresh mess)”.
They also competed with a rival group called the Majestic Crew.
One member of the group went on to release another record called “Three People Naked Below the Waist” under the name Tyrants in Therapy. They were a “new wave” style group which featured lots of abstract scratching while the group sang/chanted. Apparently this member was the only one who continued to show up on record after the Knights two singles because he later released a mix-plate type record with him cutting up some of the records he used on “Techno Scratch.”
Check out Video of the Knights from 1986
Info submitted by Ed Roberts and T and dj rawtho and Steve Mix-Master “C” Contreras