Posts Tagged ‘Donald D’
Donald D first exploded on the scene with Afrika Islam and The Zulu nation.
He built his rep on the streets as a storytelling MC, but still had the freestyle skills.
Donald D’s big break in the recording industry came when as a mc on the Zulu beats radio show with Afrika Islam. That was where C.E.O Vincent Davis of Vintertainment records first heard his rhyme skills, and offered him a record deal.
He recorded his first song “Rock the House” with the group The B-Boys with DJ Chuck Chillout. The song got little airplay, but was a big hit with the breakdancers and pop lockers.
The second single “Stick up kid b/w Girls” along with rap partner Brother-B became another underground hit.
This led to tours with Doug E Fresh and The Boogie Boys.
Unhappy with the way business was being ran with Vintertainment, the group cut ties with the label. Donald then recorded with the label Rockin Hard Records, a small company with no promotional push. The song “Outlaw b/w Dope Jam” got major play on the mix shows and college radio.
In 1984 Donald D released a single on Elektra that was produced by Grandmaster Flash called “Donald’s Groove”. There was also another collaboration between the two on an independent label under the pseudonym “The Grey Label”
Donald D got a call from West Coast pioneer Ice-T to record a song for the album “Rhyme Syndicate – Comin Through”. He flew to LA, did the song, came back to NYC for a short time before moving back to LA
He teamed up with Ice-T and became his right hand man going on to co-write many songs on his albums. That led to his debut album titled “Notorious” which was released on Sony records.
Donald D second album “Let the Horns Blow” was released on Warner Brothers Records outside the US. It blew up all over Japan and Europe leading to major tours overseas.
He had just finished his video for the song “I’m Gonna Smoke Him” for the “Trespass” movie soundtrack. The future was looking bright but when it came time to release the album in the US, Donald got caught in the cross fire of the Ice-T “Cop Killer” drama.
When the smoke finally cleared Warner Brothers dropped Ice, Donald, and the rest of the Rhyme Syndicate artists. At that point he decided to break away from the Syndicate, and establish his own identity in the entertainment biz. He went on to act in the gospel play “Faith-n-Temptation” where he got very good reviews.
He would go on to do his first movie “Bang” with Polygram films.
With music being his first love he returned to the studio doing tracks with Martika, mambo hit maker Lou Bega, DJ Yutaka and many other Japanese artists.
Donald is also recording under the name Don Chico with rap partner Prophet and the name Donde.
In the summer of 2003 he released and EP entitled “Hip Hop – The Return of the Culture”. He does a track with Grandmaster Caz called “Right Now”.
Check out “The Groove”
All information submitted by Donald D himself and DJ Rawtho
Members
DJ Chuck Chillout
Donald D
Brother B
The B-boys hail from the Bronx, New York.
Their best known record is “Rock The House” which has been sampled on just about every early cut and paste jam.
“2 3 break” and “Cuttin Herbie” were two equally good scratch instrumentals displaying the turntable finesse of Chuck Chillout. “2 3 break” was one of the first records to cut up the well known “Rocket in the pocket” break by Cerrone. All of these tracks were released on Vintertainment records in 1983.
1985 saw their return with “Stick Up Kid” and “Girls” and “Girls Part 2″.
Chuck Chillout worked with Run DMC on the “King of Rock” LP primarily on the cut “Daryll & Joe”.
Chuck Chillout went on to host a NY rap show in 1984 on 98.7 KISS FM doing the friday and saturday nights mastermix dance parties. In the mid 80′s he putt out a solo record on Vintertainment called “Hip Hop On Wax Part 1″. This release was part of a three part series. Part 2 was by Kool DJ Red Alert and Part 3 was by DJ Born Supreme Allah (who also made “2,3 Break Pt 2″ in 1985). Chuck also put out an album in 1989 called “The Masters of Rhythm” with Kool Chip on Mercury Records which featured “Rhythm is the Master”, “No DJ Like Chuck” and “I’m Large”. he is also credited with mixing Public Enemy’s “Night of the Living Baseheads”. He was also known as DJ Steel of Steel Productions.
Donald D was a solo artist for a few years affiliated with Ice T’s west coast Rhyme Syndicate putting out two albums. The first one of which was called “Notorious” in 1990. He also did a cameo on Ice T’s album “Power”. He currently resides in LA where he is working on “Girls Part 3″ with Brother B.
In 1995 Chuck Chillout released a single called “2-3 Break ’95″ on Phat Wax with a vocal group he produced on the b side.
He also discovered the hip hop group Black Moon.
Chuck has a record pool in Newark (which was started in 1999) called Full Blast Record Pool and is working with a new upcoming artist named FT. NOX.
In addition, he has a show on XM radio Channel 66 Raw.
Check out “Rock the House”
Info submitted by Ed Roberts and dj rawtho and Peter Parker