Dutch old school hip hop

KAY L.C. ; the K assault 1983-2011

2011-11-04T01:19:00.000-07:00

Word of thanx goes out Ulmar for hittin' me up with all this information but especially for keepin' it true school for a lot of years in the hip hop game.

At the age of 4 ULMAR ROBERT a.k.a. KAY LC/KLC moved from Surinam to The Netherlands (1974). After living in Rotterdam and The Hague for 3 years bags got packed again and K and his fam moved back to Surinam. Already at a very early age music proved to be a great influence, being it listening to his parents' soul records, dancing or "Kawina drumming" (Surinam folk music). When 10 years old he felt attracted to a kind of punk movement that was happening in Surinam at that point. This cultural outburst was more a fashion statement then a political movement; peeps walked around with safetypins through their cheeks and buttons on their denim coats. Another trademark were the dancing contests on disco beats and James Brown grooves (Punks on disco...mmm...interesting!). In 1983 K witnessed a guy doing electric boogie on tv, getting ill to the electro beats of Herbie Hancock's "Rockit". This bugged him out. Knowing he was going to move from Surinam's capital Paramaribo back to the Netherlands again soon, K felt he was going to miss out on a whole other fresh movement. Within a few months he was again living in The Netherlands, more specificly the city of Domburg in the Zeeland provence.

Luckily the hip hop virus wasn't only spreading slowly in Surinam but as it turned out in The Netherlands aswell. K came in contact with 2 breakdancers through one of his cousins. Soon after, the breakdance crew "ELECTRONIC ROCKERS" (E.R.) was a fact. Through competing in various battles they met likeminded peeps and made new friends...the E.R. soon expanded to 10 members.
As seen so often in Dutch hip hop history, K had a go at basically every element of the hip hop culture; b-boying, graffiti, human beatbox, dj-ing and rapping. As it slowly turned out he had the gift of gab and specialized in rapping.

K showing off his graffiti exploits (1986)

Around 1986 b-boying had slowly faded from the Dutch hip hop scene. E.R. had seized to exist but a few members founded a new group called PLEASURE POSSE (P.P.). Next to K (who at that point in time took upon himself the stagename MC COOL C) the group consisted off DJ TYRONE and rapper JAREL. K learned a lot from JAREL who was an older guy with good control over the English language and who already had some splendid MC-skills. Also K memorized and learned English vocabulary and pronounciation by listening to rap tapes (The Furious Five !) when biking 10 miles from his hometown Domburg to his school in Middelburg. At DJ TYRONE's crib the first tracks got layed down with nothing more than 2 turntables, a taperecorder and a mic. DJ TYRONE turned out to be an excellent DJ who created some nice mixes aswell. Some shows got done, often backed up with dancer MARLON who was also known for his great Michael Jackson impersonations and robotic dancing at that time. Check the 1988 P.P. demotrack "On the mic with ease" here:

DOWNLOAD

DJ Tyrone & MC Cool C (PLEASURE POSSE 1988)

The P.P. had personal changes early 1989; DJ TYRONE quit and sold his turntables to JAREL who then became the crew's dj. New members were found in rapper AK7 and producer RICK DANGEROUS. As a new 4 man group the P.P. also started to use the name PRYME RHYME NETWORK (P.R.N.) K's skills improved rapidly. His big influences were Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Jungle Brothers, D.O.C., A.T.C.Q. and KRS-1. He stopped rapping in a LL Cool J kinda way and developed his own trademark smooth rapstyle. When taken notice to the fact that there was a USA rapper called COOL C, K changed his artistname to KLC/KAY LC (KOOL LYRICAL COMMANDER). There ofcourse were Dutch influences aswell; especially Moonrunners (check my Moonrunners blogtopic yo!!), Beatmasters and Extince. K recalls biking long distances just to catch shows by Moonrunners and 24K. This group 24K (again; check the blogtopic on 24K!) and D.A.M.N. also became a big inspiration because in 1989/90 these groups got airplay and even had albums out on wax in The Netherlands.

Ulmar soon connected with rappers, dj's and producers from Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Rotterdam being the city where he often went...buying records, visiting shows and eventually hookin' up with guys from the infamous BAD BOYS POSSE (see Moonrunners blogtopic). Further more his friend JEAN (a graffiti pioneer and one of the first Bad Boys members) introduced him to the Amsterdam hip hop scene. Eventually a 1989 P.R.N. demotape ended up in the hands of rapjournalist/radiohost KEES DE KONING who played the track "Full metall lyricz" on his rapshow Warjournal.

Kay performing "Full metall lyricx" live

In 1989 K moved from Domburg to Rotterdam. Here he intensified his contacts with producers and rappers like A.C. TUNE, ELVIS and KRIMO. As a result his involvement with P.R.N. gradually faded. Without him knowing one of his friends had sent a P.R.N. demotape to recordcompany DJAX. DJAX at that time was writing Dutch rap history with their releases of albums by 24K and Dope Posse. DJAX C.E.O. SASKIA SLEEGERS was immediately interested in signing K as the label's latest rap artist. First scheduled release was "Full metall lyricz" as a 12" but due to problems with the recording studio and an impatient K this record never saw the light of day. Instead a 9 track mini-album called "Hard 2 handle" was recorded in july 1991 at Le Roy Studio in Amsterdam. They ran into difficulties when trying to convert RICK DANGEROUS' Amiga beats in the studio. SASKIA SLEEGERS therefore brought in producer DYLAN HERMELYN (a.k.a. MASTER O.C.), who she knew from the techno musicscene. Some guest vocals on the album got layed down by AK7, JEAN, FRED BOMBER and ELVIS (of DOPE SYNDICATE fame...). Also DJ WAN-2 of 24K did some cuts. The album dropped and the track "Leavin" prooved to be a smart choice for a cd-single release. This unconventional track wasn't an uptempo brag & boast track but a slow loverap that got K some radio and even tv airplay. This specific track and his natural laid back rhymestyle set a new standard within Dutch rap. Also a selfconscious state of mind got displayed...no imitating U.S. rappers.

On that note; I recommand anyone to hunt down the 1992 "Leavin" cd-single because it also holds the amazing track "Beyond 2000" with DJ JEFF on cuts!

"Hard 2 handle" CD/LP advertisement"

"Leavin" performed live on Dutch television 1992

Having a made name within the Dutch rapping scene, Ulmar performed at many of the rap-events (B-boy Extravaganza, Flavor of the month, Party groove etc. etc.) that were held in these glory years of hip hop in the Netherlands. Amongst rappers EXTINCE, SKATE and RINGO, K suplied vocals for DJ KNOWHOW's demotape "Knowhow boostin' mc's". The track "Sunshine" can be downloaded here:

DOWNLOAD

Eventually house music pushed rap heavily to the background in years to come. It became increasingly harder for Dutch ("hardcore") rappers to get released and rap-events got organised less and less. Nevertheless Ulmar kept writing and recording tracks. Unfortunately DJAX Records made it clear they were only interested in releasing Dutch language rap at that point and also a short fling with the Dutch department of JIVE/ZOMBA Records turned out to be fruitless.

It took no less then 5 years before new music by K got released. Not taking in regard here some guestraps he did in 1994 for a clubrecord by EVELINE & THE GROOVE MOVEMENT. A new generation of rappers was given a chance to put stuff out through the labels BLUE FUNK, CMC and SOUL RELATION. All 3 labels were pretty much connected to BRAIN BUSBY and RENE PHILLIPS (a.k.a. rapper CMC or D-Rock). A compilation album from 1997 called "This is what you want" held a track by K (using the name KAY L) called "One flow" which today is looked upon as a classic. The track got produced by A.C. TUNE. Allthough a hammer of a track, K never has performed it live.

Studiowork with producer A.C. Tune 1996

1998; rapping in the Dutch language reached a new artistic peak, mainly due to the rapper EXTINCE. K had great respect for EXTINCE as he thought that this was the only Dutch language rapper that actually had flow and feel in his delivery, contrast to most other Dutch language rappers at that time. Around this time K wrote and recorded aprox. 10 tracks using the Dutch language. Beats were mainly provided by A.C. TUNE and RHYMEO ILL. The first track that got finished was "Ideale man", using a looped beat taken of the track "Ma dukes" by O.C.. Radiohost and raplabel owner KEES DE KONING liked the track and wanted to use it for a compilation album called "Alle 13 dope", an album with the intention to show Dutch language rapping had reached new hights. Due to fear of copyright hassle concerning the O.C. beat; the track "Ideale man" had to be re-recorded quickly with an alternate beat. K states the track lost a lot of funkyness due to this rushjob. Still; the track made it onto the album (Ulmar using the artistname KEEYEL).
Another track called "Stille aanbidder" was planned to get launched through KEES DE KONING but never surfaced.
Through the PARTYGROOVE parties held in Delft city, K got acqainted with rapper REDZONE (who at that time was working on a demo with KRIMO). They joined forces and recorded some tracks together (REDZONE using the artistname DON RAMON). The collaboration stopped when REDZONE moved to the U.S.A..

Cover of compilation album "Alle 13 dope" (1998) which

holds Ulmar's first release of a Dutch language track.

Amongst the 10 recorded tracks was a funny gimmick track called "Geef me dat ding" that K recorded with female Dutch rapper SCISSORS. The track was based on a Kaseko-style (Surinam traditional dancemusic) track from 1975 called "Blanke meid" by Surinam singer MIGHTY BOTAI. It was befriended rapper ELVIS (E-LIFE) who pushed K into releasing it. BRAIN BUSBY of CMC/SOUL RELATION also saw the commercial potential and in 2001 the track got released as a cd-single on EDEL Records. A video even got shot on the beach of Isla Margarita near Venezuela. The track eventually reached no. 35 of the Dutch "Top 40" music saleslist.

Performing "Geef me dat ding" (Megafestatie Utrecht 2001)

Thanks to the modest succes of "Geef me dat ding" two more tracks were planned to be released through EDEL Records, being "Pluk de dag" and "Stille aanbidder". But things turned sour when K was asked to change his lyrics on "Pluk de dag". Industry rule 4080.......(can you dig!).

In 2003, again K featured on a compilation album called "Rhymetime 2 - Zonder pardon" and again with Dutch language rapping. Two of his earlier tracks got picked that he had recorded with REDZONE a.k.a. DON RAMON being "Een, twee" and "Pluk de dag".

Untill 2008 a period followed that showed lack of belief and ambition when it comes to recording new tracks. It took a guy called VINCE who needed a rapper for his schoolproject (studio engineering). K was prepared to lay down some raps to one of the beats VINCE had made, but only in English. They re-recorded an old track from 1997 called "Ups and downs" with an alternate beat and shifted lyrics. The track turned out nice and Ulmar felt motivated again to record tracks in English for one final album to close his rap-career. At first mainly the beats by VINCE got used but the collaboration came to a hold when it became increasingly harder to get studio access.

At the verge of throwing the towell when it comes to involvement in the hip hop scene, K met a dj/producer from the city of Delft at a party at the "Hip hop huis" in Rotterdam. DCREAL67 was a hip hop veteran himself (with rapper ROXY D he formed the hardcore rapgroup BHS in the very early nineties), he made the kind of beats that made K decide to have another go at making tracks. Hard work in the studio paid out and in 2010 the 12" record "Upset with the threat" dropped through DCREAL's own recordlabel "Rhythmic Combat Records". On the lyrical tip K analyses the decay of Dutch society over a sinister beat ("A killer Black Moon-sample forms a hook that sticks in your brain" according to NYC's indie Hip Hop-connaisseur ED CATTO). On the record's b-side track "Love Bandit", K brags 'n' boasts a little about his sexual adventures over a chopped breakbeat by DCREAL67.

The record was well recieved within the Dutch hardcore hip hop crowd and even sold across the borders. It's still for sale and you can check it through this website:

Check this dope record HERE!

KAY LC & DCREAL67 ready to bumrush

upon wack hip hop in 2012!!!

At the moment recordings are still made in DCREAL67's "Combatlab" for what should turn out to be the crown on Ulmar's rapcareer: another full album showcasing this mc's full potential. Expected to hit the streets in 2011, am I the only one holding his breath?!?!

DJ KID SUNDANCE....the tale of the lone hip hop ranger

2011-07-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

Thanx 2 Raimond for talkin' endlessly after 2 Jupiler! ;-)

RAIMOND GESTHUIZEN's first acquintance with the hip hop phenomanon is a pretty common one....as seen with a lot of other Dutch old school guys. He remembers seeing a video of SUGARHILL GANG's "Rapper's delight" on tv that immediatly caught his eye. Later on he tried to keep up with the latest sounds by listening to famous Dutch black music radioshow "The Soulshow". Using the nickname SEARCHY E he was at first focussed on rapping but soon realized he could better try his luck at DJ'ing and making beats. In 1984 he bought the Roland 505 to start things off together with a pair of crappy ERRES turntables. At fleamarkets he hunted down vinyl to find good samples. In 1986 Raimond changed his monniker into DJ KID SUNDANCE (DJ KS) (after the character in the westernmovie "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid"). But instead of trying to be quick on the trigger obviously he wanted to be quick on the turntables. One year later DJ KS went shopping with his mother in Eindhoven cause he wanted to buy the Roland 626 to replace his 505. When passing "Bullit", a famous recordshop at that time, his mother noticed an add posted on the window. The add said "SCRATCHER WANTED" and DJ KS decided to respond. Through the add he came in contact with 3 rappers from Valkenswaard (small town near Eindhoven); ARC-S, COLD STEEL and C.R.P.J. DJ KS got accepted as the new DJ and the crew was called THE LIVING DREAM (T.L.D.) POSSE. C.R.P.J.'s uncle had a nice record collection that proved to be great for finding rare samples. Some demo tracks got layed down and live performances got done.

Check the T.L.D. demo track "We're running" (1988) here:

T.L.D. download

Home made concert poster T.L.D. Posse (1988)

T.L.D. POSSE was short lived. Another new crew in Eindhoven got formed called 24K and ARC-S switched groups. COLD STEEL and C.R.P.J. lacked motivation to continue without ARC-S so T.L.D. POSSE got terminated late 1988. DJ KS continued improving his DJ and beatmaking skills. Being without his own group he hang out a lot with befriended crews like DIVORZE POSSE and BUGAS POSSE. Occasionally he performed with them, for example when playing support-act for DE LA SOUL and RUN DMC in 1989.
In 1990 DJ KS felt the itch to start a new group again and placed an add in the Dutch hip hop magazine "Know Color" asking for a rapper to join forces:

A rapper from Leerdam responded to the add, his name was RAGOO. This guy had worked with ALL STAR FRESH and B.C. BOY in 1990, laying down some vocals on the KING BEE project album (including for the GREAT track "Zzignal of hope"). As RAGOO gained some instant fame through this project, DJ KS figured this would be a good time to work with this rapper. The crew "TREETOP UNIT" was a fact after another rapper was found called TEEBEE MC. A couple of demotracks got produced and the crew did a few live shows.

Check TREETOP UNIT's 1991 demotracks "It all fades away" and "What you got to say" here:

TREETOP UNIT download

Unfortunately RAGOO quickly changed focus from rap to the fastly emerging house scene. TREETOP UNIT soon dissolved and RAGOO built a DJ career using artistnames like OOGAR and DJ RAFADELIC, working with RONNY HAMMOND amongst others.
DJ KS now took it easy for a few years, playing music as a DJ in bars and clubs. His musical taste expanded to soul, funk, jazz etc and he became one of the resident DJ's of famous Eindhoven concerthall "De Effenaar". Through hip hop he got interested in the foundations of popular music and started digging for any style that contains 'dope sounds'. With these sounds he performed as a DJ, spinning lots of different styles to move the crowd. DJ KS's broadened musical taste eventually saw him become a group member of Eindhoven fusion-style band ZOVA NEMBLA where he tries to use his turntables as an instrument. Their 1995 demo was announced "demo of the month" in music magazine "Music Maker".

Hip hop still had been calling out to DJ KS and finally between 1999 and 2000, by the turn off the millenium, the call got answered. DJ KS started collaborating with talented Dutch MC RESCUE and THE PROGRAMMING MAN. RESCUE already made a name for himself in Dutch hip hop, having collabarated with DJ KNOWHOW, 2 OUTTA MILLIONS and THE PROOV. The 3 guys formed the new group BOOMOPERATORS. They even launched there own label "Fair Deal Records" as their own independent platform. Their first release was a stunningly fresh slice of vinyl called “The Goodyear e.p.” in 2001. German label "Groove Attack" acted succesfully as their distributor in Europe.

Cover "The Goodyear e.p." (2001)

BOOMOPERATORS also worked on an exclusive project with "Clone Records" from The Hague. The result was the electrifying song "Focus". The track appears only on the cd/lp "Men with boxes" (Clone Records, 2001). Grab the "Focus" track here:

"Focus" track download

One year later DJ KS's "Fair Deal Records" launched another vinyl record, being the 12" "Pop the clutch".....a collabo between Dutch DJ MASS, MC RESCUE and New York MC ROYAL FLUSH.
In 2003 RESCUE and DJ KS produced the track “Alive” for the DJ FLIP compilation album in Belgium and reinstated their collaboration as BOOMOPERATORS.

The 3rd release on "Fair Deal Records" would turn out to be an extra special one for DJ KS. After meeting USA rapper DUDLEY PERKINS a.k.a. DECLAIME in Holland, DJ KS rose to the occasion and recorded the tracks "Fault" and "Mother Earth" with him. The tracks got released in 2002 on the 12" record "In G major". This collabo with DUDLEY PERKINS was nominated for the "All Winners 2002" chart of BBC's "Worldwide" (host Gilles Peterson) and was a favorite with many DJs around the world. Check the track "Fault" :

From 2001 on, DJ KS has also been producing and DJ-ing for X PLASTAZ, a rap group from Tanzania (Africa) whose line-up includes three full grown emcees, two rapping kids and a traditional Maasai singer. He produced the track "Msimu kwa msimu", a danceable Indian influenced tune which was featured on the 2004 compilation cd "Rough Guide to African Rap" and described by Billboard (USA) as one of the standout tracks on that compilation. It got played by John Peel (infamous U.K. radio DJ) twice...

X PLASTAZ

DUDLEY PERKINS and DJ KS joined forces once more in 2006. The follow-up to "In G Major" was released under the title "The Godfather" (4th release on "Fair Deal Records"). According to the same Gilles Peterson (see above) this was a "brilliant ep"! With a few instrumental tracks and five rap tracks by the USA rapper, this 30 minutes e.p. is quite a trip.

In 2003 DJ KS saw the great chance to hook up with old school New York rap legend BUSY BEE. The rapper visited Eindhoven to do a brief showcase at a hip hop exposition. It took some time but finally the track "Hip Hop Icon" got released in 2007 on "Fair Deal Records". It got lots of press and it ended up in playlists from all over the world. Zulu Nation fathers Africa Islam and Donald-D gave it their official stamp of aproval.

Cover "Hip hop icon" 12" (2007)

In 2008 a 7" single for Japanese label "Jazzy Sport Morioka" got released. DJ KS had put nine snippets in the SP1200, added the lovely voice of URITA, some extra keyboard action by RONES and flavour it had! "Crazy Lady" took off like a rocket with even BOBBITO from New York spinnin' it!

At this point in time DJ KS is finalizing another BOOMOPERATORS release. It's going to be a full length album that'll make heads bob all over the place again. Here's a little taster accompanied with a great video:

DJ KID SUNDANCE....commin' atcha fresh for 2011!

BIG FUN IN THE BIG TOWN......a Dutch peek at early hip hop in NY

2011-07-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening.....november 30th 1986.....VPRO television.....the hearts of Dutch hip hop fans skipped a beat.

Early 1986 BRAM VAN SPLUNTEREN, the host of Dutch radioshow DE WILDE WERELD ("The Wild World") got the green light to produce a series of small documanteries for VPRO television. Each of the planned 4 episodes would cover some kind of underground music of that era. Together with FONS DELLEN (co-host of VAN SPLUNTEREN's radioshow), MARCEL VANTHILT (Belgian tv-host), cameraman DEEN VAN DE ZAKEN en soundtechnician BART VAN DE DUNGEN the plan got layed down to base the first episode on IGGY POP and THE STOOGES. They travelled to New York to interview them but IGGY POP proved himself hard to catch for the Dutch tv-team.

Being in New York, VAN SPLUNTEREN (who was already a fan of rap music) decided to make a documantery on the fast emerging hip hop scene. The result was amazing footage and interviews.

f.l.t.r. : Bert van de Dungen, DMC, Bram van Splunteren,

Marcel Vanthilt, Deen van de Zaken.

The team managed to create a broad view within the vibrant NY hip hop scene with mini-interviews, live footage and impression shots of a decayed NY, sick with the crack epidemy. The documentary had to have a running time of about 40 minutes so it was edited in a dynamic way to crunch in a lot of artists. Showcased are DOUG E FRESH, SCHOOLLY D, DMC, RUSSEL SIMONS, GRANDMASTER FLASH, LL COOL J and ROXANNE SHANTE amongst others. Classic highlights are without a doubt the visit to a very young LL COOL J who was still living at his grandmother and grandfather, DOUG E FRESH doing some human beatbox in the street and GRANDMASTER FLASH displaying his mixing skills in his own house. Also RUSSEL SIMONS got interviewed in his DEF JAM office, not suprisingly he wasn't too apreciative about the big Dutch rap hit "Holiday rap".

Imagine the impact of the tv broadcast in Holland. A small rap scene fed of very minimal hip hop-related appearances in the media but than....BOOOMMMM....this amazing documentary overwhelmed the fans of the genre and without a doubt had a big motivational effect of early Dutch rap artists. Till this very day the film is in high demand with old school freaks all over the world.

Cover of the VPRO tv-guide in the week the doc

got broadcasted

If you haven't seen this dope tv-item you should definately have a go at it. It's on Youtube so it shouldn't be that hard. Here's a little taster showing DMC who's as happy as a child cause he bought himself a new Cadillac:

DJ ALIEN; running for the Moon and beyond...

2011-06-13T03:03:00.000-07:00

Thanx to DJ ALIEN for knowledge and DCREAL67 fror driving my Brabant ass through Rotterdam.

Yes yes, I hear y'all thinking outloud! "Yo Chris, your blog is dope but what's up with topics on Holland's most important city in hip hop??!!". Damn skippy....I reckonized the need and travelled to Rotterdam to hook up with DJ ALIEN....a true Dutch hip hop pioneer without a fucking doubt!

Matthieu Stokman (DJ ALIEN) first came in touch with hip hop culture through a copy of Rolling Stone magazine his mother bought for him around 1980/81. At that point he was already writing punk-style graffiti. In 1983 ALIEN was breaking, dj-ing and writing hip hop-style graffiti, all to a very high level. With his friend Ritchie (who would built a carreer in hip hop also.....rapper DUVEL) he entered breakdance battles in youthcentres like Kwakoe, not without success.As a graffiti artist he became one of Holland's finest which allowed him to earn some cash by doing commercial paintjobs all over Rotterdam.

Graffiti by ALIEN, 1986, Rotterdam "Oude Noorden"

His breakdancing skills earned him a spot in the legendary Rotterdam breakdance crew DYNAMIC ROCKERS....a crew with topnotch breakers like EDSON THEMEN and PAOLO NUNES that became vice-worldchampion in 1984.

DYNAMIC BREAKERS (1985), ALIEN on the far right up.

Together with maybe DJ DCS and DJ SAVE, ALIEN was definately one of the earliest hip hop dj's in Rotterdam and therefore Holland. In 1983 he had his first performance together with JAZZ DMX, in Rotterdam club Arena (later: Nighttown). Just cutting up breaks over a drumcomputer and JAZZ DMX rapping....the essence. JAZZ DMX was already in a rapgroup with KAY BLACK by the time ALIEN met them. The group was called THE MOONRUNNERS (MR), after a gang in the movie "The Warriors". ALIEN joined MR and soon after another rapper/beatboxer joined; BLONNIE B. The quartet manifested themselves within Dutch hip hop history as one of the earliest groups.

DJ ALIEN, seen here with graffiti writer JEAN

KAY BLACK and BLONNIE B

In 1986 MR went through an important change. ROBIN GROENEVELD, an already wellknown promoter of musicevents, had an annual musicfestival going on in club Lantaren in Rotterdam. The event called "Nine to five festival" brought together all important Rotterdam musicians for shows and jamsessions. MR participated in 1986...after their show they joined a spontanious jamsession with musicians like TJEERD VAN ZANEN (gitar) and HANS EIKENAAR (drums). This must have been one of the earliest showcases featuring rapmusic with live musicians IN THE WORLD! The crowd went crazy and ROBIN GROENEVELD immediatly saw the potential of a collaberation. MR became a collective with a dj, rappers (TROUBLE S joined) and live musicians. The innovative hip hop band got booked for shows all over Holland, to great success. Matter of fact; a session done at De Vrije Vloer in Utrecht is said to be the direct inspiration and motivation for the establishment of another hip hop band.....URBAN DANCE SQUAD (see my blogtopic on SPYTE!!). This emphasizes how relevant MR are in Dutch music history....

ALIEN occasionally backed up rapper DEAMS, here seen at the

infamous hip hop showcase in the Amsterdam Vondelpark (1986)

Unfortunately it wasn't long before ALIEN found out that manager GROENEVELD was paying the "hip hop guys" much less then the musicians. This forced a break up within' MR; ALIEN and JAZZ DMX left the group early 1987, KAY BLACK and BLONNIE B stayed. DJ AUTOMATIC replaced ALIEN as the MR's dj. The group went on to do some live performances on Dutch radio (tracks like "Sarah" and "Funky like a train" therefore found their way on tapes from fans all around the country) and they did a few big shows all over Holland, like the Noorderslag open air event in Groningen (1988). The track "I feel fine" was used for a 1988 compilation album showcasing the upcomming Dutch rapgroups of that time....it would unfortunately remain as the MR's only ever real recording.

THE MOONRUNNERS (1987); second line up with DJ AUTOMATIC (far left)

ALIEN had been in graffiti crew BAD BOYS for some time together with writers like JEAN, TIME, SONIC, DISZ and ATES. The crew even inspired cartoonartist ROBERT VAN DER KROFT to dedicate an entire comicbook (1987) of his succesfull "Sjors & Sjimmie" series to graffiti and the BAD BOYS in particular.

After a visit to England, ALIEN and JAZZ DMX had picked up on the word "posse". As ALIEN was already in the BAD BOYS graffiti crew, he decided to form a bigger group under the name BAD BOYS POSSE (BBP). In the the beginning it was just ALIEN and JAZZ DMX performing again as duo, and guys like JEAN painting but soon BBP would grow into the biggest hip hop movement Holland would ever see. Rotterdam proved to have very furtile grounds for the upcomming hip hop youthculture. Kids of immigrants, especially from Surinam and Cabo Verde, were atracted to the fresh new movement and found their own way of expressing themselves. BBP eventually had strength in numbers up to 1000 members in Rotterdam alone. Under the BBP umbrella a lot of rapgroups got formed...most notable being DCO, IN FULL EFFECT, SUPERSONIC CREW, SPACE CONNECTIONS and DOPE SYNDICATE. The sound was generally hardcore...no gimmicks. The groups performed all over Holland....scaring the hell out of promoters and clubowners when arriving with several touringcars full of b-boys at small venues. There was a definite downside to the whole BBP story....it was accompenied with a lot of violence. Especially when the posse became so big that the core members lost total controll over it. For DJ ALIEN this was the mean reason to leave BBP in 1990.

Next to his work with JAZZ DMX, ALIEN found himself active (1988) within a new group; TIME DRILLERS (TD). TD evolved from a late '80's dancecrew called the 5TH AVENUE DANCERS. Rapper TOMBOX formed the nucleus of the group. The hardcore, noise-heavy, production of the group in combination with intense shows, made TD into one of the leading groups at the time. The track "Going up the hill" reached anthem status within the rapscene.

TIME DRILLERS (1990)

f.l.t.r.: SMOOTH VEE-NITRO-DJ ALIEN-TOMBOX

To get themselves noticed by recordcompanies TD agree on laying down some rap vocals on a PETER SLAGHUIS/PAUL ELSTAK hiphouse production. Belgian recordlabel ARS releases the track "Somebody in the house say yeah" in 1990. When SLAGHUIS dies (r.i.p.) TD produces their own tracks but the recordcompany doesn't believe there's any commercial potential and drops the group. Nevertheless TD keeps performing untill 1992 before breaking up.

ALIEN hooks up with old breakdance friend RED EYE (later: DUVEL) for musical projects like CLAN OF 26TH and CLAN STRONGHOLD. Slowly but surely ALIEN's music strays away from conventional hip hop and takes an experimental path. In 1997 he releases his first real solo project on vinyl through the FUSEBOX label. This album "Airborne" is a compilation of instrumental tracks that stylewise are hard to categorize. Check the album here:

DJ Alien - Airborne album DOWNLOAD

Today ALIEN operates still out of Rotterdam, through his creative agency CITYCRUSHER. Latest project being a crazy hip hop cooking show called "Hip hop ala carte". The first show has rap pioneer DEF RHYMZ as a guest....check it:

SPYTE; been there....done that....bought the "Hip hop veteran" t-shirt !

2011-05-08T04:51:00.000-07:00

Props go to SPYTE for letting me pick his brain!

Siegfried Hof witnessed the birth of hip hop in The Netherlands from close by and played his own little part in it. He can't exactly recall what drew him towards rapmusic but tracks like BAMBAATTAA's "Planet rock" and "This is the future" by FATBACK made a big impact on him. Around 1984 he climbed the stage of youthcentre "De Koog" in Noord-Scharwoude (small city located close to Alkmaar and Heerhugowaard). The speakers were blastin' an instrumental disco track and Siegfried started rappin' to it, using the lyrics from "Rapper's delight". Around this same period in time The Netherlands got conterminated with the electric boogie virus. Siegfried established his own breaking crew called WESTSIDE STREETGANG together with some friends. Performances were done in all kinds of shady discotheques from Den Helder to Zaandam. Later on they changed their name to THE ZODIACS.

SPYTE rappin' within a electric boogie performance

which was maybe at first in those days

THE ZODIACS gettin' down...

The level of dancing within the crew increased when guys like FRANKY RESIDA (a wellknown electric boogie dancer, as was brother ROY RESIDA) joined. Siegfried decided to focus more on rappin' and started to use the monniker MASTER RAP SOLO, only to be changed pretty soon after into SPYTE. An early group got formed called DJ TALL & THE V.E.E.. This was an all out hip hop package with DJ FIX but also dancers from ALEX & THE CITY CREW. Two performances later and no recordings this outfit was already over with.

On march 1st 1986 SPYTE performed at the Streetsounds hip hop festival in Rotterdam. This was probably the first hip hop orientated festival in The Netherlands ever and SPYTE recalls it to be very underground. The venue got bombed all over with graffiti. The level of rapmusic at this time was still very immature....most artists basically copied straight of the USA acts. There weren't any real wellknown artists yet....and a caucasian guy like SPYTE was an odd lookin' appearance within the scene. When getting on stage the (mostly black) crowd had their obvious doubts but SPYTE's performance, together with DJ FIX, earned him respect.

Flyer of the Streetsounds hip hop festival in Rotterdam

One of SPYTE's first solo shows was a performace at discotheque "De heer van Jericho" in Heerhugowaard in 1987. He rapped his own rhymes over WHODINI instrumentals (amongs these "5 minutes of funk"). His skills got noticed by some other rappers present there...being MC SHOWCASE and RUDEBOY. They stepped up to SPYTE and plans to collaborate got layed down. Soon the group BORN FREE MC was a fact (a name made up by RUDEBOY). They performed together and joined rap contests.
In all this time SPYTE was also the house dj of youthcentre "De Koog" in Heerhugowaard where he managed to get performances there by JUST ICE, KOOL MOE DEE and ORIGINAL CONCEPT. He often supported these acts by hyping up the crowd before the main shows.

1987 BORN FREE MC line up

MC SHOWCASE - SPYTE - RUDEBOY

Few know that SPYTE was also involved in what later would turn out to be the notorious URBAN DANCE SQUAD. DJ DNA was an old acquintance from the early rap days and joined the group. He then invited the other guys from BORN FREE MC to participate in jam sessions held at "De vrije vloer" in Utrecht. Trademark of these sessions were heavy live played percussion drumbeats (go-go style), horns, synthesizers and freestyle rappin'. SPYTE even performed with URBAN DANCE SQUAD before a huge crowd at the Bevrijdingspop festival in Haarlem that year.

MC SHOWCASE - SPYTE

At the previous named Rotterdam Streetsounds festival, SPYTE got in touch with MICHIEL VAN DER KUY, partner of ERIK VAN VLIET who owned recordshop and recordlabel "Hotsounds" (see my previous post on Hotsounds records!). The recordlabel was specialized in synthesizer disco but wanted to expand on the upcomming hip hop market. BORN FREE MC was givin' the opportunity to record a track for a 12" release. This track became "Struggle for jive" and got released in 1987. Unfortunately MICHIEL VAN DER KUY had his own thoughts on how the track should sound like, and released the record with a selfmixed, MANTRONIX-like, version on the a-side that had a completely different beat than the track BORN FREE MC had recorded. The original version, with samples of ART OF NOISE and TROUBLE FUNK ended up on the b-side as the "power mix". The group had the record presented at the finales of a big rap contest they had joined. This contest was held in the famous Escape venue and shown on tv ("Popformule" hosted by LINDA DE MOL!). BORN FREE MC became runner up because a Rotterdam group TC BOYZ took 1st prize. It wasn't untill the next day the group found out about the reproduction of their track on the record.
SPYTE wasn't too bothered about it as he was still extatic about the fact they actually had a record out. RUDEBOY and DJ DNA on the other hand were dissapointed and left BORN FREE MC to focus entirely on their involvement with the URBAN DANCE SQUAD. The squad's 1989 album would held a new, uncompromised version of RUDEBOY's baby "Struggle for jive".

Download the full 12" of Born Free MC - Struggle for jive (1987)

Newspaperclipping on BORN FREE MC winning the "Best rap act '87"

preliminaries in Zaandam and reaching the final.

BORN FREE MC went on performing after RUDEBOY and DJ DNA had left. DJ BLACK BASS and DJ AUTOMATIC TEE (see the FUNKY TRIBE topic!) joined and layed down the beats and scratches for the group. In 1988 they played at the infamous Noorderslag festival in Groningen and the track "Olympic rap jam" got released as 7" and cd-single on Kwest records. The song got recorded because DJ FIX was asked to produce a commercial raptrack to bring attention to the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoel. The track didn't get picked up by the hip hop crowd and soon slid away in obscurity. BORN FREE MC dissolved soon after...

Cover of BORN FREE MC's cd-single "Olympic rap jam" (1988)

In 1993 SPYTE got pulled back in the rappin' game after a creative pause. ALL STAR FRESH, a pioneer dj and one of the most outstanding rapartists in The Netherlands at that time, called him up. SPYTE was asked to replace rapper PHRYME in ALL STAR FRESH's looseknit rapgroup KING BEE. After some successes in the dancemusic department, KING BEE wanted to take a turn with more hardcore rap styled tracks. SPYTE and rapper PAROLE were picked to make this happen. From 1993 untill 1998 the recorded various KING BEE singles. Amongst these tracks there's even a hard ass diss track aimed against rapper ICE DOG of TUFF CREW called "Who the hell are you". Grab this track and another 1993 track called "Here we go again here:

Download 2 KING BEE feat. SPYTE tracks

Cover of KING BEE - Here we go again (1993)

Cover of KING BEE - Get ready (1993)

BC BOY - ALL STAR FRESH - PAROLE - SPYTE

In 1998 KING BEE was pretty much over with. SPYTE after that collaborated on the track "Missing you" by Dutch dance act THE COURSE (project of superstar turntablist VINCENT "HYPED" HENDRIKS). Check out this pop orientated track right here:

Download THE COURSE - Missing you (1998)

Life then caught up with hip hop veteran SPYTE, family and a busy job took their toll and he put his mic down to rest. In retrospect I can say a true pioneer of the early days of rap in The Netherlands who proved that colour of skin and origin are non-topics in hip hop.

DIVORZE; all hip hop elements on lock!

2011-04-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

A big thanx goes out to SPEEDONE, CHARM and SCT for info and photos!

1980....10 year old Chris catches his first raptrack on radio airwaves, the track being "Rapper's delight" by the SUGARHILL GANG. Totally blown away by the specific new sound of this music, Chris gets fascinated or even even obsessed with it. His surroundings being a medium sized town in the south of Holland (Helmond), there was totally no information around regarding this new phenomanon called hip hop. Therefore in the beginning he refers to this new sound as "talking music". Still...acquiring information piece by piece over the following years, Chris' love for hip hop grows and grows and he starts picking up graffiti and breakdancing (1983/84).

No this isn't OZONE at Venice Beach,

It's Chris rockin' it in Helmond City.

At secondary school Chris finds likeminded guys and together with MC LEE and DEF Y his first group BEATBUSTERS was a fact. Chris takes on the name KING CREWL as rapper and graffiti writer. MC LEE is a guy with an extensive rap collection (especially for that time) which turns out as a big source of inspiration. Meeting other b-boys also adds up to more information and therefore motivation. The first performances at schoolparties as hip hop collective became reality. JAY DEE also joined the group at one point.

1986 flyer for a BEATBUSTERS

performance at a schoolparty

From his various encounters with other writers within the graffitiscene he knew SCT (Da Spray Can Thug) and DJ CHARM (at that time known as FOX) from graffiticrew G.A.S. (Graffiti Art Suppliers). Together with especially SCT, Chris (who now changed his name to SPEEDONE) started to expand his graffiti skills. Also, rap lyrics got written, mostly on their favourite subject graffiti. As the SONIC DIVORZE POSSE they join the "WAPS rap- en humanbeatboxbattles" held in Amstelveen and Amsterdam but they don't get passed the elimination rounds. At these battles another group called SONIC was present so the decision got made to shorten the name to DIVORZE POSSE. The name DIVORZE was based on the fact that the group was kinda looseknit with members coming and going.
In 1987 Chris obtains his first drumcomputer as a graduationpresent from his parents, which was put to good use immediately.

1987 "Orgasm" piece done by SPEEDONE and SCT

JAY DEE at one point left the group. Together with DJ CHARM, SCT and SPEEDONE participate in the 1988 "Cheers open rap battle" (Cheers being the name of the discotheque venue) where they became the runners up. Other participating crews were BEAT BOYS, DONNA ME, FUCK POSSE, DEVASTATING 2 and X-TREME TEAM.
DJ CHARM would slowly become the steady DJ and producer for DIVORZE. Beats got layed down with the Roland TR-808, TR-909, a Boss DR-220A Dr. Rhythm and a samplepedall with 2,4 sec. sampletime.
CHARM's and SPEED's production skills took a flight after DIVORZE became friends with rapgroup BUGAS that consisted of rapper GHANDI and G.V. the DJ/beatcreator. G.V. was already skilled with sampling with the Amiga 500 and shared this knowledge with the DIVORZE members. BUGAS and DIVORZE started collabarating and doing shows together all over the country.

1988 DIVORZE POSSE shot

f.l.t.r. back: SOKE, EAS, DJ CHARM, SCT

f.l.t.r. front: D-MANAGER, SPEEDONE, MC LEE

SCT takes a bigger interest in graffiti and, alltough staying involved with DIVORZE as a dancer, stops rapping for the group. Other graffitiwriters SOKE and EAS join the crew as rapper and dancer. The posse broadens even further as D-MANAGER and ROLLS ROY also join (dancers). D-MANAGER is responsible for managing the group (hence the name I guess...) untill SOKE's cousin PADDY-T takes over this role. PADDY-T plays bass gitar, a musical element that would soon be integrated in the live shows of the group.

SOKE piece (1990)

PADDY-T's succesfull managing gets the group shows all over Holland, Germany and Belgium, but also the chance to record the long overdue album. Recordcompany "Runn" was specialized in recording reggae music, not rap. The recordingproces of the DIVORZE album turned out slow and full of setbacks. It seemed impossible to syncronize the drumcomputers with the other musiclayers. In the end all tracks were recorded without the drumcomputer sounds, only using the 8 bit Amiga 500 samples. This, the fact that nobody was really experienced and the late night mixing (cheap studiotime) made that the album "Remove the chains" did not live up to expectations.

cd cover "Remove the chains" album (1990)

Nevertheless the dissapointing sound of the cd (Runn records didn't want to release it as vinyl), DIVORZE still earned a lot of publicity and credibilty (not too many Dutch rapgroups had albums out at this time). They did opening shows for RUN DMC, DE LA SOUL and PARIS (word has it the DIVORZE show was much more appreciated by the crowd than the PARIS performance). The group was also asked to support PUBLIC ENEMY's "Fear of a black planet"-tour through Europe. Unfortunately a few members needed to graduate from school at that point in time and the tough decision was made not to go on tour.
The group keeps playing in Holland, Germany and Belgium untill the demand for rapshows slowly died as a result of the upcomming house music. Eventually the group split up.

Footage of a 1991 DIVORZE show, done at the

albumpresentation of DTF's "From a smooth point of view".

SPEEDONE keeps on recording occasional demotracks over the years, many with his friends from the also dissolved D.O.P.E. POSSE. He features as guest on albums by FAMILY JEWELS, ARE MC and two compilation cd's on the 4XM label.
After witnessing an event called "Return of the b-boy" in Eindhoven 1998, SPEED was shocked by the lack of "real" oldschool b-boy music. Together with old BEATBUSTERS member DEF Y he organizes an event called "Return of the real b-boyz". Especially for this show, DIVORZE reunites for a performance with beats and lyrics made on the theme of oldschool b-boy music. Check one of these reunion tracks with SPEEDONE, SCT and even DJ CHARM on the mic here:

Divorze reunion track "Back to basics"

Latest word on DIVORZE is that DJ CHARM is scratchin' that hip hop itch again and is droppin' new beats by the second. SPEEDONE and ARE MC of former D.O.P.E. POSSE are laying down some rhymes......be on the lookout for......FIRST CLASS !

Get 3 SPEEDONE collaboration tracks right here:

SPEEDONE collabo tracks

DIVORZE 1988....good times..

D.O.P.E. POSSE; just funkin' around...1989-2011

2011-04-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

This article is overseen by ARE MC....thanx homeboy....keep funkin' around!

ARE MC started breakin' as MR. RECKLESS (no doubt inspired by the ICE-T/The Glove classic) around 1984 on the cardboards from the Aldi Supermarket around the corner in his hometown UDEN, together with best friend DTF who lived on the same street. Soon they started a breakdance group called THE HEADLINES, together with DTF's little brother DOKUS and a guy called MR. SCORPIO. In 1986 ARE MC (at that time called MC ROX) picked up the mic and DTF started off as a DJ. The name DTF was born (DJ TROUBLE FOX). The duo called themselves ROX FOX and started writing songs and throwing parties in the garage. As they got better and started to do the occasional performance, they changed their name to THE RHYME FEDERATION. Their first performance was RUN DMC imitation on their school, just rap and human beatbox.

Uden being the small town it is, THE RHYME FEDERATION soon met another beginning rap crew through JUICE, a mutual friend.The other crew was called TERMINATING POETS, a duo made up of DJ OH JAY and rapper KIDCAINE. Inevitable as it seemed, the crews became friends, exchanged tapes of their music and decided to fuse into one big posse to bumrush the scene (1989). OH JAY became the regular DJ as his skills exceeded those of DTF who decided to go on MC'ing. As both crews also brought all their friends in the mix, the group expanded with guys like DC-1, TRUST, SON LYTE, ALL JAZZ, KID V and JUICE who all played parts within the posse, being dancers, lyric writers, protection etc.The D.O.P.E. (Dancing On Pure Energy) POSSE (DP) was born.

The first tracks soon got layed down; OH JAY prooved to be big on heavy uptempo funky productions and ARE MC and KIDCAINE became the main rappers with D.T.F. doing occasional rapping as well. After a brief live showcase on the radio (station "Kersenland", today "Skyline") for the "Deli Soul" show hosted by DC LAMA, DP soon played support act for D.A.M.N. and 24K.

D.O.P.E. Posse 1990

From left to right: SON LYTE, TRUST, ARE MC, KIDCAINE, ALL JAZZ, D.T.F., OH JAY

Doing lots of local performances, the crew tested out their tracks on the audience and perfecting them along the way. 24K's recordcompany DJAX (see 24K topic!) got their hands on a rough demo recording of DP tracks. Recordlabel owner SASKIA SLEGERS saw the potential but figured the group wasn't quite there yet and still needed some practice and experience. Months later the crew was offered the opportunity to record an album and on march 15th 1991 the finished album called "Mind over matter" was officially presented at "De Nieuwe Pul" concerthall in their hometown.

Mind over matter album 1991

The group differentiated themselves from a lot of other rapcrews in The Netherlands at that time with a very energetic stage show. Performing with 6 or 7 guys on stage at once wasn't an exception and in addition the members all wore the trademark DP jackets and baseballcaps. Unfortunately the DP image with the jackets and the "posse" part in their name, often got misinterpretated as the group being a tuff streetgang or something, while actually they were just guys loving good music. In the slipstream of acts like 24K and D.A.M.N. they headed a strong generation of rapgroups from the South of Holland with acts like BUGAS, DIVORZE, TRAUMATIC, NORTHSIDE STYLAZ, AK47 etc.
The posse's repertoire was mostly straight up funky b-boy tracks, one of the exceptions being the message track "Black and white united":

Allthough having performed at the DMC-convention in Amsterdam that year and also at the notorious Amsterdam hip hop club Aknathon, the group was heavily ignored in the west of Holland. One of the reasons being a very negative albumreview by rapjournalist KEES DE KONING in the Dutch musicmagazine "Oor". This article prooved to be very disrespectfull to people engaged in hip hop in the south of The Netherlands. Funny enough it eventually took a rapper from that same Brabant provence to bring real success to KEES DE KONING in 1995 but that's another story all together. It is my personal view on things that a whole lot of jealousy might have been involverd here from the west's rapscene. Fact was that apart from URBAN DANCE SQUAD, TONY SCOTT and MC MIKER G, all full length rap albums at that point were released by acts from the south (24K, D.A.M.N., DIVORZE POSSE, DP).

The dreaded review in "OOR" musicmagazine.

Pretty fuc*&n' lame imo!

DJAX c.e.o. SAKIA SLEEGERS was impressed by the DTF solo joint on the album called "DTF the manipulator". She liked his flow and the fact he mastered the English language. She eventually offered him the chance to record a solo album, also because ENB of 24K advised SLEEGERS to do so. Together with OH JAY, DTF jumped to the occasion and later on in 1991 the album "From a smooth point of view" saw the light of day. The album sounded different as the DP album...more downtempo/mellow on the production and the delivery of DTF was more laidback then ARE MC's or KIDCAINE's. There was no annomosity within DP due to this release; being all good friends everybody granted DTF this opportunity.

From a smooth point of view album 1991

Allthough still doing shows all over Holland (unfortunately "the west was never won"), Germany, Austria and Belgium, some groupmembers lost focus on the group after a while and the DP slowly left the spotlights. The sound of rap was changing in The Netherlands, also because of the influence of the prominent "Villa65" radioshow. The typical DP show with dacncers on stage etc. quickly became out of fashion and slowly but surely they simply didn't get booked for shows anymore.

Download the unreleased track "Runaway" (1992) here!!

Nevertheless...4 years later an album dropped by a group called FAMILY JEWELS. A 16 track cd with amongst them some killer tracks like "Everywhere I go", "Forever hip hop", "I feel fine" and "Givin' ya more". It became obvious this group actually consisted out of the nucleus of DP; ARE MC, DTF, KIDCAINE and OH JAY. The track "To the party people (in the Netherlands)" got released as a single.The name D.O.P.E. POSSE was dropped ' cause it sounded too dated in the rapscene of that day.
The album saw the first appearance by a very talented musician and singer called U-GENE. Old differences got put aside and a radio showcase was givin' for the "Villa65" show. Download some audio of that showcase right here:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/886241790e070364/

The FAMILY JEWELS album, allthough being great, didn't make too many waves in a country that was really taken by rapping in the Dutch language by that time. Dedicated to the music they loved, the various DP members still recorded tracks in the years to come...many at the so called "Dope Lab", a homestudio at the house of DTF (later on at OH JAY's crib). Collabo's got done with artists like L-ROCK (of D.A.M.N.), U-GENE, I.N.T., DJ RACHI, DEADLY MANIACS etc. Here the foundation got layed for the succesfull UJ project.....a progressive mix of rap, funk and soul music done by OH JAY and U-GENE. Shows at the "North Sea Jazz Festival", "Lowlands", "Crossing Border festival", "Drum Rhythm festival" and at the radioshow "Twee meter Sessies" were a fact. In 1999 a 5 track mini-album was released, simply called UJ, which also featured rapping by DTF and ARE MC.

DTF, OH JAY, MISS MO (singer), ARE MC

U-GENE, ? (bassplayer)

In between things with UJ, OH JAY managed to pull off other projects in 1996/97. For these collaborations he recorded tracks with Eindhoven rap legend L-ROCK a.k.a. POCKETS. The 1997 album was titled PHAT POCKETS but like the FAMILY JEWELS effort, the album soon slipped into obscurity. A damn shame if I may say so cause the album was plain dope in my opinion. Another "under the radar" project with POCKETS were the THE BOOTY SNATCHERS releases in 1996/97, music that's kinda hard to label...(electronical jazz trip hip hop?).

OH JAY will get himself even more established in the years to come, to finally be looked upon as one of the most gifted producers in The Netherlands. He gains his biggest commercial successes with productions for rapper BRAINPOWER from 2001 untill this day. Other big projects over the last decade were LIQUID SPIRITS, FRONTLINE and RAP CLASSICAL.

OH JAY

Next to OH JAY it's pretty much only ARE MC who still gets busy on the frequent tip. ARE MC has been recording and doing shows with the Amsterdam funk band SEVEN ELEVEN since 1995. The connection with SEVEN ELEVEN goes way back to 1990-1992 when this band performed with DP several times. These joined shows probably were the first combined funk/rap performances on stage in The Netherlands ever.
In 2006 ARE MC released a straight up rap album called "Spaced out" that also features POCKETS, SPEED1 (of DIVORZE POSSE), SLIMM DIESEL and....how could it not be.....DTF.
Since 2006 Dutch DMC-winner DJ RACHI often stands by the side of ARE MC as his DJ. He was also responsible for mixing ARE MC's 2007 album "Throughout the years".
At the moment ARE MC is workin' on a straight up b-boy project called FIRST CLASS with old friends DJ CHARM and SPEED1. Next to that a fifth SEVEN ELEVEN album is soon to be dropped so be on the lookout!

ARE MC

DP suffered some heavy personal losses as two of the members since day one, died at a very young age. Dancer ALL JAZZ passed away in 2001 and crowdhyper/stageguard JUICE passed away in 2010.....

R.I.P. ALL JAZZ

R.I.P. JUICE

First Dutch rapping on vinyl (gimmick records)

2011-02-27T06:45:00.000-08:00

The first real rapping in the Dutch language has always been a topic of discussion. Ofcourse it got pushed to a higher level around the mid '90's by the likes of OSDORP POSSE and EXTINCE but there were attempts long before that, some more meaningful than others no doubt! It is said that Rotterdam rappers BLONNIE B and DEF RHYMZ were doing Dutch rhymes on stage in the late '80's but as far as vinyl releases go there's not a whole lot to mention. Here's four releases that definately should be seen in the zeitgeist they were made in!

REPPER DE KLEP 1980

In 1980 a Dutch coverversion of the JOE BATAAN track "Rap o clap o" was released on RCA records by DANNY BOY. The track was called "Repper de klep".

This was recorded early 1980 when the two top spots of the Dutch Top 40 hitlist were occupied by rap records: SUGARHILL GANG's "Rapper's Delight" and JOE BATAAN's "Rap o clap o". Someone must have had the idea to jump the bandwagon and do the same in the Dutch language. The result was a track "rapped" by a 13-year-old school kid, talking about his frustrations on the matter of everyday homework from school.

It wasn't much of a success: the record only charted #38 in the Dutch Top 40 hitlist at the end of March 1980 and remained there for two weeks, although it faired better than KURTIS BLOW's classic "The Breaks" which didn't even get in the so called "tipparade". It was clear that rap music was considered a gimmick at that time and was not taken seriously. To be honest: this attempt did not help the acceptance of rap at all, nevertheless EXTINCE paid hommage to the record in 2007 by sampling the record for a track also called "Repper de klep".

DISKOMIX 1980

DANNY BOY returns that same year but this time with a very credible track!! I only found out about this recently (thanx again J4!). The track "Diskomix" is a greatly produced funky, boogie, synth track. The Dutch rapping is still a bit corny but very bareable I must admit! The guy raps about making discomixes in his bedroom and driving his dad crazy playing them loud. Production was done by HAN GREVELT and PAUL NATTE and the mixing came from the hands of RUTGER KROESE who we would here more of in the years to come.

VOOR JE HET WEET, BEN JE GEK! 1982

As corny as "Repper de klep" but luckily a whole lot more funny was WIJK 7's 1982 release "Voor je het weet, ben je gek!". This obvious cover of "The message" by GRANDMASTER FLASH has a guy rapping about troubles in society in a real thick accent as spoken in Dutch city The Hague.

"Tis net een jungle die stad, tis geen wonder want deris altijd gedonder"

NEDERLAND HEEFT DE BEAT 1984

Recently I got introduced to this track by J4 (thanx T). It's a fun party record with Dutch rapping that's pretty good considering this is 1984!

The group is called FURN and the track consists of a very decent boogie production with vocals that talk about this new phenomanon called electric boogie in the streets of Holland.

Cover 7" single

Seems this is the 2nd release on a Dutch recordlabel called "Ashok records". Not too much more info to be found except the brain behind the track was a guy called STANLEY KANHAI.

The lyrics of the 1st verse to get you in the mood (lol):

He jij, kom uit de klei

Probeer eens deze dans met mij

Blijf niet zitten in dat hoekie

Doe met mij de electric boogie

Zelfs al breek je dan je nek

de electric boogie, da's the gek

Gedraag je nou eens positief

Doe de breakdance en wees actief

Grab a full rip of the single right here:

FURN single download

FURN !

HOLLAND REP 1986

In 1986 the radiowaves must have been dominated by holiday tunes. Ofcourse MADONNA had her smash hit "Holiday" and soon after MC MIKER G & DJ SVEN (I think they came from Belgium....) released their infamous "Holiday rap" into the world. But I guess the suffering didn't stop because behold; HAAGSE HARRY EN HOLLANDSCHEVELDSE HENDRIK dropped the ultimate bomb "Holland rep" (undertitled "Dutch version holiday rap".

The track is basically MADONNA's "Holiday" instrumental with 2 guys "rapping" about a holiday can be best spend. A guy with a big accent as spoken in city The Hague is all for lying on the Scheveningen beach with a beer in his hand, as an older sounding guy with a an accent as spoken in the Drente provence has more faith in spending vacation in his own provence. It seems the voice of the older guy is meant as a parody on old Dutch rightwing politician BOER KOEKOEK from the Drente provence.

24K; the path of the righteous

2011-02-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

Being from pretty much the south of the country, I didn't have the money or the means to check out the national rap acts in the west of Holland at that certain point in time ('90/'91/'92). So the first live rap performances I checked out were pretty much the local acts like D.A.M.N., NORTHSIDE STYLAZ, DOPE POSSE, BUGAS etc. etc. But hold on....these were some great groups and the hip hop scene was vibrant as hell in the Brabant provence....reckonize! The group that really stood out at that time and kinda rolemodelled for the rest was 24K from Eindhoven...a crew that 'till this very day doesn't get the props it deserves.The in 2002 published so called bible of dutch rap history "Van Brooklyn naar Breukelen" doesn't even drop 5 lines on 24K....that's just plain disgracefull in my opinion. So y'all know what I need to do right? Here goes....

February 1989....the group 24K was formed by 4 individuals who all were already doing their thing in hip hop for some time. DJ WAN-2, who had been dj-ing for some years and was an excellent breakdancer aswell, just had left the group D.A.M.N. and hooked up with beatcreator and dj ZAR-1. A rapper was found when bumping into ENB, an American guy who was living in Holland for some time. MC FIXX IT shortly joined the crew but was soon after releaved of duty due to a lack of rap ability. When searching for another rapper that could match the skills of ENB, the answer came when ARC-S was seen performing with his group TDL-POSSE (The Living Dream). The thunderous voice and CHUCK D like delivery made ARC-S the missing piece of the 24K puzzle.

Check ARC-S rapping on this 1988 TDL-POSSE demo track "As my dream goes on" (this track re-appeared on 24K's first album in a new version):

TDL POSSE track download

The various rapcrews in the west of Holland mostly had b-boyish, braggadocious repertoire. 24K decided, like D.A.M.N., to take a more social conscious path with their music. The songs they wrote during this time have messages regarding topics like the use of drugs, apartheid and racism, politics, use of violence etc. Influenced clearly by the likes of PUBLIC ENEMY but without the black militant attitude.

DJ WAN-2 - ENB - ARC-S - ZAR-1

The group started making demo tracks and sending them to various record companies....without any luck ofcourse because it was common belief that there wasn't a big enough market for hardcore rap. If it wasn't for a young lady working in a record shop in their hometown Eindhoven we might have never heard of 24K. It was SASKIA SLEGERS who loved the demo and was amazed by the fact that this quality in rap music was around in her city. Annoyed by the fact that recordcompanies totally ignored the group, she decided to step up and release the album her damnself. 24K took their demos to "Tango Studio" in Eindhoven and the record got produced and mixed. Musicproducers in that time were totaly clueless on making decent sounding rap music so the groupmembers had to be present each step of the way to avoid their music getting fucked up. Allthough it is still said that ZAR-1's beats, as made on his Amiga 500, didn't find their way onto vinyl sounding as they should have been.
SASKIA SLEGERS eventually had 3500 copies of the album pressed (1989), and called her recordcompany DJAX. She managed to distribute the album by driving around Holland in a busted up car...accepting the fact that the distributors would only pay her for the records when they actually had been sold to the public.

Saskia Slegers

DJAX recordlabel logo

The first pressing of the album "No enemies" sold out within a week, mainly due to their ever increasing fanbase in the south of Holland. This gained them recognition and a lot of performances around the country. The Dutch media hailed the release as being the first Dutch rap album, which wasn't exactly true as there had already been albums out by MC MIKER G ('87), URBAN DANCE SQUAD ('89) and D.A.M.N. ('89). Abroad the release made some noise in Germany, Switserland, Spain and even reached no. 18 on Tim Westwood's black music list in England.

24K, as drawn by famous

Swedish graffiti artist Pike

Allthough the album obviously had no single track released seperate as a 12" record....it was definately the title track of the album "No enemies" that almost became an anthem in the Dutch rap scene. The trademark sample was taken off the track "Love buzz" by famous Dutch rock group SHOCKING BLUE. The track defines exactly what 24K stood for:

“People, look at yourself! Your colour doesn’t matter. Be proud of yourself. No one is better. Don’t let violence, poverty destroy your ability! Strive for peace. We have no enemies!”

If you don't know the track then shame on you and check it out here:

Early 1990 the album was followed by a 12" release called "Twenty four ways". The vinyl holds the new tracks "Twenty four ways" and "Distribution of drugs" but also a great remix of "No enemies". On the title track features ENB's American cousin, a rapper called SHAKESPEARE. This guy dropped an album in 1989 called "My old jams still slam" which I personally recommend to everyone (it's really hard to find though!)

Grab a rip of the 12" right here:

Twenty four ways 12" download

The 12" made sure the public's anticipation of a second album was kept on a high level. Unfortunately big trouble hit paradise when rapper ARC-S totally dissapeared without family and friends knowing where he was. It turned out ARC-S had trouble coping with his career as a rapper and combining it with his regular life, and had "run off" to his motherland at the Antillian Islands. It would take him 10 years to return...

The rest of the group decided they wanted to keep going as 24K and release a second album. To replace ARC-S they choose rapper D-ROCK a.k.a. C-MC. D-ROCK had been a member of underground respected rap act MELLOW MC'S and could hold his own on the mic.

In 1992 the long awaited second album by 24K was a fact...."Words....yet unspoken"....again on the DJAX recordlabel. Unfortunately previous successes could not be repeated; the 1989 fanbase was diminished due to house music taking over the last few years. The remaining fans were expecting more "No enemies" and were dissapointed by the sound of the new album. In my opinion this is all a damn shame because the second album definately had his highlights as can be heard for example in this track right here:

A dissapointed ZAR-1 left the group soon after and D-ROCK moved on becomming the rapper of eurohouse act 2 BROTHERS ON THE 4TH FLOOR. DJ WAN-2 formed a DJ duo called SPINMASTERS with DJ WAXBUTTER (previously of rapgroup WHITE WOLF), playing eclectic sets of house, rap, funk etc. He's also know for producing the famous track "Incredible" by GENERAL LEVY, a jungle music anthem. In recent years he had some succes with his production of tracks for Dutch underground rapper KEMPI.

I don't have a clue where ENB went from here...

Here's some live video footage of ENB performing with DJ WAN-2 in 1992, just before 24K finally dissolved:

DJ WAN-2 and ARC-S at one time reunited for a single 24K performance at the "Back to planet rock" mass hip hop event in Eindhoven...it was pretty cool to see after all those years.

FUNKY TRIBE ; we don't have one DJ but two!

2011-02-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

This topic could not have been made without the help of DJ AUTOMATIC....thanx bro!

Around 1985/86 a young Otto van den Toorn started DJ'ing, influenced by a DJ who went to the same school as he did. This DJ was Ramon Voorn, younger brother of Orlando Voorn a.k.a. DJ FIX (check previous topic on this blog). Ramon was known as DJ BLACK BASS and Otto took the name DJ AUTOMATIC T. They both at first joined the group BORN FREE MC but AUTOMATIC soon left to replace DJ ALIEN of the notorious Rotterdam rapgroup MOONRUNNERS in 1989. When rappers BLONNIE B and KAY BLACK left the MOONRUNNERS in 1990, one of the rappers to replace them was COLT45. After the unfortunate breakup of the MOONRUNNERS later that year, AUTOMATIC T and COLT45 decided to continue performing and making tracks together. AUTOMATIC T proved to be a talented upcomming producer using the infamous Roland TR808 (the ultimate booom computer), a Casio SK1 sampling keyboard and a Tascam 4 track. With uptempo hardcore raptracks (Colt45 mastered the English language as he spend part of his childhood in New York) they performed around the country as duo COLD 45 AUTOMATIC at youthcentres, small rap venues etc. etc. This was all love, no pay steez....sleeping at the homes of friends....just having a good time. AUTOMATIC was worried lots of times for COLT45 not showing up at the shows. COLT45 had the habit of travelling by railway without actually getting a ticket so he often got into fights with the transit autorities.

In 1990 the idea came, after a brainstorm with rapjournalist KEES DE KONING (later CEO of Dutch recordlabel Top Notch), to form a loose collective of rap acts that could be booked for shows. Involved artists were COLD 45 AUTOMATIC, DJ BLACK BASS, female rapper LJ FRESH, SOUL PATROL (being MC RIV MASTER) and duo 2 BROTHERZ IN BIZNIZ (DJ FIX & MC TEN) and this collective was named FUNKY TRIBE. It was around this time that a demo tape was recorded aswell.

First Funky Tribe demotape, A-side

First Funky Tribe demotape, B-side

The track "Gangster groove" as heard on this demotape, with vocals by LJ FRESH, was later that year released on vinyl through a small Belgium label but this time with vocals by COLT45 (raps) and RIV MASTER (singing and raps).

Grab a rip of the 12" here:

Download

After a while a few artists left the collective and the maintaining acts joined forces to form a group, keeping the name FUNKY TRIBE. Consisting now of DJ AUTOMATIC, DJ BLACK BASS, COLT45 and RIV MASTER, the group expanded with 2 female dancers being DEF and LOOSE to hype up their live shows.
Check this tv item that was broadcasted by VPRO on Dutch national television in 1990:

Colt45, Riv Master, Def & Loose doing

the typical hip hop dancing for that time

Automatic - Riv Master - Def - Colt45 - Loose

Def - Automatic - Riv Master

The crew performed a lot of shows and built a huge name in the still small Dutch rap scene. The early use of DAT-tapes had a big impact on the sound of the shows.....meaning the sound of the tracks (treble, bass) would blow away that of the other groups and destroyed some P.A.-systems here and there. Automatic T was big on the use of new technical gear (he actually did reviews of hardware for musicproducers for a famous Dutch musicmagazine at that time).
To experience the full energy of a FUNKY TRIBE show I've uploaded a 25 minutes live recording. This was part of a show done in Amsterdam in 1990. As always the show started of with a spacey intro before the roof got tore off. Songs to be heard are "I just laugh when you say your style is hardcore", "Serious", "Do it", "Stage maniac", "Funky Tribe is an original thing" and "Boing boom tschak".

Grab the recording here:

Download

The Tribe's energetic shows and booming sound got them a record deal with BOUDISQUE Records. For their first 12" record the Tribe recorded the tracks "88 keys" and "Metaphore mountain". Unfortunately, as so often was the case with early Dutch rap groups, the tracks never hit vinyl because of recordlabel bullshit politics. Fact was that RIV MASTER was also member of early house group QUADROPHONIA and signed to Belgium recordlabel ARS which didn't give RIV MASTER permission to record for other labels.

The unreleased tracks can be downloaded here:

Download

Colt45 - Black Bass - Riv Master - Automatic

Around 1991 house music took over in Holland and pushed rap to the background. The Tribe slowly dissolved and was over by 1992. Only COLT45 continued to make noise in the rap scene (later on using the new moniker ROWDY). RIV MASTER, AUTOMATIC and BLACK BASS started travelling through Europe bringing the new house/techno sound to the audiences as DJ's. BLACK BASS quit soon after, and AUTOMATIC and RIV released some house music productions using aliases like SOUL PATROL, ORION, SUPERMATIC, SONIC WARRIOR, WARP FACTOR 1, EUROMASTERS, UNLIMITED SOUL etc. AUTOMATIC especially gained recognition for his remixes of 2 UNLIMITED tracks.

SUPERMATIC - "Bumrush the sound"

DJ AUTOMATIC with rapper MC MD (1991)

RIV MASTER has since built a big career as house dj LUCIEN FOORT while AUTOMATIC now composes music for both television and radio commercials, computer games and short film. But don't think the love for hip hop has gone....in 2007 he produced the track "Attack on Alpha" for Dutch rapper MARSHAL BLUEBERRY and when a dope old school rap act is performing again in Holland you might spot AUTOMATIC walking around with a big ass photocamera or even being the dj for some NY rap legend:

T La Rock feat. DJ Automatic on wheels (Amsterdam 2007)

Classic flyers from classic times

2011-02-13T00:30:00.000-08:00

These were submitted by DJ Automatic....thanx!

According to DJ Automatic this might have

been the first big Dutch rap show.

Rotterdam (March 1st, 1986)

City rap wars!

First big media coverage on the topic of Dutch rap

2011-02-13T00:24:00.000-08:00

Well respected Dutch musicmagazine "OOR" published a large article on the flourishing rap undergroundscene in Holland in their issue dating from oct. 17th, 1987.

Featured artists are Moonrunners, Rudeboy, Small Boys and Miker G.

Download a high res scan of the article here:

download

Unknown Dutch gimmick rap track from 1986

2011-01-29T06:27:00.000-08:00

In 1986 a Dutch popgroup consisting of 3 sexy girls recorded a rap track on vinyl. Is that special? Well, it is in 1986....
The group was called CENTERFOLD and their image was totally based on that of the PRINCE affiliated girlgroups VANITY 6 and APPOLONIA 6. After scoring a hit in 1986 with their track "Dictator" they covered "Radar love" by GOLDEN EARRING later that year. The b-side of the 12" was a track called "Rap"...and you y'all guessed it...this is the rap track I'm talking about.

To have a listen just grab it here:

Centerfold rap track download

Don't be expecting no Sequence Crew or early Salt 'N Pepa but on the other hand I heard worse from 1986, even from the US.

Who cares if they can actually rap right?

CANE; pimpslappin' wackness since day 1

2011-01-12T07:42:00.000-08:00

Eugene Voorn a.k.a. HURRICANE / SUGACANE / CANE / C-BOOGIE / C.A.N.E. / REDLIGHT BOOGIE etc, born in Amsterdam, experienced a troubled childhood. Spending al lot of time outside his home on the streets he came in touch with the early Amsterdam b-boy/electric boogie scene through his cousin Clinton (CLI-N-TEL) who was already dancing at the time (1983).
In 1984 it was human beatboxing that really caught his attention....influenced by DOUG E FRESH and FAT BOYS he mastered the skill of the human beatbox and adapted the moniker BUSY BEAT. It wasn't untill 1985/86 that a boy at his school (Spinozalyceum) challenged him into a rap battle. Being a beatboxer BUSY BEAT was annoyed by the fact that he couldn't engage in a rap battle as hard as he would like to and started developing rap skills aswell.
Like many early developing rappers in Amsterdam, BUSY BEAT came in touch with beatcreator LTH who played a definitive role within the Amsterdam rap scene around 1987. The two combined forces an recorded a few tracks. Check out this early demo track "Busy Beat growns in effect" :

Together with DJ FEARSOME 1, the crew HIGH QUALITY POSSE was formed. After an encounter with the SECURITY CREW (PRINCE CHARLY D & DJ S ROCK E) both crews merged into the crew 2 TUFF in 1988. The group recorded demo tracks and performed, but like many early Dutch rapgroups 2 TUFF was ignored by the many ignorant recordcompanies. Check out this footage of 2 TUFF performances from 1988 and 1989:

The group unfortunately soon dissolved and BUSY BEAT stayed solo (at least untill 2005). Being dissapointed in the lack of opportunities as a rapper within the Dutch musicindustry, he stepped up his streetgame to earn money. Meanwhile he maintained his street cred as a rapper by joining rap battles and performing the occasional show. CANE also continously built his rep of being a buckwild guy, always being on the offensive tip towards wack rappers. Throwing beerbottles and garbagecans at shows are examples of CANE getting hardcore on the less credible.

The Dutch rapscene changed when from 1993 onwards, many rappers started to rap in Dutch instead of English. It was believed to be an easier road to commercial succes. CANE refused to go down that road, it was his sincere belief that rapping in English was the only way to go and stay true to the heritage of hip hop.

In 1995 CANE drops a demo cassette using the moniker HURRICANE. Radio rapshow "VILLA 65" gives the tape some airplay and the tuff title track "There ain't nothin' here yours" ends up on the 1996 Dutch compilation album "Magic Souds volume 2".

One year later CANE drops his first official release as SUGACANE on the upcomming Dutch recordlabel "TopNotch". The track "Let 'em know" is produced by Q.F. and came with this video:

Another underground demo cassette came out in 1997 called "Hurricane presents The Killer Tape". This tape held some new tracks by CANE like "Triple files" and "Batiboy" and featured other artists like DEAMS, MD, UNIQUE and ROWDY. Y'all can download a rip of this tape here:

Killer tape download

Reportedly aimed at Dutch rapper E-LIFE, the track "You can't fool mine" got released on CANE's own recordlabel "Now Or Neva" in 2000. The video had some heavy rotation on musicvideochannel "The Box". Allthough one of his earlier real successes...CANE never really liked the track and claims it should never have been released as it wasn't even proparly mixed.

In 2000 CANE donated the track "Ghetto star" for the rap/r&b compilation album "Social life", this particular track being a very personal track written by CANE for his son.
Allthough the 1995-2000 period saw some releases by CANE, the rapper never got the chance to manifest himself as he would have liked. Several personal tragedies in his life during this time, made him unable to really focus on building a career.

In 2005 a re-energized CANE masterminded a Dutch allstar rap supergroup called "THE MOST OFFICIAL". Petty beefs between rappers and cities got squashed for the sake of joining forces and grabbing the game by the balls. Members CANE, U-NIQ, MR. PROPZ, ROWDY, SONNY D and MD recorded new tracks together and did some tracks using existing beats. DJ 360 mixed these tracks into a 60 minutes mix cd that got released on CANE's "Now or Neva records".

Judging by the public's reaction to the mixtape, the announced cd by the group must have been the most anticipated Dutch rap release ever......unfortunately it all seemed to good to be true. The groupmembers dissagreed on certain businessaspects and the whole project fell apart. Definately a black page in the Dutch rap historybook imo.

What's left in the end is a dope mixtape and a video that was shot for the track "Next block". The video was shot in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague to illustrate the different backgrounds of the rappers.

CANE was hugely dissapointed with the dissolvement of the group, realizing an enormous opportunity got destroyed.
In 2008 CANE worked with famous Dutch kickbox/MMA team "Golden Glory" by writing music for fighters like Eroll Zimmerman and opening up for them at big fighting events in Amsterdam and Seoul. The track "Fight muzik" got released as a video in which CANE uses his latest name REDLIGHT BOOGIE.

In 2009....22 years after CANE's first demotape recordings....his long awaited first album hits the streets. I.m.o. the product of THE most dedicated Dutch rap artist in the game who, after years of personal struggles, business setbacks etc. etc., managed to pull off the by far most credible sounding Dutch rap album untill today. Only features by the best Dutch artists like SHYROCK and DJ CHAINSAW and an occasional appearance by foreign artist like ROCK from HELTAH SKELTAH....CANE carries this album by himself with a large diversity in music and lyrics.

In 2010 a video got released of the track "Heatrock" which features SEAN PRICE. The track does not appear on the album. At the same time the mixtape "Lost 'n found" was dropped featuring Heist- Rockah, Akwasi (of Zwart Licht), Lioth, Fero Tisesty, Reefer Madness, Joe Kickass en M.D. This REDLIGHT BOOGIE project got mixed by JANE DOE and wants to take the listener back to the early days where it all kicked off. Grab this mixtape here:

Lost 'n found mixtape

To seal this piece on CANE up, I'll leave y'all with a download of some of his best tracks, enjoyz.

Misc CANE tracks

ELECTRIC BOOGIEMEN; another commercially driven fad

2011-01-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

Sorry boys and girls....unfortunately another example of media culture-leeches jumpin' on the whole hip hop bandwagon in the early '80's. Just like with MASTER GENIUS (see my 1st post), this was a Dutch production that got released like a nanosecond after the release of US motion picture "Breakin'" (which itself is a commercial rape of what was going down in L.A. at that time hip hop wise).

In 1983 a Dutch songwriter called Piet Souer and a famous Dutch producer called Hans van Hemert put together a track called "Breakdancing" (what's in a title ey?) and used a b-boy crew called "ELECTRIC BOOGIEMEN" for the recordcover and the video (more info on this crew is appreciated). The track is basically soul disco stuff.....pretty middle of the road dance music.

The artwork in the back is by famous Amsterdam

street artist HUGO KAAGMAN.

The track was a minor succes in Holland but sold an acceptable amount of copies in Germany (you gotta love the neighbour's taste in music, jeez...).

The video is kinda fun though...as it portrays some decent b-boying by the Boogiemen, especially considering this is 1983 y'all! Check it:

In 1984 the boys returned with another 7" called "L-i-n-e u-p" which had even less in common with b-boy music. They dropped the "Electric" part of their name (makes sense to me!) but the cover still portrays the crew kinda b-boy like. If you happen to find this record in a bargain crate for minor change....leave it alone.

Why devote a post to these releases you ask? Well...as you know history ain't always laughter and partyhats is it? God knows Dutch hip hop history ain't! I'm off slamming my "Breakin'" soundtrack to pieces.....no sweat cause I got "Reckless" on 12".....haha.

ORLANDO VOORN; rise of a superstar DJ

2011-01-03T04:38:00.000-08:00

Dutch champion 85

September 23rd, 1985 saw the final showdown for the mixing championships in Holland. The finale was held in the studio of Dutch broadcastingcompany AVRO, hosted by Robin Albers. Albers was the big pushing force behind turntable mixing in Holland and was the creative force behind the AVRO mixing contest called "3 maal doordraai". Footage of the contest was shown on television through the show "AVRO's Top Pop" (if anyone has this on tape, please get in contact).
The 7 final contestants were Ulrik Saba, Jean Claude Mattimena, Guan Elmzoon (a.k.a. ALL STAR FRESH), Lex van Coevorden, Raymond Adriaans, Ruud van Rijen and a 17 year old kid from Amsterdam called ORLANDO VOORN. The jury consisted of Robin Albers (ofcourse), Peter Duykersloot, Ruther Kroese, Leo Cotino and "Godfather of Dutch mixing" BEN LIEBRAND.
After a display of quality live mixing, it was the kid from Amsterdam that stood out according to the jury, especially because his set was spiced up with some ballsy showmanship. VOORN returned to Amsterdam with 500 Guilders, a mixer and a contract for recording a 12" at Boni Records. But more importantly......he was going to defend the Dutch honour at the DMC world mixing finale held in London.

DMC world finale 86

March 16th, 1986; the world mixing finale was held during the DMC International DJ Convention, held in the Hippodrome in London. 12 national champions (USA, UK, Holland, France, Denmark, Spain, Norway, Israel, Switserland Sweden and Belgium) were going to battle it out on the wheels of steel. The jury consisted of John Morales, James Hamilton, Ben Liebrand (again!), PAUL HARDCASTLE, Sanny X, Les Adams, Alan Coulthard and one of the Three Degrees.
Dutch Champion was up for the 3rd set of the evening and showed up in a cape an wearing some crazy mask. After starting his first record he duck away behind the turntables to get rid of cape and mask and continued his set.
After al 12 sets the smoke cleared and the jury revealed the top 3 of the night:

1. DJ Cheese (USA)
2. Chad Jackson (UK)
3. Orlando Voorn

Alltough 3rd place was an incredible accomplisment, VOORN felt bad about it and grabbed the microphone of host Tony Prince to ask the question: "Is this a mixing contest or a scratching contest?". Prince was angry but everybody knew it were the heavy scratchers that came up 1st and 2nd that night.
DMC 1986 would go in the books as the edition that made the change from live mixing into turntable tricks in the years to come.

Enjoy Orlando's 1986 mix and a cool photo slideshow here:

Dutch champion 86

December 12th, 1986; the annual Dutch live mixing championships were held in discotheque Locomotion in Zoetermeer. Voorn defended his title succesfully against contenders Guan Elmzoon (a.k.a. ALL STAR FRESH), Raymond Adriaans, Ruud van Rijen, Lex van Coevorden, Huub van Dooremalen, Wilfred Hunsel, Ronald Links and Rene van de Berghe.
The jury was made up from Tony Prince, Ben Liebrand, Ferry Maat, Rutger Kroese, DJ Sven and Ruud Vink. They declared VOORN the new champ alltough it was obvious that Juan Elmzoon was knocking on the championshipsdoor hard!

DMC world finale 87

March 9th, 1987; the world mixing finale was held this time at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Before the contest there were already rumours that the competition was fixed and a UK contestant would be winner.....oooh shit!
VOORN prepared a 10 minutes set, only to hear on the night itself the set could only last 7 minutes.....oooh shit!
The whole competition was a mess....most sets were ruined by technical faults due to the organisation. Suprisingly the sets by UK contestants CHAD JACKSON and CJ MACKINTOSH (....I guess they had 2 national champs??) stayed clear of these kind of difficulties.
To make a long story short....CHAD JACKSON from the UK became worldchampion (tricks with a poolstick and a rugbyball...) and the event turned out messy with a lot of politics. VOORN stopped competing after this.

Voorn hits the wax

After a world tour as DJ for MC MIKER G & DJ SVEN ( I guess Sven didn't DJ...lol), VOORN started producing some raptracks under the moniker DJ FIX that hit vinyl. Most notable are:

* Fixomatic - Hurt 'em bad (1988)

Please note that it's also VOORN who does the rapping on this release, NOT the other guy in the picture! (he played bass guitar I believe...)

* B.E.W.A.R.E. - Pick up the pieces (1988)

Nice production using the Average White Band song with a very young Tony Scott rapping. This 12" was brought out by Peter Duykersloot of the famous Amsterdam recordshop "Rhythm Import".
Check it here:

* Born Free MC - Olympic rap jam (1988)

RUDEBOY REMMINGTON already had left BORN FREE MC and was replaced by DJ BLACK BASS.

* Shy Rock - May the funk be with you (1991)

Great 12" with rapper SHY ROCK from Haarlem....I wish they had done more! Check it:

Around 1988/1989 VOORN also recorded a demo with MC TEN (of GOTCHA fame) from Haarlem using the groupname "2 BROTHERZ IN BIZNIZ". Unfortunately this stuff never saw the light of day as an official release. You can grab the track "Music from the lowlands" through this link:
2 Brotherz In Bizniz demo download

Orlando Voorn goes techno and conquers the world

Following a series of dancefloor tracks recorded for the now defunct "Lower East Side Records" under the monniker of FREQUENCY in the early nineties he was introduced to techno God JUAN ATKINS and went on to work with both DERRICK MAY and BLAKE BAXTER. In the years to come VOORN moved to Detroit USA and recorded numerous techno classics using an endless variety of monnikers. In 1994 he made a brief sidestep to his old love hiphop, releasing a very underground 12" with Dutch rapper D-WORD called "Top billin'".....I guess it was still in his vains.

HOTSOUND RECORDS

2011-01-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

A common misunderstanding within the media is the one of recordlabel DJAX being called the first Dutch recordlabel to release numerous rap acts on lp/cd. Fact is that four years before DJAX released the 24K album in 1990, another Dutch owned recorldlabel called "Hip Hop Records" already started out releasing rap 12"s. As it seems "Hip Hop Records" was a sublabel of "Hotsound Records", a small indy techno/house label from Rotterdam. Owner of "Hotsound Records" was a guy called Erik van Vliet who also owned one of the most respected recordstores in Rotterdam, located at the Pleinweg.

Hotsound recordshop Rotterdam (1986)

Erik van Vliet was also known for his involvement in the synth/italo group LASER DANCE who's 1984 "Lazer Dance" 12" is highly respected within the genre.

"LASER DANCE" in the studio (Erik van Vliet on the right)

In 1986 Van Vliet decided to start releasing rap music because he knew this new music would eventually blow up in The Netherlands. As far as I can tell the following titles got released from 1986 untill 1990:

Extince - Rap around the clock (1986)

I think this was a 7" release only. The recordlabel says "W.M.R." but I'm pretty sure it was released throughout "Hotsound Records".

Mr. Holiday feat. MC Miker G - L.A. against N.Y. (1986)

The best electrofunk track ever to come out of The Netherlands. I'm guessing "Mr. Holiday" is Michiel van de Kuy (the other half of "LASER DANCE") and the dope vocoder rapping is done by MC MIKER G.

Extince feat. Mr. Donald - The milkshake rap (1987)

A very Mantronix sounding track produced by the infamous Peter Slaghuis a.k.a. HITHOUSE (r.i.p.). The track contained some illegal sampling of a Mc Donalds advertising tune.

Extince - The milkshake rap remix (1987)

Due to the illegal sampling the record got remixed and re-released.

Born Free MC - Struggle for jive (1987)

First time on wax for rapper RUDEBOY REMMINGTON. I don't know if RUDEBOY was already in URBAN DANCE SQUAD at this time. The graffiti lettering on the cover is done by DJ ALIEN of Rotterdam rapgroup MOONRUNNERS.

Extince - The girlie girlie prince (1988)

Another Peter Slaghuis production done for EXTINCE

Greyhouse feat. Mellow MC's - Skip to this (1989)

The "Skip to this" track is a wierd combination of hiphouse and ska (!?) but the real winner imo is the track "Down with it" on the b-side, wich is a straightforward hardcore rap track by the MELLOW MC's (CRUSH MC & MIGHTY B) out of Utrecht.

T-Ram - Jump to it (1990)

A hiphouse production. Rapper T-Ram is a total mystery to me.

Funky Rhythms - Gipsy swing (1991)

A 6 track e.p. with mostly hiphouse productions. Rapping by T-Ram and Funky-J.

A few years ago I tracked down Erik van Vliet in Rotterdam because I was after some records from his old catalogue. He was selling science fiction action figures from some backstreet shop....completely out of the music industry as far as I could tell. Cool stories though....one was about Erik witnessing Man Parrish actually making "Hip hop bee bop" in a studio, during a trip he made to NY in 1983. Daaaaamn....the man saw the birth of electrofunk live! Too good of a story not to believe right?

MASTER GENIUS

2011-01-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

Maybe (but I'm prettty sure) the first hip hop related music ever released by Dutch recording artists was by a mysterious group called MASTER GENIUS who nobody seemed to know within the rap scene of Holland. The first 12" came out right after the release of the USA motion picture "Breakin'" in 1983 and was called "Let's break". The recordlabel is called "Break" and got distributed by "Boni Records" out of Katwijk, Holland. I'm pretty sure this was before the release of "Say what, say who" by ALEX & THE CITY CREW. The track itself is a wierd cut and paste mix of non-hip hop tracks. To be honest; I can't really imagine anyone b-boying to this music but hey....beggers can't be choosers in the lowlands right!

MASTER GENIUS kept on releasing these kind of medleys/mixes, supposedly to be used for b-boying. In 1984 they released 12"s like "That's soul" and "Let's break into the '80's". In 1986 they released a 12" called "Masters" which imo is worth picking up somewhere for the cool picture cover that features graffiti artwork by JOKER from the USA crew out of Amsterdam.

In 1984 there's an album even, highly imagenatively called "The album". I found a funny review on the net for y'all to read, unfortunately I have to agree with the content. Here goes:

Usually I wouldn't bother with reviewing a really bad record, unless it is comedically bad. This doesn't fall into the "comedically bad" category, as listening to it is like having a tooth pulled.
Obviously born from the commerical success of original 80's electro on the continent, this is badly-engineered and just plain slapped-together cut'n'paste Dutch pop electro -- either re-making or sampling famous phrases and melodies from "Keep on Running", "Blue Monday", "Fame", "Living on Video", Edwin Starr's "War", a horribly re-played take on "Superfreak", a variety of 80's euro pop trash, scratching samples (not actual scratching), Woody Woodpecker, the usual plethora of cliched 80's electro vocal samples which pop in and out seemingly at random.
It's entirely possible I am a music facist and am just not getting the "fun" nature of the arrangements. But it's put together really badly. This is literally and figuratively a thousand miles away from Steinski & Latin Rascals territory. Despite the absolutely-sequenced rigid 4/4 and complete absence of funk or rhythm, the arrangement seems incapable of following any structure and breaks happen at unexpected moments, earlier segments pop back in at random for a random amount of bars -- it's just chaos, and not in a good way.
It's padded out with some weak bonus beat-type tracks and effects that I cannot see any self-respecting battle DJ using.
To top it off, Side 2 follows exactly the same format as Side 1, re-using many of the same elements (even drum patterns), but even poppier.

Haha....so far for the first steps by the Dutch in the world of hip hop! (we would pick it up in the years to follow....no worries). Despite what's said in the review, the track "Let's break" was a commercial succes in Spain, France, Germany, Denmark and even Mexico.

But....the question at hand still being; who the hell made these records??? Production credits on the records speak of a production duo called "Adams & Fleisner". Not very Dutch sounding names ey? I searched the net for some info...only to find dick! But an article in a Dutch music magazine from 1984 revealed the mystery. Apparently a Dutch production team called "Cat Music" consisting out of G. Hessing, A. Mol, E. van Prehn, C. Bergman and E. Veerhoff were responsible. They had been producing disco since 1980 and decided to jump on the whole electro bandwagon in 1983. Not only using the name MASTER GENIUS but also X-RAY CONNECTION amongst others. "Replay" by X-RAY CONNECTION (1983) is a not half bad synth electro/italo track that made some waves abroad, especially in Germany.

To uphold the "Breakdance camouflage" this production team used a group of breakdancers as a front. This unit was called the MASTER GENIUS BREAKERS and got used for the coverphotos and even performances (early Milli Vanilli steez yo!). These MASTER GENIUS BREAKERS were THE pioneer breakdance unit from Haarlem city, more specifically the Schalkwijk area of Haarlem.

The "Cat Music" guys also released two, what seemed to be kind of synth battle tools, albums in 1984 and 1986 called "Electric boogie rhythm tracks" and "Raplines".