DIVORZE; all hip hop elements on lock!

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

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)

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

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!

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:

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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:

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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

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

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:

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