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zaterdag 10 november 2012
zondag 22 juli 2012
Thanx for the great interview Guan....it was worth the long ass wait at the trainstation! ;-)
ALL STAR FRESH; breaking barriers and building bridges
When Guan Elmzoon a.k.a. All Star Fresh (ASF) tries to recall his first meaningful encounter with music he draws the conclusion that his memories of music go as far back as his memories period. Descendent from a Carribean tribe, he remembers his grandmother being a very important traditional singer amongst her people. You could say the big beat drum was genetically forced upon ASF already as a very young kid.
At the age of 6 ASF moved to Holland, more specifically Amsterdam. When reached the age of 10 it was his elder brother that started getting imported black music on vinyl. A broad range of music from crooners to Betty Wright to Casiopea influenced a young ASF greatly. Also the upcoming 12" vinyl format in the late seventies had it's impact, ASF's brother at this point already owned two pitch controlled turntables. It actually was a Studio 54 compilation album that made ASF realize the music just kept on going and he got fascinated with this aspect of mixing records. Even before "Rapper's Delight" swooped the world of it's feet ASF had already heard disco tracks with rap vocals. At the age of 13 he already was a dj.
The North of Amsterdam had a very vibrant youth culture in the very early eighties, ASF became part of what later would be called hip hop culture. It was basically just a street phenomenon with no name yet; electric boogie, roller-skating, tagging up walls and all that fresh good stuff. When electric boogie was still mostly unheard of and unseen, it was ASF who had obtained some very early video footage from the US showing dancers. These moves and routines got copies of course and led to a victory in one of the earliest local electric boogie competitions held in The Netherlands in 1982. ASF participated and with amongst others Mr. Solo, one of Holland's b-boy pioneers without a doubt. Parallel to the dancing, ASF was already dj'ing in youthcentres etc. His mixing skills got noticed and led to his own fridaynight radio show on a pirate (illegal) radio station called "Radio Disco Action" in Amsterdam. His dj name by the way wasn't yet ASF but "Whiz Kid". It was the 1983 "Globe & Whiz Kid" track "Play that beat Mr. DJ" that lead to a necessary name change into ASF. The name All Star Fresh in the beginning was kind of meant as a boast claiming he was a star at every element within hip hop.
In 1984 ASF even had his first foreign dancing gigs when promoter Guilly Koster showcased some bands of his in Ibiza and dancers tagged allong to liven' up the shows. Amongst this group were Mr. Solo, Dillon Lewis and "Holland's first rapper" Martijn Roos, who were all part of the at that time very sucsessful "Alex & The City Crew".
Around 1985 ASF changed radio stations and became a dj at pirate radio station "Satellite Radio" where he acquired a large following of listeners with his show. This show broadcasted on saturday afternoon and ASF used to run into the streets after his show to check the clothingshops etc. if they were tuned in on the "Satellite Radio" because that was were the public was on saturday afternoon. In 1986 he had a show called "Freakmixclub" which was probably the first hip hop radio show in Holland. In the years to come ASF's show format with lots of black music and hosting (with rapping) in the English language gained popularity and he worked for (pirate) radio stations like "Satellite Empire", "W.A.P.S.", "A.Q.S." and "New Dance Radio".His work as a club dj was less romantic....more than once ASF was expected to act like a living jukebox and play whatever the audience wanted. Trick of the trade was to still manage to smuggle in your own music styles and get away with it. When the tourist crowd left the club around 02.00 hours and the real partygoers remained, ASF slipped in some of the cooler stuff in the mix. Nonetheless it unfortunately wasn't an exception that ASF got told to spin less black music or no black music at all! A few times this even led to hem getting fired.
A place where ASF could really get his rocks of as a dj was at the so called B.O.C. (Buitenveldertse Ontmoetings Centrum), despite this being just a local neighbourhoodcentre they had the best sound system in Amsterdam. Accordingly to ASF it was amazing how many huge clubs and discotheques at that time at lousy sound systems. The sunday afternoons at the B.O.C. became infamous, the city had to create more public transport just to handle the crowd. Next to the B.O.C. at this time (1986) he was also dj-ing at the "Be-Bop" club (which in 1989 would turn into the infamous "iT"), a break he got thanks to Alex Van Oostrom (the later Dutch DMC pres.), and clubs "De Schakel" and "Bios". Finally there were several spots where ASF could play the latest black music. He more and more established his name as the dj with the latest en freshest records that hardly got any play on radio airwaves or other clubs and he became responsible for breaking in the first underground rap tracks in Holland like for example "Go see the doctor" by Kool Moe Dee and "Only buggin'" by Whistle.
Especially the crowd at the B.O.C. had lots of aspiring hip hop talent amongst it...like early dancers and the first rappers. One of the rappers that made an impression on ASF was a guy called MC Miker G. Together with a friend called BC Boy who had one of the first Akai samplers they joined up. A few little shows were done as "The Invisible Two". ASF had a brief first tv (VPRO) moment together with MC Miker G when being interviewed in a record shop. They were in the proces of developing a demo at BC Boy's home when MC Miker G got hooked up with DJ Sven and that was that when it comes to the collaboration with ASF.
In 1987 there was the first track released on vinyl. It was basically a producer/concept driven track that needed a few rappers laying down some lyrics. ASF and friend MC Geronimo (Armand Corneille, the later MC Phryme) worked along with this gimmick track that also earned them a performance on the famous Dutch "Countdown" music show on tv. The group was called QB-II and the track got called "Papa Joe". As said this was a gimmick track and not very street-orientated but every opportunity to end up on wax and get that foot between the industrydoor got seized! 1988 brought a few other outings on vinyl; he did a remix for the track "Pick up the pieces" by B.E.W.A.R.E. (Tony Scott & DJ Fix) that found it's way to a b-side, plus ASF represented with a track on the first Dutch rap compilation "Rhythm & Rhyme" which he had done with LTH and Rudeboy Remmington.
Thanx to his mixing skills ASF was asked to write a series of mixing instructions that got published in Dutch music magazine "Disco Dance" in 1987 ("Mixing with All Star Fresh from A to Z").
ASF's performance at the DMC got noticed by rap industry insider Dave Funkenklein (r.i.p.). He invited ASF to join the dj-battles at the 1988 New Music Seminar which was a great honor cause let's face it...a competition with many of the USA best dj's was way more fierce than at the so-called DMC World Championships. ASF gathered some pocket money and travelled of to hip hop's lion's den, being New York. He had found a place to stay at Rudeboy Remmington's mother who lived just out New York. Funkenklein though, soon got ASF a place to crash closer to the nucleus of events about to happen.
ASF made history in the Big Apple by being the first non-American to fly into the finals of The World Supremacy Battle of DJs. He gained the highly respected second place of this prestigious DJ contest only losing to DJ Scratch of EPMD fame. This done with a set that was basically freestyled all the way cause there wasn't any preparation time. He beat prestigious dj's like Dee Nasty from France, Cutmaster Swift from England and Tat Money from Philidelphia in the process. ASF noticed that some dj's used the same records and tricks in the preliminaries as in the finale battles. He understood he had to come fresh with new stuff in the finale that was hosted by Biz Markie and Flavor Flave, and he did. Using a test press of De La Soul's "Plug tuning" track with some cool turntable tricks he really got the crowd's appreciation. But again it became clear that the industry had it's own thoughts on who'd become the champion....and it wasn't no guy from Europe! During his set ASF quickly found out his equipment was sabotaged but in the end he didn't care as he was on a pink cloud anyway during the whole event. The impression that ASF made that year at the NMS, resulted in many invitations to perform with world known artists like Public Enemy, Stetsasonic, Ice T, 45King and Ultramagnetic MCs....hell...he was even asked by Melle Mel to join a new Furious Five! As ASF states it's a crazy experience when your music heroes actually think big of you and want to work with them. It was a crying shame that he wasn't able to seize the (he hadn't forseen his stay being so long!) day and use the many opportunities right then and there... Postponing his leave for months, ASF took upon himself crazy little jobs en hustles to prolong his stay. At one point, being flat broke for days, ASF had to jet back to Amsterdam to pick up on his daily earnings. To be back in the small minded Dutch musicscene was a giant step back from battleing Tat Money, and sitting in Russel Simmon's offce a few months earlier This presented a cold shower. There had been some media coverage in The Netherlands, mainly a big article in prestigious musicmagazine "Oor" by journalist Marcel Wouter who happenend to be present at the NMS and ASF was asked on some small tv-shows to tell his tale but nothing that really examplified the impact of the trip on Dutch hip hop culture. Truth of the matter was that Holland got put on the map in NY and rap artists started to travel to Holland and other European countries because they realized there was a vibrant scene/market across the ocean. Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MC's, De La Soul etc. all came in 1988 and 1989 and used ASF as their hook up/point of contact.
ASF travelled to the NMS again in 1989 with Rudeboy Remmington and MC Demes to enhance these ties.
With the hype that surrounded him and his contacts within DMC, ASF started his own recordlabel in 1988 called "Fresh Merchandise". In 1988 he dropped his first 12" on it called "Listen to the rhythm (of the drum and the bass" which was an instrumental cut and paste gem. Very much in style with Mantronix ASF and partner BC Boy showed their love for electronical hip hop with lots of edits etc. in 1989 another 12" followed with a track recorded with MC Demes (later: Deams) called "(This is) Dope" and on the b-side a fantastic dj cut called "Who's the man" that used parts of his recorded live mixing. Clearly the Dutch market was too small to be really succesfull and crossing over to foreign sales was simply a bridge to far. The label therefore folded after these 2 releases.
ASF used his Fresh Merchandise experience, and of course his obtained knowledge in New York for a new to be project in 1989. Influenced by Soul II Soul, who where a loose knit group assembled around one major figure, he contemplated his master plan that would eventually become King Bee. He layed down his plans at various record companies, at the end it was company Torso/Boudisque that had some faith and gave the green light to spread some white label pressing around of a hip house track that ASF recorded at BC Boy's home. When a license request came in from a German label called Low Spirit Recs. they knew they were holding something good and the track "Party people in the house" hit the German and English market with succes. ASF kept developing his King Bee concept to the extreme detail...clothing, image, voices etc. Handpicked rappers (like Phryme from the "Papa Joe" days), singers (his little niece Michele) and dancers (Vince Charming, Kenny T) all contributed to ASF's concept. Most were unorthodox picks as they all were still fairly unknown. ASF wanted club orientated tracks but also some harder rap tracks to keep in touch with the more b-boy fan base. Therefore he made a cut heavily based on the track "My part of town" by the Tuff Crew and called it "Back by dope demand". It was his intention to re-create one of his favourite tracks and possibly make it even better, an intention often misunderstood by others till this day. The track was planned as a b-side for the clubtrack "Feel the flow" and spread around as such through a white label pressing. ASF has this crazy memory of standing in famous Amsterdam club The Roxy and hearing DJ Dimitri playing the white label b-side "Back by dope demand". The crowd lost it and the b-side won.... "Back by dope demand" got released by Torso/Boudisque as an a-side 12" and became a HUGE international hit. Funniest thing was that nobody knew who King Bee was, not even in Holland at that point in time. Everybody thought it was a USA release. Imagine the looks on people's faces when King Bee had it's first live performance at the Metropool club in Zaandam....everybody was like: "Yoooo it's THEM guys!".
Tuff Crew didn't quite appreciate the similarity between their track and "Back by dope demand". The crew was already disbanded but rapper Ice Dog still recorded a diss record aimed at King Bee called "Shootin' deuces". But as ASF claims with a smile; "if people are doing diss records it means you are selling your record!".
The rest of the music industry wasn't quite as bothered with the whole copyright discussion and Madonna's agency even booked King Bee as their show opener for the Rotterdam concerts. ASF had to think fast and hard to create a show...as he had only one big hit at this point and little financial resources. The thought of performing for 50.000 people was intoxicating. Luckily the shows went well and King Bee was asked to join Madonna for the entire European tour but in the end things simply didn't work out as such. "Back by dope demand" made ASF the first black artist in Holland to achieve the prestigious Dutch "Edison" award.
Thriving on success, ASF founded a recordlabel once again together with Wilfred Hunsel. This label "Killa Bee Records" was aimed at releasing ASF's side projects. In 1991 and 1992 a few club tracks got released showcasing Dutch rappers like MC Fixxit, Ragoo and D-Rock. At the same time he also founded the label "Repo Records" to release non-commercial, experimental stuff like the 1992 "Di-Jazztion" e.p.. Both labels were short-lived.
King Bee didn't suffer from the sophomore jinx and came hard with the next single "Must bee the music" that had singer Michele in an important role. Again a big international hit. Simultaneously the album "Royal jelly" dropped in 1990 and reached great sales figures. What eventually would be the last single from the album, the track "Cold slammin'" had none less then Kool Keith and Ced Gee doing raps on it. Also with raps by Rudeboy Remmington this was clearly a track for the hardcore rap crowd. Suprisingly though a remix done by DJ Automatic reached the top 20 in The Netherlands so there was a definite broad public appeal as well.
When King Bee was at it's heights, ASF had another project hitting the streets (busy "bee" huh?). With Rudeboy Remmington amongst others he released the track "Up the par" using the name Dom.I.No. This track goes in the books as one of the freshest rap tracks ever coming out of Holland imo. Many more Dom.I.No tracks got recorded but never saw the light of day. They did however open shows for Public Enemy in The Netherlands, an experience on it's own.
Also King Bee featured on a track done by the producers of Snap in Germany. The track has kind of a deep house feel to it and has vocals by Phryme. It came out as "Let's get busy" by Clubland Feat. King Bee. It reached no. 1 at the USA Billboard dance list.
Despite of all the success little cracks appeared in the foundation of King Bee. ASF got notice of Torso/Boudisque terminating a big release deal with Virgin in the USA. Also King Bee were hardly getting paid as their signed contract was pretty shady, next to that gold records were never handed out when the according sales figures got reached so there wasn't exactly a lot of love. Due to all kinds of music industry politics it would take 2 years for another King Bee release. ASF changed record companies to BMG and picked some other artists for his King Bee concept like rappers Spyte and Parole. Phryme had left to focus on more hip house tracks with group Sonic Surfers. Unfortunately King Bee's name had some what faded and company BMG did little to nothing with pr. The releases "Here we go again" and "Get ready" (with a killer disstrack aimed back at Tuff Crew rapper Ice Dog) faded into obscurity. Releases as King Bee in 1995 and 1998 shared the same faith.
The mid '90's showed ASF that hip hop in Holland had come to a point where he didn't feel to comfortable. The party aspect was gone en replaced by a thuggish image. The parties where he spinned weren't like the ones in the golden era of hip hop any more. Already proven to be a musical centipede, ASF slowly moved away from hip hop and focused on clubmusic. He choose not to be in front of the limelight anymore for various reasons. Behind the screen he had great success with tracks like "Move on baby" and "U and me" by Italian group Capella (the videos show people that had nothing to do with the tracks). ASF was asked to bring in Dutch rapper MC Fixxit, whom he managed, to do the vocals. The Capella tracks sold 2.4 million copies worldwide. Other highly successful tracks where ASF had production involvement with were "It's gonna be all right" by Deepzone, "My love" by Kellee, "You're my inspiration" by Ty Holden and some tracks by "His Royal Freshness". I could write another few pages on ASF's successes in this department but this being an old school hip hop blog, I won't.
When asked for what goals he still has, ASF shows he still has the greatest love for hip hop. His remaining wish would be a project done with old school rap heroes as that would be a definite crown on his career.
During the interview ASF struck me as a guy who should get way more props within hip hop in Holland and Dutch music history period! As one of the few black dj's in the eighties and early nineties he had to encounter a lot of hassle. Nevertheless his ongoing drive to push the boundaries of music and always staying "fresh" makes him without a doubt the biggest hip hop pioneer this country ever knew.
At this point in time ASF keeps rocking parties worldwide, keeps producing tracks and keeps the airwaves bumpin' with great music with his radio shows "Classic Material" and "The Freakmix Show" on fridays and saturdays on Jamm FM. Give the man some love and tune in!
ALL STAR FRESH; breaking barriers and building bridges
When Guan Elmzoon a.k.a. All Star Fresh (ASF) tries to recall his first meaningful encounter with music he draws the conclusion that his memories of music go as far back as his memories period. Descendent from a Carribean tribe, he remembers his grandmother being a very important traditional singer amongst her people. You could say the big beat drum was genetically forced upon ASF already as a very young kid.
At the age of 6 ASF moved to Holland, more specifically Amsterdam. When reached the age of 10 it was his elder brother that started getting imported black music on vinyl. A broad range of music from crooners to Betty Wright to Casiopea influenced a young ASF greatly. Also the upcoming 12" vinyl format in the late seventies had it's impact, ASF's brother at this point already owned two pitch controlled turntables. It actually was a Studio 54 compilation album that made ASF realize the music just kept on going and he got fascinated with this aspect of mixing records. Even before "Rapper's Delight" swooped the world of it's feet ASF had already heard disco tracks with rap vocals. At the age of 13 he already was a dj.
The North of Amsterdam had a very vibrant youth culture in the very early eighties, ASF became part of what later would be called hip hop culture. It was basically just a street phenomenon with no name yet; electric boogie, roller-skating, tagging up walls and all that fresh good stuff. When electric boogie was still mostly unheard of and unseen, it was ASF who had obtained some very early video footage from the US showing dancers. These moves and routines got copies of course and led to a victory in one of the earliest local electric boogie competitions held in The Netherlands in 1982. ASF participated and with amongst others Mr. Solo, one of Holland's b-boy pioneers without a doubt. Parallel to the dancing, ASF was already dj'ing in youthcentres etc. His mixing skills got noticed and led to his own fridaynight radio show on a pirate (illegal) radio station called "Radio Disco Action" in Amsterdam. His dj name by the way wasn't yet ASF but "Whiz Kid". It was the 1983 "Globe & Whiz Kid" track "Play that beat Mr. DJ" that lead to a necessary name change into ASF. The name All Star Fresh in the beginning was kind of meant as a boast claiming he was a star at every element within hip hop.
In 1984 ASF even had his first foreign dancing gigs when promoter Guilly Koster showcased some bands of his in Ibiza and dancers tagged allong to liven' up the shows. Amongst this group were Mr. Solo, Dillon Lewis and "Holland's first rapper" Martijn Roos, who were all part of the at that time very sucsessful "Alex & The City Crew".
ASF dancing in Ibiza (1984)
Around 1985 ASF changed radio stations and became a dj at pirate radio station "Satellite Radio" where he acquired a large following of listeners with his show. This show broadcasted on saturday afternoon and ASF used to run into the streets after his show to check the clothingshops etc. if they were tuned in on the "Satellite Radio" because that was were the public was on saturday afternoon. In 1986 he had a show called "Freakmixclub" which was probably the first hip hop radio show in Holland. In the years to come ASF's show format with lots of black music and hosting (with rapping) in the English language gained popularity and he worked for (pirate) radio stations like "Satellite Empire", "W.A.P.S.", "A.Q.S." and "New Dance Radio".His work as a club dj was less romantic....more than once ASF was expected to act like a living jukebox and play whatever the audience wanted. Trick of the trade was to still manage to smuggle in your own music styles and get away with it. When the tourist crowd left the club around 02.00 hours and the real partygoers remained, ASF slipped in some of the cooler stuff in the mix. Nonetheless it unfortunately wasn't an exception that ASF got told to spin less black music or no black music at all! A few times this even led to hem getting fired.
A place where ASF could really get his rocks of as a dj was at the so called B.O.C. (Buitenveldertse Ontmoetings Centrum), despite this being just a local neighbourhoodcentre they had the best sound system in Amsterdam. Accordingly to ASF it was amazing how many huge clubs and discotheques at that time at lousy sound systems. The sunday afternoons at the B.O.C. became infamous, the city had to create more public transport just to handle the crowd. Next to the B.O.C. at this time (1986) he was also dj-ing at the "Be-Bop" club (which in 1989 would turn into the infamous "iT"), a break he got thanks to Alex Van Oostrom (the later Dutch DMC pres.), and clubs "De Schakel" and "Bios". Finally there were several spots where ASF could play the latest black music. He more and more established his name as the dj with the latest en freshest records that hardly got any play on radio airwaves or other clubs and he became responsible for breaking in the first underground rap tracks in Holland like for example "Go see the doctor" by Kool Moe Dee and "Only buggin'" by Whistle.
Especially the crowd at the B.O.C. had lots of aspiring hip hop talent amongst it...like early dancers and the first rappers. One of the rappers that made an impression on ASF was a guy called MC Miker G. Together with a friend called BC Boy who had one of the first Akai samplers they joined up. A few little shows were done as "The Invisible Two". ASF had a brief first tv (VPRO) moment together with MC Miker G when being interviewed in a record shop. They were in the proces of developing a demo at BC Boy's home when MC Miker G got hooked up with DJ Sven and that was that when it comes to the collaboration with ASF.
ASF and MC Miker G seen with the guys from Whistle (1986)
In 1987 there was the first track released on vinyl. It was basically a producer/concept driven track that needed a few rappers laying down some lyrics. ASF and friend MC Geronimo (Armand Corneille, the later MC Phryme) worked along with this gimmick track that also earned them a performance on the famous Dutch "Countdown" music show on tv. The group was called QB-II and the track got called "Papa Joe". As said this was a gimmick track and not very street-orientated but every opportunity to end up on wax and get that foot between the industrydoor got seized! 1988 brought a few other outings on vinyl; he did a remix for the track "Pick up the pieces" by B.E.W.A.R.E. (Tony Scott & DJ Fix) that found it's way to a b-side, plus ASF represented with a track on the first Dutch rap compilation "Rhythm & Rhyme" which he had done with LTH and Rudeboy Remmington.
Thanx to his mixing skills ASF was asked to write a series of mixing instructions that got published in Dutch music magazine "Disco Dance" in 1987 ("Mixing with All Star Fresh from A to Z").
ASF's first release (1987)
Not only was ASF a successful club dj in The Netherlands and abroad
(Mallorca etc.), he also kept trying to increase
his turntable skills on a technical note. Quickmixing, scratching etc.,
ofcourse influenced by Grandmaster Flash. Dutch radio company AVRO had
established a national dj-battle which ASF joined on request by host
Robin Albers. In 1986 and 1987 he
was runner up (against his own opinion!) but he became the winner of the
1988 edition which was
held at the Locomotion discotheque in Zoetermeer (runner up that year
was the later famous club dj Michel De Heij). Being the Dutch champion
earned ASF the privilege to attend the world dj championships held by
DMC in the London Royal Albert Hall. Here ASF got blown away with the
whole industry being represented...bumping into artists like James
Brown, Alexander O'Neill, Babyface etc. Nevertheless he kept his
composure and battled himself to a third place in the competition. Being
a fan of Philidelphia DJ's ASF was hyped that Cash Money was actually
in the competition as the USA champion. Another side of the industry
showed it's ugly head as well....it became pretty clear early on that
nobody but Cash Money was winning this competition. Were all contenders
had to compete using the mixers DMC gave em, and a format set up of
turntables...it was Cash Money that competed with an alternative set up
and his own gear basically. ASF as already indicated ended up third in
the competition but definitely wrote dj-battle history by being the
first dj to actually diss another dj during his routine. He aimed his
arrows at Cash Money and cut up the sentence "cash-money-mother-fucker"
in his set. Were many people lost their head over it, Cash Money himself
appreciated it because he saw it from a dj-battling perspective
instead of some personal beef. He replied as a true champ by cutting a
LL Cool J sentence up in his routine:
"Calling-me-a-sucker-boy-you're-pushing-a-broom". ASF and Cash Money saw
eye to eye and became good friends....one could say they changed the
DMC competition in 1988 from a lot of basic clean mixing to more
turntable trickery.
ASF video showing his final set at the DMC World Championships (1988)
Skip to 06.30 mins to get to the Cash Money battle diss.
ASF's performance at the DMC got noticed by rap industry insider Dave Funkenklein (r.i.p.). He invited ASF to join the dj-battles at the 1988 New Music Seminar which was a great honor cause let's face it...a competition with many of the USA best dj's was way more fierce than at the so-called DMC World Championships. ASF gathered some pocket money and travelled of to hip hop's lion's den, being New York. He had found a place to stay at Rudeboy Remmington's mother who lived just out New York. Funkenklein though, soon got ASF a place to crash closer to the nucleus of events about to happen.
ASF made history in the Big Apple by being the first non-American to fly into the finals of The World Supremacy Battle of DJs. He gained the highly respected second place of this prestigious DJ contest only losing to DJ Scratch of EPMD fame. This done with a set that was basically freestyled all the way cause there wasn't any preparation time. He beat prestigious dj's like Dee Nasty from France, Cutmaster Swift from England and Tat Money from Philidelphia in the process. ASF noticed that some dj's used the same records and tricks in the preliminaries as in the finale battles. He understood he had to come fresh with new stuff in the finale that was hosted by Biz Markie and Flavor Flave, and he did. Using a test press of De La Soul's "Plug tuning" track with some cool turntable tricks he really got the crowd's appreciation. But again it became clear that the industry had it's own thoughts on who'd become the champion....and it wasn't no guy from Europe! During his set ASF quickly found out his equipment was sabotaged but in the end he didn't care as he was on a pink cloud anyway during the whole event. The impression that ASF made that year at the NMS, resulted in many invitations to perform with world known artists like Public Enemy, Stetsasonic, Ice T, 45King and Ultramagnetic MCs....hell...he was even asked by Melle Mel to join a new Furious Five! As ASF states it's a crazy experience when your music heroes actually think big of you and want to work with them. It was a crying shame that he wasn't able to seize the (he hadn't forseen his stay being so long!) day and use the many opportunities right then and there... Postponing his leave for months, ASF took upon himself crazy little jobs en hustles to prolong his stay. At one point, being flat broke for days, ASF had to jet back to Amsterdam to pick up on his daily earnings. To be back in the small minded Dutch musicscene was a giant step back from battleing Tat Money, and sitting in Russel Simmon's offce a few months earlier This presented a cold shower. There had been some media coverage in The Netherlands, mainly a big article in prestigious musicmagazine "Oor" by journalist Marcel Wouter who happenend to be present at the NMS and ASF was asked on some small tv-shows to tell his tale but nothing that really examplified the impact of the trip on Dutch hip hop culture. Truth of the matter was that Holland got put on the map in NY and rap artists started to travel to Holland and other European countries because they realized there was a vibrant scene/market across the ocean. Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MC's, De La Soul etc. all came in 1988 and 1989 and used ASF as their hook up/point of contact.
ASF travelled to the NMS again in 1989 with Rudeboy Remmington and MC Demes to enhance these ties.
ASF with champion DJ Scratch at the NMS (1988)
With the hype that surrounded him and his contacts within DMC, ASF started his own recordlabel in 1988 called "Fresh Merchandise". In 1988 he dropped his first 12" on it called "Listen to the rhythm (of the drum and the bass" which was an instrumental cut and paste gem. Very much in style with Mantronix ASF and partner BC Boy showed their love for electronical hip hop with lots of edits etc. in 1989 another 12" followed with a track recorded with MC Demes (later: Deams) called "(This is) Dope" and on the b-side a fantastic dj cut called "Who's the man" that used parts of his recorded live mixing. Clearly the Dutch market was too small to be really succesfull and crossing over to foreign sales was simply a bridge to far. The label therefore folded after these 2 releases.
ASF with MC Demes performing "(This is) Dope" on a Dutch tv-show
ASF used his Fresh Merchandise experience, and of course his obtained knowledge in New York for a new to be project in 1989. Influenced by Soul II Soul, who where a loose knit group assembled around one major figure, he contemplated his master plan that would eventually become King Bee. He layed down his plans at various record companies, at the end it was company Torso/Boudisque that had some faith and gave the green light to spread some white label pressing around of a hip house track that ASF recorded at BC Boy's home. When a license request came in from a German label called Low Spirit Recs. they knew they were holding something good and the track "Party people in the house" hit the German and English market with succes. ASF kept developing his King Bee concept to the extreme detail...clothing, image, voices etc. Handpicked rappers (like Phryme from the "Papa Joe" days), singers (his little niece Michele) and dancers (Vince Charming, Kenny T) all contributed to ASF's concept. Most were unorthodox picks as they all were still fairly unknown. ASF wanted club orientated tracks but also some harder rap tracks to keep in touch with the more b-boy fan base. Therefore he made a cut heavily based on the track "My part of town" by the Tuff Crew and called it "Back by dope demand". It was his intention to re-create one of his favourite tracks and possibly make it even better, an intention often misunderstood by others till this day. The track was planned as a b-side for the clubtrack "Feel the flow" and spread around as such through a white label pressing. ASF has this crazy memory of standing in famous Amsterdam club The Roxy and hearing DJ Dimitri playing the white label b-side "Back by dope demand". The crowd lost it and the b-side won.... "Back by dope demand" got released by Torso/Boudisque as an a-side 12" and became a HUGE international hit. Funniest thing was that nobody knew who King Bee was, not even in Holland at that point in time. Everybody thought it was a USA release. Imagine the looks on people's faces when King Bee had it's first live performance at the Metropool club in Zaandam....everybody was like: "Yoooo it's THEM guys!".
First tv appearance by King Bee doing their first release.
Tuff Crew didn't quite appreciate the similarity between their track and "Back by dope demand". The crew was already disbanded but rapper Ice Dog still recorded a diss record aimed at King Bee called "Shootin' deuces". But as ASF claims with a smile; "if people are doing diss records it means you are selling your record!".
The rest of the music industry wasn't quite as bothered with the whole copyright discussion and Madonna's agency even booked King Bee as their show opener for the Rotterdam concerts. ASF had to think fast and hard to create a show...as he had only one big hit at this point and little financial resources. The thought of performing for 50.000 people was intoxicating. Luckily the shows went well and King Bee was asked to join Madonna for the entire European tour but in the end things simply didn't work out as such. "Back by dope demand" made ASF the first black artist in Holland to achieve the prestigious Dutch "Edison" award.
Thriving on success, ASF founded a recordlabel once again together with Wilfred Hunsel. This label "Killa Bee Records" was aimed at releasing ASF's side projects. In 1991 and 1992 a few club tracks got released showcasing Dutch rappers like MC Fixxit, Ragoo and D-Rock. At the same time he also founded the label "Repo Records" to release non-commercial, experimental stuff like the 1992 "Di-Jazztion" e.p.. Both labels were short-lived.
King Bee didn't suffer from the sophomore jinx and came hard with the next single "Must bee the music" that had singer Michele in an important role. Again a big international hit. Simultaneously the album "Royal jelly" dropped in 1990 and reached great sales figures. What eventually would be the last single from the album, the track "Cold slammin'" had none less then Kool Keith and Ced Gee doing raps on it. Also with raps by Rudeboy Remmington this was clearly a track for the hardcore rap crowd. Suprisingly though a remix done by DJ Automatic reached the top 20 in The Netherlands so there was a definite broad public appeal as well.
King Bee video "Must bee the music" (1990)
When King Bee was at it's heights, ASF had another project hitting the streets (busy "bee" huh?). With Rudeboy Remmington amongst others he released the track "Up the par" using the name Dom.I.No. This track goes in the books as one of the freshest rap tracks ever coming out of Holland imo. Many more Dom.I.No tracks got recorded but never saw the light of day. They did however open shows for Public Enemy in The Netherlands, an experience on it's own.
Also King Bee featured on a track done by the producers of Snap in Germany. The track has kind of a deep house feel to it and has vocals by Phryme. It came out as "Let's get busy" by Clubland Feat. King Bee. It reached no. 1 at the USA Billboard dance list.
Despite of all the success little cracks appeared in the foundation of King Bee. ASF got notice of Torso/Boudisque terminating a big release deal with Virgin in the USA. Also King Bee were hardly getting paid as their signed contract was pretty shady, next to that gold records were never handed out when the according sales figures got reached so there wasn't exactly a lot of love. Due to all kinds of music industry politics it would take 2 years for another King Bee release. ASF changed record companies to BMG and picked some other artists for his King Bee concept like rappers Spyte and Parole. Phryme had left to focus on more hip house tracks with group Sonic Surfers. Unfortunately King Bee's name had some what faded and company BMG did little to nothing with pr. The releases "Here we go again" and "Get ready" (with a killer disstrack aimed back at Tuff Crew rapper Ice Dog) faded into obscurity. Releases as King Bee in 1995 and 1998 shared the same faith.
The 1993 King Bee line-up;
f.l.t.r. BC Boy, ASF, Parole, Spyte
The mid '90's showed ASF that hip hop in Holland had come to a point where he didn't feel to comfortable. The party aspect was gone en replaced by a thuggish image. The parties where he spinned weren't like the ones in the golden era of hip hop any more. Already proven to be a musical centipede, ASF slowly moved away from hip hop and focused on clubmusic. He choose not to be in front of the limelight anymore for various reasons. Behind the screen he had great success with tracks like "Move on baby" and "U and me" by Italian group Capella (the videos show people that had nothing to do with the tracks). ASF was asked to bring in Dutch rapper MC Fixxit, whom he managed, to do the vocals. The Capella tracks sold 2.4 million copies worldwide. Other highly successful tracks where ASF had production involvement with were "It's gonna be all right" by Deepzone, "My love" by Kellee, "You're my inspiration" by Ty Holden and some tracks by "His Royal Freshness". I could write another few pages on ASF's successes in this department but this being an old school hip hop blog, I won't.
When asked for what goals he still has, ASF shows he still has the greatest love for hip hop. His remaining wish would be a project done with old school rap heroes as that would be a definite crown on his career.
During the interview ASF struck me as a guy who should get way more props within hip hop in Holland and Dutch music history period! As one of the few black dj's in the eighties and early nineties he had to encounter a lot of hassle. Nevertheless his ongoing drive to push the boundaries of music and always staying "fresh" makes him without a doubt the biggest hip hop pioneer this country ever knew.
At this point in time ASF keeps rocking parties worldwide, keeps producing tracks and keeps the airwaves bumpin' with great music with his radio shows "Classic Material" and "The Freakmix Show" on fridays and saturdays on Jamm FM. Give the man some love and tune in!
donderdag 5 april 2012
LTH ; hip hop missionary through thick and thin
A 12 year old Lloyd Terborg moved from Paramaribo Surinam to Amsterdam Holland in 1978. He ended up in the infamous Bijlmer area of Amsterdam which back then was a brandnew housingproject. The Bijlmer was mainly populated with folks from Surinam en Antillian origin. A year later he was mainly doing what most kids were at that time and place; fighting, doing petty crimes, hanging around in the streets bugging out. At one point a burglary got planned by Lloyd's "friends" and he was asked to participate that evening. That day he wandered around with doubts in his mind about the planned break in that night. He ended up checking out a youthcentre because he heard some cool funk music playing. What he witnessed there changed his life......
At that particular youthcentre ("J.C.B." in the Bijlmer area) there where some guys dancing like Lloyd never saw before.....next to a kid named Ulrich there was this kid would turn out to be the later Mr. Solo (Werner Themen). A few years later the dancing would be widely known as breakdancing. The music that was used came from tapes from American friends of Mr. Solo....soldiers stationed in Holland (a common thing during the Cold War era).
Lloyd, all excited by the new music and dancing, decided that night not to show up for the burglary. The next day at school his "friends" beat him down for not showing up. Apperently the break in went sour and a few got arrested. Lloyd saw it as a sign, broke up with being a small time criminal and started hanging around with Mr. Solo and his friends. From that point he started breakdancing himself. Also neighborhoud parties were thrown with the same music as they kept hearing from the tapes from the American G.I.'s. Lloyd became very much Solo's pupil when it came to his first steps in hip hop. The next step to making one's own music was made soon after, Solo already in 1983 had a drumcomputer. This was the BOSS DR-110, probably the first drumcomputer used for making hip hop in the Netherlands.
At one point Lloyd had bought his own BOSS DR-110 at the "Dirk Witte shop" in Amsterdam and started cookin' up his own beats. More rappers, DJ's, beatcreators and breakdancers turned up on the Amsterdam hip hop scene like Ricky-D, Zodiac (Jeffrey Roberts), Beatmasters, DJ Genie, Dillon Lewis, Rudeboy, Babyface, Tombox, Kay Leigh and All Star Fresh to form hip hop's first generation. Connections were made with likeminded artists in Utrecht (Mellow MC's), The Hague (Skinny Scotti) and Rotterdam (TC Boyz, Mr. B). Holland's first small rapshow became a fact in 1983...venue the Melkweg in Amsterdam saw performances by Mr. Solo, Ricky-D, Beatmasters and LJ Fresh. One year later a bigger show was held at the Aknathon club in Amsterdam which would eventually became a historical venue in Dutch rap history in years to follow.
Lloyd, by then known as LTH ("Lloyd Thinks Hard") is a prominent figure within the florishing local hip hop culture. He makes beats for several rappers, breakdances, raps en masters the human beatbox. Also he helps a English party promotor that lived in Amsterdam called Norville Small with organizing more and more hip hop parties. As true missionaries LTH and friends started spreading the hip hop religion far outside the Amsterdam borders. Meeting up on Amsterdam Central Station they just hopped a train to some city with a discotheque were they would try to persuade the owner/house DJ to give them some limelight. Mind you this was mostly without getting paid and just for the love.
Around 1985 LTH improved his beatmaking skills....using hardware like the CASIO SK-1, KAWAI
R-50 and the ROLAND series. With rapper MC Fafa (Brain Faverus) and DJ Curious Cut he formed the rapgroup Sonic early 1986. They mainly performed in Amsterdam but also joined rap packages with the likes of Deams, LJ Fresh and Extince that Norville Small put together to perform in other Dutch cities. In 1987 LTH entered the annual W.A.P.S. (radiostation "West Amsterdam Power Station") rap contest with his group Sonic. They end up as the runners up (in 3rd place was Divorze Posse, the winner was the group Rap Division from Rotterdam).
Amsterdam Bijlmer housing projects
At that particular youthcentre ("J.C.B." in the Bijlmer area) there where some guys dancing like Lloyd never saw before.....next to a kid named Ulrich there was this kid would turn out to be the later Mr. Solo (Werner Themen). A few years later the dancing would be widely known as breakdancing. The music that was used came from tapes from American friends of Mr. Solo....soldiers stationed in Holland (a common thing during the Cold War era).
Lloyd, all excited by the new music and dancing, decided that night not to show up for the burglary. The next day at school his "friends" beat him down for not showing up. Apperently the break in went sour and a few got arrested. Lloyd saw it as a sign, broke up with being a small time criminal and started hanging around with Mr. Solo and his friends. From that point he started breakdancing himself. Also neighborhoud parties were thrown with the same music as they kept hearing from the tapes from the American G.I.'s. Lloyd became very much Solo's pupil when it came to his first steps in hip hop. The next step to making one's own music was made soon after, Solo already in 1983 had a drumcomputer. This was the BOSS DR-110, probably the first drumcomputer used for making hip hop in the Netherlands.
At one point Lloyd had bought his own BOSS DR-110 at the "Dirk Witte shop" in Amsterdam and started cookin' up his own beats. More rappers, DJ's, beatcreators and breakdancers turned up on the Amsterdam hip hop scene like Ricky-D, Zodiac (Jeffrey Roberts), Beatmasters, DJ Genie, Dillon Lewis, Rudeboy, Babyface, Tombox, Kay Leigh and All Star Fresh to form hip hop's first generation. Connections were made with likeminded artists in Utrecht (Mellow MC's), The Hague (Skinny Scotti) and Rotterdam (TC Boyz, Mr. B). Holland's first small rapshow became a fact in 1983...venue the Melkweg in Amsterdam saw performances by Mr. Solo, Ricky-D, Beatmasters and LJ Fresh. One year later a bigger show was held at the Aknathon club in Amsterdam which would eventually became a historical venue in Dutch rap history in years to follow.
Lloyd, by then known as LTH ("Lloyd Thinks Hard") is a prominent figure within the florishing local hip hop culture. He makes beats for several rappers, breakdances, raps en masters the human beatbox. Also he helps a English party promotor that lived in Amsterdam called Norville Small with organizing more and more hip hop parties. As true missionaries LTH and friends started spreading the hip hop religion far outside the Amsterdam borders. Meeting up on Amsterdam Central Station they just hopped a train to some city with a discotheque were they would try to persuade the owner/house DJ to give them some limelight. Mind you this was mostly without getting paid and just for the love.
LTH seen at one of many hip hop showcases in the pioneering days
R-50 and the ROLAND series. With rapper MC Fafa (Brain Faverus) and DJ Curious Cut he formed the rapgroup Sonic early 1986. They mainly performed in Amsterdam but also joined rap packages with the likes of Deams, LJ Fresh and Extince that Norville Small put together to perform in other Dutch cities. In 1987 LTH entered the annual W.A.P.S. (radiostation "West Amsterdam Power Station") rap contest with his group Sonic. They end up as the runners up (in 3rd place was Divorze Posse, the winner was the group Rap Division from Rotterdam).
Sonic as runner up at the W.A.P.S. rap contest 1987
In 1988 LTH was asked by Rudeboy to create a beat that would lead to a recording done for the first Dutch rap compilation album "Rhythm & Rhyme - A rap compilation vol. 1". Rudeboy didn't want to showcase his own group Urban Dance Squad just yet on vinyl so he formed a special group just for this recording occasion called 167th East Rudeboy Pack together with LTH and All Star Fresh. The track "It's up to you" featured on the album. Another track on the album was also produced by LTH being "It's easy to rhyme by Too Tough Cheryl & T Rebels. Being represented with two productions on the first Dutch real rap album only shows the impact of LTH on the emerging scene in the late '80's.
LTH with Rudeboy Remmingon, Waterloosquare Amsterdam 1988
Despite performances with Marvin D as ML Posse and appearing on a rap tv-show through early European satelite broadcaster Superchannel with All Star Fresh, Zodiac, Mr. Solo etc., it soon occured to LTH that the pioneering days of rap were behind them. '89/'90 saw an end to the hype and the public's focus moved away from hip hop to newjack swing and house music. Especcialy the west of Holland saw a crumbling hip hop culture that dissapointed hardcore followers like LTH. The spontaneous dissappearance of rap party promoter Norville Small also added to this downfall. Ongoing rap parties in the east like in Atac in Enschede gave new opportunities and having met his future wife at these parties LTH moved to Enschede to capitalize on these new furtile rap grounds. Here he started organizing parties and booking all his old friends to do shows. A new group was formed with the Graveyard Posse that resulted in the appearance of 2 tracks on the rap compilation album "Exiles from the neverlands" that saw light of day in 1992. Unfortunately the Graveyard Posse's rapper had little ambition for a rap career and choose another path (he became a stand up comedian). LTH who had found a new job at the Enschede airport became less active with recording and performing himself due to this. In 1993 he started hosting a local rap show called "Traxx2damaxx" playing everything from classic old school joint to the latest joints.
A new found collabaration with Jamaican rapper/toaster Daddy Jim saw LTH producing and performing again. A selfreleased cd called "On target" saw a release in 1996 as a direct result. This album contained mostly ragga vocals but also some rap tracks. In 1997 LTH and Daddy Jim even won the very prestigious Grote Prijs Van Nederland award for best new rap act. The prizemoney won at this competition was put at good use for building a new studio for personal use. From this point LTH and Daddy Jim started using the groupname Herdley Everet for recording and performing.
LTH & Daddy Jim
During the nineties LTH gets more and more socially engaged with the youth. As a prominent member of the Dutch chapter of the Zulu Nation he starts educating kids by using the positive elements within the hip hop culture untill this very day. On the side he's still busy making beats and planning on yet new music releases. A true hip hop activist!
LTH with Afrika Bambaattaa
vrijdag 4 november 2011
KAY L.C. ; the K assault 1983-2011
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.
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:
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.
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!
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:
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.
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..
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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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?!?!
dinsdag 19 juli 2011
DJ KID SUNDANCE....the tale of the lone hip hop ranger
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:
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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:
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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:
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.
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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:
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...
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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.
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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:
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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:
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:
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:
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!
zaterdag 16 juli 2011
BIG FUN IN THE BIG TOWN......a Dutch peek at early hip hop in NY
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.
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.
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:
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:
maandag 13 juni 2011
DJ ALIEN; running for the Moon and beyond...
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!
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:
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:
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