OLD SCHOOL NEW SCHOOL YOU KNOW THE RULES PT.3

Old School New School You Know The Rules

Swizz Beatz



 

DJ. MANTRONIK



This day and age most entertainers go the extra mile and create a brand with their message or a product. The comparison between Kurtis Mantronik and Swizz Beatz is evident physically and musically. Both of these producers made a major contribution to hip hop and changed the game for everyone. Kurtis Mantronik born in Jamaica to a Syrian father and Jamaican mother. His given name Kurtis el Khaleel and he worked for Sleeping Bag Records as an A&R, producer and artist. Swizz Beatz was born as Kasseem Dean in the Bronx and was imported to Atlanta for too many fights in high school. Being introduced to hip hop as a teen in the South Bronx his father purchased equiptment for him to dj. By the age of 17 Swizz sold his first beat which was "Ruff Ryders Anthem" for DMX. His uncles owning Ruff Ryder Records was instrumental in his success and eventual 2009 Urban Music Award for Producer of The Year. Here is a hit list of songs and artist Swizz produced:

•  DMX ("Party Up")
• Beyonce ("Check On It")
• T.I. ("Bring Em Out")
• Styles P ("Good Times")
• Cassidy ("Hotel","Im A Hustla")
• Busta Rhymes ("Touch It")
• Ludacris ("Nasty Girl")
• Jadakiss ('Who's Real?")
• Maino ("Million Bucks")
• Chris Brown ("I Can Transform Ya")

The next level of marketing is to create a brand. Swizz currently has a line of sneakers out with Reebok that are selling off the shelves, resident producer at NYU, designer at Lotus cars and collects paintings along with selling paintings of his own. Earnings from the paintings go to the Children's Cancer & Blood Foundation.

The career of Kurtis Mantronik with the group Mantronix lasted from 1984-91. Besides being one of the main producers for Sleeping Bag Records he produced 5 of his own albums.The second album "In Full Effect" was the first album done on DAT(Digital Audio Tape introduced by Sony in 1987) instead of reel to reel. As an A&R for Sleeping Bag he was responsible for signing E.P.M.D. to sister label Fresh Records. Mantronik also produced Just-Ice who was one of the first east coast hardcore emcees and one of the first to embrace the teachings of the Nation of Gods and Earths. The sound that Mantronik created he called electro-funk. He considered himself the King of the Beat for his time in the 80's. Producing and creating music from the age of 17 however took a toll on Mantronik where the 3 days at a time studio sessions burned him out. He took a break from 1991-98 and resurfaced in Britain. The techno and house style of music he produced was always bigger in Europe. His contribution to music as an editing and remix pioneer is still felt around the industry.Personally in my collection of vinyl the first remixes I remember and strong edits were from Mantronik and The Latin Rascals who did production together from time to time in the early 80's. As a matter of fact the album cover above for "Needle To The Groove" was a statement artistically that actually gave you a peek at the party in Mantroniks head. Back then the mentality overall was doing it for the love of the music. By looking at this album cover I see endorsements from either Technics, Adidas, Cazal, Cerwin Vega or Kangol should have been in the works. Even though we don't hear alot about Mantronik he has done major production and remixes in Europe on pop, house music and techno artist tracks. Also produced tracks on Dance Dance Revolution and TrickStyle video game series. So old school personas can take advantage of the new school rules.


                                      If you didn't know, now you know Peace and blessings
                                                              ~DAJOURNALIST~

OLD SCHOOL NEW SCHOOL YOU KNOW THE RULES....starring





Ricky Rozay

 



Chubb Rock









                         AS



Roxanne Shante'



Nikki Minaj







                                AS

DJ  Mantronik

Swizz Beatz

 The year is 1985  a year earlier the movie Beat Street made alot of noise for hip hop and an unknown actor Jon Chardiet played a character named Ramon "Ramo" that set the whole pace for the climax of the movie.

27 years later the actor is still unknown but everyone from that era can relate to the shout out in the theme song "Everybody say Ramo!" The actor definitely would have made the show "Where Are They Now?" In 1988 Brown University pre-med student Richard Simpson aka Chubb Rock drop out of college to pursue a career in rap. Who knows what impact Dr. Simpson would have made in the medical world, but to this day when "Treat Em Right" comes on people still hit the dance floor. His dancers Dinky and Hotdog formed a group called A.T.E.E.M  in 92 (everybody can't rap) Besides an appearance in Crooklyn Dodgers in 95 we haven't heard much from the Big Man. He did make an appearance in 2011 on the NBC game show The Marriage Ref with his wife and childhood sweetheart of 24 years KeKe "Diamond" Simpson. He did collaborate with Wordsmith on "Back In" in 2009 youtube it and you hear some of the story of the crooked promoters and label reps that left rap legends with pockets like ours. What guys like Chubb Rock and Heavy D. did was pave the way for big guys like Christopher "Biggie" Wallace and eventually Ricky Rozay.

                                                                                                                                                                     Loilita Gooden aka  Roxanne Shante' also had a career effected by "janky promoters". Throughout the legendary battles in her career the label left her with little to nothing in cash. Being naive and only 14 at the time of her first recording didn't help. She  paved the way for several female emcee's to follow in her footsteps. Shante' claimed in 2004 on the beef dvd that the label Warner Music payed for her to go to school but the claim was disputed in Slate magazine by journalist Ben Sheffner. What we do know is that she was fearless in her time to shine dissing everyone and entered the scene on a Marley Marl beat and took on the whole U.T.F.O crew in 1984 to a lyrical war that spawned numerous answer songs from all over the industry. 1985 brought the hit "Bite This' that dissed everyone from LL to Run DMC. The following year she teamed up with Steady B and Biz Markie in seperate tracks.  In 1988 she teamed up with Rick James in a song called Loosey's Rap. Oh yeah, how could we forget in 1987 "Have A Nice Day" where she said lyrical giant KRS ONE's name sounds like a wack radio station. The list of names of people grows longer as I did my research for this article of where are they now??? We all know where Steady B is and thats doing life for a botched bank robbery. Sparky D disappeared off the scene and probably got the same treatment from the labels Shante' got. Which leads us to the fact that Industry rule #4,080 record company people are SHADY. Obviously there is a need for a second part to this article where we will get to DJ Mantronik and a few others that meant alot to hip hop. And if anyone happens to see Ramo, Dinky, Hotdog or even Tracie Spencer yall let me know.

Peace and Blessings,

   ~DAJOURNALIST~