Word: hops
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Disc jockeys, of course, have been around for decades. In the 1970s hip-hop founding fathers Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash helped turn record spinning into an art. And rock acts--Aerosmith, R.E.M. and others--have long sought to bottle the lightning of hip-hop by collaborating with rappers. Today, though, something new is happening: more rock groups--from Limp Bizkit to Sugar Ray--are making deejays fully fledged members, on equal footing with the guitarist and drummer. A couple of years ago, being a deejay in a rock band was maybe the equivalent of being the backup vocalist-designated...
When DJ Lethal joined Limp Bizkit a few months before the band recorded its debut album, he changed its sound. "It was more of a punk band--it had a punk edge," says Lethal, a Latvian emigre who had been a member of the Irish-American hip-hop band House of Pain. "What I brought in was more of a hip-hop side." He is working on a solo album...
...Homicide was working as a hip-hop radio deejay in Los Angeles before he joined the pop-rock band Sugar Ray in 1994. At first he was a mere sideman--on the band's 1995 album Lemonade and Brownies; he's not even in the group photo on the back cover. Then again, the picture is a supremely geeky shot of the band riding on a roller coaster, so maybe being left out was a blessing in disguise. In any case, Homicide says, today he's "cut in on publishing and merchandising, and I'm a full-fledged member...
...rapping, a little shouting and even less actual singing, the music was refreshingly, well, musical. There were recognizable melodies and sinuous bass-lines, beats to groove to and even a little harmony. Even better, the songs were pretty innovative and incredibly upbeat. This was the most aggressively happy hip-hop ever, with song titles like "Feelin' Alright" and "Beautiful Day?" Len also has a penchant for the robotic-voice vocoder effect, and they made use of it several times, invoking memories of New Wave...
...drummer, J.D. Blaine, amazed and amused. Even one beat of his drum prompted audience response; he possessed a zany aura that fed into Victor's desire for fun and crazy musical progression. The band's DJ also kept the crowd going, playing Jackson 5 and old school hip-hop, with Wooten's contributions. The combination of the DJ and Wooten brought out some of Wooten's best slapping technique...