1.
Album
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Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
West Coast hip hop
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West Coast hip hop is a hip hop music subgenre that encompasses any artists or music that originates in the West Coast region of the United States. The culture is believed to have been a mutual creation which evolved from interaction between people who identified with elements from their respective coasts. A number of laid the foundations for West Coast hip hop, long before the emergence of West Coast rappers such as DJ Flash & The Rappers Rapp Group, Eazy-E, Ice T. According to geniusrap. com, a cataclysmic event helped give rise to it out West, in 1967, Bud Schulberg founded a creative space entitled Watts Writers Workshop, intended to help the people of the Watts neighborhood and provide a place for them to express themselves freely. Out of this background the Watts Prophets formed, its members having moved to the West Coast from southern states such as Texas and Louisiana. The West Coast hip-hop scene started in earnest in 1978 with the founding of Unique Entertainment, a group influenced by Prince, East Coast hip hop, Kraftwerk, Parliament-Funkadelic and others. In 1984, Uncle Jamms Army released their first single, Dial-a-Freak, and in the same year Egyptian Lover released his On the Nile album, which includes the popular 12 single Egypt Egypt. Another early landmark occurred in 1981, when Duffy Hooks launched the first West Coast rap label, Rappers Rapp Records and its first act was the duo of Disco Daddy and Captain Rapp, whose debut single was Gigolo Rapp or Gigolo Groove. Later, in 1983, Captain Rapp would create the classic West Coast song Bad Times, in the mid-1980s, Mixmaster Spade defined an early form of gangsta rap with his Compton Posse. From this group, Spade mentored future rap stars of the West Coast, including Toddy Tee, in the same period, the Compton-based former locking dancer Alonzo Williams formed World Class Wreckin Cru, which included future N. W. A members Dr. Dre and DJ Yella. Williams also founded Kru-Cut Records and established a studio in the back of his nightclub Eves After Dark. During this period, one of the greatest factors in the spread of West Coast hip-hop was the radio station 1580 KDAY, in 1988, N. W. As landmark album Straight Outta Compton was released. As well as establishing a basis for the popularity of gangsta rap, in particular, the controversial Fuck tha Police and the ensuing censorship attracted substantial media coverage and public attention. Following the dissolution of N. W. A. due to in-fighting, the early 1990s was a period in which hip hop went from strength to strength. Tupac Shakurs debut album 2Pacalypse Now was released in 1991, demonstrating an awareness, with attacks on social injustice, poverty. Shakurs music and philosophy was rooted in various philosophies and approaches, including the Black Panther Party, Black nationalism, egalitarianism, and liberty. Also in 1991, Suge Knight founded Death Row Records using money he had extorted from the pop-rapper Vanilla Ice - the West Coast saw the debut of arguably its most influential and popular rapper. Other Death Row releases such as Snoop Doggy Doggs Doggystyle and 2Pacs All Eyez on Me became huge sellers and were critically acclaimed
3.
Gangsta rap
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Gangsta rap or gangster rap is a subgenre of hip hop music with themes and lyrics that generally emphasize the gangsta lifestyle. After the national attention that Ice-T and N. W. A attracted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, gangsta rap became the most commercially lucrative subgenre of hip hop. Many gangsta rap artists openly boast of their associations with various street gangs as part of their artistic image, with the Bloods. Gangsta rap is closely related to other indigenous gang and crime-oriented forms of music, the subject matter inherent in gangsta rap has caused a great deal of controversy. The White House administrations of both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton criticized the genre, many gangsta rappers argue that in the world of their genre exists the emotions and perspectives of a people whose suffering is too often overlooked and belittled by society. Gangsta rap, some argue, was an effect of the various wrongdoings perpetrated against African-Americans in underprivileged neighborhoods. The various riots sparked by the Rodney King beating and the acquittal of the officers responsible for the beating sparked anger. Gangsta rap acted as an outlet so such people could express themselves angrily and they often used gangsta rap to tell the stories of their lives, which sometimes included strong violence, hypersexuality, and drug abuse. The 1973 album Hustlers Convention by Lightnin Rod and Jaren Clark featured lyrics that deal with life, including pimping. Many rappers, such as Ice-T and Mac Dre, have credited pimp, rudy Ray Moores stand-up comedy and films based on his Dolemite hustler-pimp alter ego also influenced gangsta rap and are still a popular source for samples. Finally, blaxploitation films of the 1970s, with their depictions of black underworld figures, were a major inspiration as well. Tracy Ice-T Morrow, was born in Newark, New Jersey, as a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles where he rose to prominence in the West Coast hip hop scene. In 1986, Ice-T released 6 in the Mornin, which is regarded as among the first gangsta rap songs. In an interview with PROPS magazine, Ice-T said, Heres the exact order of what really went down. Then the syncopation of that rap was used by me when I made 6 in the Mornin, the vocal delivery was the same. P. S. K. is makin that green. six in the morning, police at my door. When I heard that record I was like Oh @#. *%, and call it a bite or what you will but I dug that record. My record didnt sound like P. S. K, but I liked the way he was flowing with it. P. S. K. was talking about Park Side Killers and that was the only difference, when Schoolly did it, it was. one by one, Im knockin em out
4.
Def Jam Recordings
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Def Jam Recordings is an American record label, focused predominantly on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group. In the UK, the takes on the name Def Jam UK and is operated through Virgin EMI, while in Japan. The label distributes various record labels, including Kanye Wests GOOD Music, Ludacris Disturbing Tha Peace, Def Jam was founded by Rick Rubin in his dormitory in Weinstein Hall at New York University and its first release was a single by his punk-rock group Hose. Russell Simmons joined Rubin shortly after they were introduced to other, according to one story. Another cites DJ Jazzy Jay as their connector, Rubin has said he met Simmons on the TV show, Graffiti Rock and recognized him then as the face of hip hop, He was five years older than me, and he was already established in the music business. And I had no experience whatsoever, the first single released with the Def Jam Recordings logo was T La Rock & Jazzy Jays Its Yours. The first releases with Def Jam Recordings catalog numbers were LL Cool Js I Need a Beat, the singles sold well, eventually leading to a distribution deal with CBS Records through Columbia Records the following year. A few years later, Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen started a label called Rush Associated Labels to handle Def Jam. RAL became the home to Nice & Smooth and EPMD after both acts were acquired due to the folding of their former label Sleeping Bag Records, other acts under the RAL umbrella included Redman, Onyx, Flatlinerz, Domino, Warren G and Jayo Felony. As the decade drew to a close, the label signed Public Enemy, Lyor Cohen became president of Def Jam/RAL in 1988, after winning a power struggle with Rubin, who would shortly thereafter leave the company to form Def American Recordings. Rubin would take Slayer with him to Def American in its initial stages, by 1992, despite recent multi-platinum selling releases from Public Enemy, and EPMD, Def Jam ran into severe financial troubles and was faced with folding. However, in 1994, PolyGram purchased Sonys 50% stake in Def Jam Recordings — subsequently bringing the label into its fold, following PolyGrams purchase, Def Jam distributed the Violator Records-signed artist Warren Gs Regulate. G Funk Era album, which went triple platinum and brought much-needed revenue to Def Jam through its distribution deal with Violator, PolyGram acquired an additional 10% in Def Jam Recordings in 1996, further strengthening its ownership of Def Jam. Shortly thereafter, Rush Associated Labels was renamed Def Jam Music Group, the label remained profitable as its veteran star LL Cool J released his successful album Mr. Smith in 1995. The label later signed Foxy Brown, whose debut album Ill Na Na became a seller in 1997. In 1998, PolyGram was purchased by Seagram and merged with the MCA family of labels and it then purchased the remaining interest of Def Jam Recordings from Russell Simmons for a reported $100 million. UMG merged 14+ record labels including, Def Jam, Island Records, despite the formation of IDJMG, the Def Jam, Mercury, and Island labels continued to operate as separate imprints underneath the bigger umbrella. Lyor Cohen was appointed co-president of IDJMG, and Kevin Liles succeeded him as president of Def Jam, Def Soul also issued recordings by Musiq, Montell Jordan, Case,112, Patti LaBelle, and Christina Milian
5.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership
6.
PolyGram
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PolyGram was a Dutch entertainment company, a division of Seagram. It started as a record label recording company founded by Philips. The name was chosen to reflect the Siemens interest Polydor Records, the company traced its origins through Deutsche Grammophon back to the inventor of the flat disk gramophone, Emil Berliner. Later on, PolyGram expanded into the largest global entertainment company, creating film, in May 1998, it was sold to Seagram which owned MCA Inc. PolyGram Music Group was merged into Universal Music Group, and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was merged into Universal Pictures. When the new company faced difficulties, its parent Seagram was sold in large part to Vivendi. Vivendi is the current owner of UMG, in February 2017, Polygram Entertainment was re-launched as the film & television division of Universal Music Group. In 1929, Decca Records licensed record shop owner H. W. Van Zoelen as a distributor in the Netherlands, by 1931, his company Hollandsche Decca Distributie had become exclusive Decca distributor for all of the Netherlands and its colonies. Over the course of the 1930s, HDD put together its own facilities for A&R, recording, HDD was commercially successful during World War II because of the absence of American and British competition. Van Zoelen wanted to sell to Philips so that HDD would have sufficient financial backing when their major competitors returned after the war and this led Philips to purchase HDD in 1942. Philips labs were developing magnetic tape and LPs, and they could support eventual new formats, after the war, Philips built a large factory in Doetinchem to produce 78 rpm records. During the late 1940s, Philips combined its various businesses into Philips Phonografische Industrie. PPIs early growth was based on alliances, a merger was first proposed with Decca of London in late 1945, but was rejected by Edward Lewis, Deccas owner. In the early 1950s, Philips set itself the goal of making PPI the largest record company in Europe, PPIs second attempt at a merger was with Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. DGG, owned by Siemens AG, and well known for its repertoire, had been the German licensee for Decca from 1935. PPI and DGG finally merged in 1962, the alliance with DGG still left PPI without repertoire in Britain or the United States. But in 1951, after Columbia had failed to renew its international distribution agreement with EMI, Columbia became PPIs distributor within the US. This agreement ran until 1961 when Columbia set up its own European network, PPI signed a worldwide distribution deal with Mercury Records in 1961
7.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
8.
Murder Squad Nationwide
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Murder Squad Nationwide is an album by American rap group South Central Cartel and friends. It was released February 14,1995 on South Central Cartels G. W. K, Records and distributed by Def Jam Recordings. The album features production by Ant Banks, DJ Gripp, G$ Money and it peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, at number 1 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers and at number 106 on the Billboard 200. The album features performances by Spice 1, Ant Banks, Ice-T, Treach,187 Fac, Mr. Wesside, Hot Dolla, presents Murder Squad Nationwide at Discogs S. C. C. Presents Murder Squad Nationwide at MusicBrainz S. C. C, presents Murder Squad Nationwide at Tower Records
9.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
10.
AllMusic
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AllMusic is an online music guide service website. It was launched in 1991 by All Media Guide which later became All Media Network, AllMusic was launched in 1991 by Michael Erlewine of All Media Guide. The aim was to discographic information on every artist whos made a record since Enrico Caruso gave the industry its first big boost and its first reference book was published the following year. When first released onto the Internet, AMG predated the World Wide Web and was first available as a Gopher site, the AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in July 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. All Media Network, LLC. was formed by the founders of SideReel. com. The following are contributors to AllMusic, as of this date, All Media Network also produced the AllMusic guide series that includes the AllMusic Guide to Rock, the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues. Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of the series, in August 2007, PC Magazine included AllMusic in its Top 100 Classic Websites list. All Media Network AllGame AllMovie SideReel All Music Guide to the Blues All Music Guide to Jazz Stephen Thomas Erlewine Official website
11.
Billboard 200
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The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists, often, a recording act will be remembered by its number ones, those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart is based mostly on sales of albums in the United States, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday and ends on Thursday. A new chart is published the following Tuesday with an issue post-dated to the Saturday of the following week, the charts streaming schedule is also tracked from Friday to Thursday. Example, Friday January 1 – sales tracking week begins Thursday January 7 – sales tracking week ends Tuesday January 12 – new chart published, New product is released to the American market on Fridays. Digital downloads of albums are included in Billboard 200 tabulation. Albums that are not licensed for sale in the United States are not eligible to chart. As of the issue dated April 15,2017, the album on the Billboard 200 is More Life by Drake. Billboard began an album chart in 1945, initially only five positions long, the album chart was not published on a weekly basis, sometimes three to seven weeks passing before it was updated. A biweekly, 15-position Best-Selling Popular Albums chart appeared in 1955, the position count varied anywhere from 10 to 30 albums. The first number-one album on the new weekly list was Belafonte by Harry Belafonte, the chart was renamed to Best-Selling Pop Albums later in 1956, and then to Best-Selling Pop LPs in 1957. Beginning on May 25,1959, Billboard split the ranking into two charts Best-Selling Stereophonic LPs for stereo albums and Best-Selling Monophonic LPs for mono albums and these were renamed to Stereo Action Charts and Mono Action Charts in 1960. In January 1961, they became Action Albums—Stereophonic and Action Albums—Monophonic, three months later, they became Top LPs—Stereo and Top LPs—Monaural. On August 17,1963 the stereo and mono charts were combined into a 150-position chart called Top LPs, on April 1,1967, the chart was expanded to 175 positions, then finally to 200 positions on May 13,1967. In 1960, Billboard began concurrently publishing album charts which ranked sales of older or mid-priced titles and these Essential Inventory charts were divided by stereo and mono albums, and featured titles that had already appeared on the main stereo and mono album charts. In January 1961, the Action Charts became Action Albums—Monophonic, Albums appeared on either chart for up to nine weeks, then were moved to an Essential Inventory list of approximately 200 titles, with no numerical ranking. This list continued to be published until the consolidated Top LPs chart debuted in 1963, in 1982, Billboard began publishing a Midline Albums chart which ranked older or mid-priced titles. The chart held 50 positions and was published on a bi-weekly basis, on May 25,1991, Billboard premiered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart
12.
Tupac Shakur
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Tupac Amaru Shakur, also known by his stage names 2Pac, Makaveli or just Pac, was an American rapper, record producer, actor, activist and poet. As of 2007, Shakur has sold over 75 million records worldwide and his double disc albums All Eyez on Me and his Greatest Hits are among the best-selling albums in the United States. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by publications, including Rolling Stone. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, on April 7,2017, Shakur will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the hip hop group Digital Underground. The themes of most of Shakurs songs revolved around the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, and other social problems. Both of his parents and several people in his family were members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideals were reflected in his songs. I. G. On September 7,1996, Shakur was fatally shot in a shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas. He was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, Shakur was born on June 16,1971, in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His mother Afeni Shakur and his father Billy Garland were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lesane was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of Conspiracy against the United States government, Many people in Shakurs life were involved with the Black Liberation Army, some were convicted of serious criminal offenses and imprisoned, including his mother. His godfather, Elmer Geronimo Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery and his stepfather, Mutulu, spent four years at large on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982. Mutulu was wanted for having helped his sister Assata Shakur, Tupacs godmother and she had been imprisoned since 1977 for killing a state trooper in 1973. She lived as a fugitive for years before gaining asylum in Cuba in 1985. Mutulu was caught in 1986, tried and convicted, and imprisoned for the robbery of a Brinks armored truck in two police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur had a stepbrother, Mopreme Komani Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa. His stepbrother Mopreme performed in many of his recordings, in 1986, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
13.
Ice-T
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Tracy Lauren Marrow, better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a rapper in the 1980s and was signed to Sire Records in 1987, the next year, he founded the record label Rhyme $yndicate Records and released another album, Power. He co-founded the heavy metal band Body Count, which he introduced in his 1991 album O. G, Body Count released its self-titled debut album in 1992. Ice-T encountered controversy over his track Cop Killer, which was perceived to glamorize killing police officers, Ice-T asked to be released from his contract with Warner Bros. Records, and his solo album, Home Invasion, was released later in February 1993 through Priority Records. Body Counts next album was released in 1994, and Ice-T released two albums in the late 1990s. Since 2000, he has portrayed NYPD Detective Odafin Tutuola on the NBC police drama Law & Order, on August 1,2006 the fourth Body Count album Murder 4 Hire was released, followed by Manslaughter on June 10,2014. Tracy Lauren Marrow, son of Solomon and Alice Marrow, was born in Newark, Solomon was an African American, and Alice was Creole. For decades, Solomon worked as a conveyor belt mechanic at the Rapistan Conveyor Company, when Marrow was a child, his family moved to upscale Summit, New Jersey. Relaying this incident to his mother, she told him, Honey, people are stupid, her advice and his mother died of a heart attack when he was in third grade. Solomon raised Marrow as a father for four years, with help from a housekeeper. Marrows first experience with an illegal activity occurred after a bicycle that Solomon bought him for Christmas was stolen, after Marrow told his father, Solomon shrugged, Well, then, you aint got no bike. Marrow stole parts from bicycles and assembled three or four weird-looking, brightly painted bikes from the parts, his father either did not notice or never acknowledged this, when Marrow was 12 years old, Solomon died of a heart attack. For many years, AllMusic. com has stated that his parents died in an accident, but Ice-T has stated that it was actually he who had been in a brutal auto accident. While his cousin Earl was preparing to leave for college, Marrow shared a room with him, Earl was a fan of rock music and listened to only the local rock stations, sharing a room with him spurred Marrows interest in heavy metal music. Marrow moved to the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles when he was in the 8th grade and he attended Palms Junior High, which was predominantly made up of white students, and included black students bussed in from South Central. He attended Crenshaw High School, which was almost entirely made up of black students, Marrow stood out from most of his friends because he did not drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, or use drugs. During high school, gangs began to intensify in the Los Angeles school system, students who belonged to the Bloods and Crips gangs attended Crenshaw, and fought in the schools halls
14.
Music video
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A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys or marketing campaigns for food, although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by terms including illustrated song, filmed insert, promotional film, promotional clip, promotional video, song video. Music videos use a range of styles of contemporary videomaking techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation, music, combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variation it presents to the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the songs lyrics, other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the songs live performance. Product placement is a technique in music videos, exemplified by the appearance of the Beats Pill in numerous hip hop videos. In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B, marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song The Little Lost Child. Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a form of entertainment known as the illustrated song. In 1926, with the arrival of many musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts featured many bands, vocalists and dancers, early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney, such as the Silly Symphonies shorts and especially Fantasia, the Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films. Live action musical shorts, featuring such performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to theaters. Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a short film called St. Louis Blues featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this period, soundies, produced and released from 1940 to 1947, were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos
15.
Average White Band
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Average White Band are a Scottish funk and R&B band that had a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. They are best known for their million-selling instrumental track Pick Up the Pieces, the band name was initially proposed by Bonnie Bramlett. They have influenced others such as the Brand New Heavies, and been sampled by various musicians including the Beastie Boys, TLC, The Beatnuts, Too Short, Ice Cube, Eric B. & Rakim, Nas, and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as Arrested Development – making them the 15th most sampled act in history, as of 2016,40 years after their formation, they continue to perform. AWB was formed in early 1972 by Alan Gorrie, and Malcolm Molly Duncan, with Onnie McIntyre, Michael Rosen, Roger Ball, and Robbie McIntosh joining them in the original line-up. Duncan and Ball, affectionately known as the Dundee Horns, studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Gorrie and McIntyre had been members of Forever More. McIntyre and McIntosh were used as session musicians on Chuck Berrys recording of My Ding-a-Ling, the bands breakthrough was a support slot at Eric Claptons comeback concert in 1973. MCA Records released their album, Show Your Hand, which sold poorly. Bruce McCaskill, who was Claptons tour manager, liked the bands music and he borrowed money to take them to the US and to promote them. McCaskill had many contacts from his days with Clapton and managed to get Atlantic Records to sign them, the band relocated to Los Angeles and released the follow-up, AWB, better known as The White Album. It reached #1 and was the first of many with renowned producer Arif Mardin, McIntosh died of a heroin overdose at a Los Angeles party on 23 September 1974. Gorrie also overdosed, but Cher kept him conscious until medical help arrived, the NME reported in January 1975 that AWB played a benefit show for McIntoshs widow at the Marquee Club in London. McIntosh was replaced by Steve Ferrone, and, like McIntosh, in 1975, the single Pick Up the Pieces – taken from the No.1 AWB album – reached No.1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song knocked Linda Ronstadts Youre No Good out of No.1 and it was awarded a gold disc by the R. I. A. A. in March 1975. It also prompted The J. B. s, the band of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, to record and release a song in reply, Pick Up the Pieces, One by One. It was both a tribute to AWBs knowledge of funk and a play on the Scottish bands name. AWB followed up with the LPs Cut the Cake and Soul Searching, Cut the Cake was dedicated by the surviving band members to McIntoshs memory. Their next LP, Benny & Us, was a collaboration with Ben E. King, after several more albums, AWBs audience and sales dwindled
16.
Ice Cube
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OShea Jackson Sr. known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor and filmmaker. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C. I. A. after leaving N. W. A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music and films such as a role in drama Boyz n the Hood. Additionally, he has served as one of the producers of the Showtime television series Barbershop, both of which are based upon films in which he portrayed the main character. Ice Cube is considered one of the artists in gangsta rap. He was ranked number 8 on MTVs list of the 10 Greatest MCs of All Time, allMusic has called him one of hip-hops best and most controversial artists, as well as one of raps greatest storytellers. In 2012, The Source ranked him number 14 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time, in 2014, About. com ranked him number 11 on their list of the 50 Greatest MCs of All Time. OShea Jackson was born on June 15,1969, in South Central Los Angeles, the son of Doris, a clerk and custodian, and Hosea Jackson, who worked as a groundskeeper at UCLA. He has a brother as well as a half-sister who was killed when Ice Cube was 12. In his early teens, Ice Cube developed an interest in hip hop music, Jackson penned his first rap song in the ninth grade after a friend, whom Jackson names Kiddo, challenged him to write a song during a typewriting class. He claims Kiddo lost the challenge, at the age of 16, Jackson sold his first song to future N. W. A. member Eazy-E. Jackson also attended William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills and he enrolled at the Phoenix Institute of Technology in the fall of 1987 in Arizona. Being passionate about architecture, he studied architectural drafting and he completed his diploma within one year and returned to Los Angeles to pursue a rap career. Not sure of whether his rap career would work out, he would turn to become a draftsman as a career backup. With friend Sir Jinx, Ice Cube formed the C. I. A. Dre soon entered the recording industry as a member of the World Class Wreckin Cru. Dre saw Cubes potential as a writer and had him assist with writing Wreckin Crus big L. A. hit track, Stereo Crew produced a twelve-inch record, Shes a Skag released on Epic Records in 1986. While Dr. Dre was DJing at L. A. dance club Eve After Dark, Ice Cube would rap over his music, one such example of this was the song My Penis, a parody of Run-DMCs My Adidas. In a 2015 interview, club-owner Alonzo Williams said that he felt that this damaged his reputation. In 1987, Ice Cube released the Dr. Dre produced single My Posse under with his group C. I. A, after the collaboration, Ice Cube showed Eazy-E the lyrics to Boyz-n-the-Hood
17.
Miles Davis
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Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz, with his ever-changing directions in music, Davis was at the forefront of a number of major stylistic developments in jazz over his five-decade career. In the early 1950s, Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music while on Prestige Records, after a widely acclaimed comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, he signed a long-term contract with Columbia Records and recorded the 1957 album Round About Midnight. It was his first work with saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Paul Chambers and his million-selling 1970 record Bitches Brew helped spark a resurgence in the genres commercial popularity with jazz fusion as the decade progressed. In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Miles Dewey Davis III was born on May 26,1926 into an affluent middle class African-American family in Alton, Illinois,15 miles north of St. Louis. The second of three children, he had a sister, Dorothy Mae, and a younger brother. His father, Miles Dewey Davis II of Arkansas, was a dental surgeon who earned three college degrees, and his mother Cleota Mae Davis, also of Arkansas, was a music teacher. They owned a 200-acre estate near Pine Bluff, Arkansas where Davis and his siblings would ride horses, fish, and hunt. In 1927, the moved to East St. Louis, Illinois. From 1932 to 1934, Davis attended John Robinson Elementary School, an institution, followed by Crispus Attucks School where he performed well in mathematics, music. It was in East St. Louis and Pine Bluff that the young Davis developed his earliest appreciation for music, Davis later suggested that his fathers instrument choice was made largely to irk his wife, who disliked the trumpets sound. Against the fashion of the time, Buchanan stressed the importance of playing without vibrato, Davis would carry his clear signature tone throughout his career. He once remarked on its importance to him, saying, I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a voice with not too much tremolo. If I cant get that sound I cant play anything, in 1939, the family moved to 1701 Kansas Avenue in East St. Louis. For his 13th birthday held that year, Davis father bought his son a new trumpet, around this time, Davis took additional trumpet lessons from Joseph Gustat, first chair of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. In 1941, the 15-year-old Davis began at East St. Louis Lincoln High School where he joined the marching band directed by Buchanan. Davis claimed the contests he did not win was largely down to prejudice over his race and it was at Lincoln High where Davis met his first girlfriend, Irene Cawthorn. Davis had formed his own group by this time, performing in local venues such as Huffs Beer Garden with hits such as In the Mood by Glenn Miller
18.
Compton's Most Wanted
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Comptons Most Wanted is an American gangsta rap group and one of the original pioneers of the West Coast hip hop scene. The leaders of the group are MC Eiht & Tha Chill, included rappers MC Eiht, Boom Bam, Tha Chill, DJ Ant Capone, who was later replaced by designated scratcher DJ Mike T, and producers DJ Slip & The Unknown DJ. In the mid-1980s, founding members Tha Chill and MC Eiht were writing raps, started to create a huge street buzz in the Los Angeles County area by releasing records along with rapper Eazy E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Arabian Prince. In 1987, while in Compton, The Unknown DJ was given one of these tapes by a friend and became very interested in the diverse style. In 1988, Comptons Most Wanted under the leadership of Terry DJ Slip Allen recorded their 1st ever professional songs called Rhymes To Funky. K. A. This label was owned by Compton, CA, grandmaster Lonz of the World Class Wreckin Crew and Charles Turner In 1989, C. M. W. Released their first single This Is Compton b/w I Give Up Nothin & Give It Up on The Unknown DJ Los Angeles, on the Sound Control Mob - Under Investigation & The Unknown DJ. Soon after DJ Ant Capone choose to leave the group, released their first album, Its a Compton Thang on Orpheus Records which featured the hit single and video One Time Gaffled Em Up. Its a Compton Thang was entirely produced by DJ Slip and The Unknown DJ, during the recording of this album Tha Chill was arrested for joy riding, but was released a few weeks later on time served and finished recording his remaining verses on the songs of the album. The album peaked at #132 in the U. S. charts, a year later in 1991, the group C. M. W. Released their 2nd album, Straight Checkn Em, which featured popular songs like Growin Up In tha Hood, Driveby Miss Daisy, Comptons Lynchin. Growin Up In The Hood was also released on Warner Bros for the John Singleton block buster movie Boyz n the Hood starring Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr. Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long and Morris Chestnut. During the recording of this album Tha Chill once again was arrested, however, the album Straight Checkn Em was a bigger success than their previous album, peaking at #92 in the U. S. charts. Again in 1992, the released their third and most successful studio album. It featured the single Hood Took Me Under which the song was produced by DJ Mike T. This song charted at #5 in U. S. MC Eiht also has a voice one of the game characters Ryder. The album charted at #66 in the U. S, U. S. charts and is considered a classic by many people. C. M. W. are known especially for their slow, often melancholic raps, using samples from 1970s soul and funk records such as Joy and Walk On By by Isaac Hayes and they are also known for using movie samples such as Scareface & Deep Cover
19.
Flash Light (song)
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Flash Light is a song by funk band Parliament, written by George Clinton, Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins and released in January 1978 on the album Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome. It was the first number-one R&B hit by any of the P-Funk groups, pop charts, peaking at number 16. The track became Parliaments second certified million-selling single, following Give Up the Funk, Flash Light also gave Casablanca Records its first number-one R&B hit. In New Zealand, the reached number three and is ranked as the eighth biggest hit of 1978. The songs distinctive bass line is attributed to Bootsy Collins and was originally written for him. However, Collins rejected the part and Bernie Worrell created the line on at least three, possibly four connected Minimoog synthesizers, Worrell also played all the songs keyboard parts. Collins contributed to the track by handling drum duties while his older brother Catfish Collins played rhythm guitar, lead vocals were by bandleader Clinton. Clinton credited Worrell with the idea of composing the song under a motif, starting out as a jam, Clinton recorded multiple tracks, layering up to 50 voices within the theme of an inclusive love song. The Da da da dee da da da chant was based on a chant from a dance at a bar mitzvah party that Clinton had heard from a friend. Flash Light continued the Fake the Funk/Your nose will grow/Sir Nose DVoidoffunk concept that began with Bootsys Rubber Bands The Pinocchio Theory and its success would greatly influence not only funk music, but also new wave and hip-hop. The Houston Press ranked Flash Light as Clintons most sampled song, finding more than 60 uses, including on Aaliyahs Back and Forth and UGKs Protect, Flash Light was rated #75 in Tablet Magazines list of 100 Best Jewish Songs. Rolling Stone ranked Flash Light #202 on its 2011 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, Clinton recorded a duet version of the song called Flashlight for the 1999 film Muppets from Space along with Bill Barretta as Pepe the King Prawn. The original song was featured in the 1996 film Set It Off, however, it is featured both on the soundtrack to and in the 2015 biopic film, Straight Outta Compton. The song was in a scene from the CSI episode Killer Moves as well as a commercial for Grand Theft Auto V in 2014, the song was also used in the 2017 Kids Choice Awards spot of the film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2
20.
Parliament (band)
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Parliament is a funk band most prominent during the 1970s. Both Parliament and its sister act, Funkadelic, are led by George Clinton, Parliament was originally The Parliaments, a doo-wop vocal group based at a Plainfield, New Jersey barbershop. The group was formed in the late 1950s and included George Clinton, Ray Davis, Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, Clinton was the group leader and manager. The group finally had a hit single in 1967 with Testify on Revilot Records, with Funkadelic as a recording and touring entity in its own right, in 1970 Clinton relaunched the singing group, now known as Parliament, at first featuring the same ten members. Clinton was now the leader of two different acts, Parliament and Funkadelic, which featured the members but were marketed as creating two different types of funk. The Parliament album entitled Osmium was released on Invictus Records in 1970, Osmium featured a mostly psychedelic soul sound that was more similar to the Funkadelic albums of the period than to the later Parliament albums. The song The Breakdown was released separately as a single, due to continuing contractual problems and the fact that Funkadelic releases were more successful at the time, Clinton abandoned the name Parliament until 1974. Dozens of singers and musicians would contribute to future Parliament-Funkadelic releases, Clinton relaunched Parliament in 1974 and signed the act to Casablanca Records. By this point, Parliament and Funkadelic were touring as an entity known as Parliament-Funkadelic or simply P-Funk. The album Up for the Down Stroke was released in 1974, both performed strongly on the Billboard R&B charts and were moderately successful on the Pop charts. Parliament began its period of greatest mainstream success with the concept album Mothership Connection, Parliament scored the #1 R&B singles Flash Light in 1977 and Aqua Boogie in 1978. The rapidly expanding ensemble of musicians and singers in the Parliament-Funkadelic enterprise, as well as Clintons problematic management practices, other important group members like singer/guitarist Glenn Goins and drummer Jerome Brailey left Parliament-Funkadelic in 1978 after disputes over Clintons management. Two further Parliament albums, Gloryhallastoopid and Trombipulation were less successful than the albums from the groups prime 1975-1978 period, however, many of the musicians in later versions of the two groups remained employed by Clinton. Clinton continued to release new albums regularly, sometimes under his own name, the P-Funk All-Stars continued to record and tour into the 1990s and 2000s, and regularly perform classic Parliament songs. Liner notes to Music For Your Mother by Rob Bowman,1992, Parliament discography, forum, and marketplace at Discogs
21.
All Day Music
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All Day Music is the fourth album by funk group War, released November 1971 on United Artists Records. The title single was backed with Get Down and it became a gold record, and Billboard ranked it as the No.23 song for 1972. The influence of Slipping Into Darkness can be heard on the Steve Miller hit Fly Like an Eagle, the original cover art was printed with a metallic silver background, and features a group photo by Bob Gordon. All tracks composed by War, except where indicated. B
22.
War (band)
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War is an American funk band from Long Beach, California, known for the hit songs Spill the Wine, The World Is a Ghetto, The Cisco Kid, Why Cant We Be Friends. Formed in 1969, War was a crossover band which fused elements of rock, funk, jazz, Latin, rhythm and blues. Their album The World Is a Ghetto was the album of 1973. The band also transcended racial and cultural barriers with a multi-ethnic line-up, in 1962, Howard E. Scott and Harold Brown formed a group called The Creators in Long Beach, California. Within a few years, they had added Charles Miller, Morris B. B, Dickerson and Lonnie Jordan to the lineup. Lee Oskar and Papa Dee Allen later joined as well and they all shared a love of diverse styles of music, which they had absorbed living in the racially mixed Los Angeles ghettos. The Creators recorded several singles on Dore Records while working with Tjay Contrelli, in 1968, the Creators became Nightshift and started performing with Deacon Jones, a football player and singer. The original War was conceived by record producer Jerry Goldstein and singer Eric Burdon, in 1969, Goldstein saw musicians who would eventually become War playing at the Rag Doll in North Hollywood, backing Deacon Jones, and he was attracted to the bands sound. Eric Burdon and War began playing shows to audiences throughout Southern California before entering into the studio to record their debut album Eric Burdon Declares War. The albums best known track, Spill the Wine, was a hit, Eric Burdon and War toured extensively across Europe and the United States. A reviewer from New Musical Express called War the best live band I ever saw after their first UK gig in Londons Hyde Park. A second Eric Burdon and War album, a set titled The Black-Mans Burdon was released in 1970. They finished the tour without him and returned to record their first album as War, War met with only modest success, but later that year, the band released All Day Music which included the singles All Day Music and Slippin into Darkness. The latter single sold one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R. I. A. A. in June 1972. In 1972 they released The World Is a Ghetto which was more successful. Its second single, The Cisco Kid shipped gold, and the album attained the two spot on Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was Billboard magazines Album of the Year as the best-selling album of 1973. The next album, Deliver the Word contained the hits Gypsy Man and a version of Me and Baby Brother. The album went on to sell two million copies
23.
Zapp (band)
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Zapp is an American funk band that emerged from Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1977. The group received attention in the early 1980s for implementing heavy use of the talk-box, Zapp released its eponymous debut album in 1980, having a sound reminiscent of P-Funk as a result of Clintons and Collins input on the production. Zapp achieved most of its recognition from the single More Bounce to the Ounce from the same album. The following year in 1981, Clinton stopped working with the band over a dispute regarding Roger Troutmans solo debut. Zapp continued to several more albums thereafter, releasing Zapp II in 1982. The albums musical style veered away from their first release, despite this, the album sold well. Zapp disbanded in 1999 after both Roger and Larry Troutman were killed in a murder-suicide, that was carried out by Larry. Roger was shot several times before dying in hospital during surgery, Larrys body was found close-by in his vehicle with a single gunshot wound to the head. Zapp reformed briefly in 2003 with the brothers of the Troutman family to produce the album Zapp VI. Their own label allowed Troutman and the band to give a wider and more high-profile release of their own music. In the late 1970s Roger Troutman continued to record with his brothers, losing the name Roger & The Human Body, the group searching for recognition, began playing at various small venues locally around Ohio. The Troutman family had long standing friendships with Ohio natives Phelps Catfish Collins and William Earl Bootsy Collins, Roger Troutman subsequently wrote and recorded the demo for More Bounce to the Ounce in 1978. George Clinton, the leader of Funkadelic liked the recording and encouraged Troutman to present the demo to Warner Bros, the albums sound, which is highly influenced by Parliament-Funkadelic, contrasts largely with Zapps later releases. More Bounce to the Ounce reached number two on the Billboard Hot R&B tracks for two weeks during the autumn of 1980, by November 18,1980, Zapp had been certified gold by the RIAA. After the 1980 release of Zapps debut album, tensions rose between Roger Troutman and George Clinton, Troutmans solo album The Many Facets of Roger was primarily funded by Clinton, through CBS, and was slated to be released on his own Uncle Jam Records label. By the early 1980s, Clinton and his projects were a midst financial troubles due to his poor management skills. Troutman, seeing the disarray that was surrounding Clinton at the time, in Clintons biography George Clinton, For the Record, Troutman was quoted commenting on the situation with a blasé attitude. Heck gee-willickers, Warner Bros. offered me mo money, in response, Clinton remarked, CBS paid for it, I paid for it
24.
Lee Dorsey
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Irving Lee Dorsey was an African American pop and R&B singer during the 1960s. His biggest hits were Ya Ya and Working in the Coal Mine, much of his work was produced by Allen Toussaint with instrumental backing provided by The Meters. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Dorsey was a friend of Fats Domino before moving to Portland. He served in the United States Navy in World War II, boxing as a lightweight in Portland in the early 1950s, he fought under the name Kid Chocolate and was reasonably successful. He retired from boxing in 1955 and returned to New Orleans and his first recording was Rock Pretty Baby/Lonely Evening on Cosimo Mattasas Rex label, in 1958. This was followed by the Allen Toussaint-produced Lottie Mo/Lover of Love and these efforts were unsuccessful, but around 1960 he was discovered by A&R man Marshall Sehorn, who secured him a contract with Fury Records, owned by Bobby Robinson. After meeting songwriter and record producer Allen Toussaint at a party, he recorded Ya Ya and it went to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Although the follow-up Do-Re-Mi also made the charts, later releases on Fury were not successful, Dorsey returned to running his repair business, but also released singles on the Smash and Constellation labels in 1963 and 1964. He was then approached again by Toussaint, and recorded Toussaints song Ride Your Pony for the Amy label, Dorsey toured internationally, and also recorded an album with Toussaint, The New Lee Dorsey in 1966. In 1970 Dorsey and Toussaint collaborated on the album Yes We Can and it was later a hit for the Pointer Sisters under the title, Yes We Can Can. With declining sales, Dorsey then returned to his repair business. In 1976 Dorsey appeared on the album I Dont Want to Go Home by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, in 1980, he opened for English punk band The Clash on their US concert tour, and also toured in support of James Brown and Jerry Lee Lewis. Dorsey contracted emphysema and died on December 1,1986, in New Orleans, Dorseys songs have been covered by artists as diverse as Petula Clark and Devo. Ya Ya was covered on John Lennons Rock n Roll album, get Out of My Life, Woman was performed often by the Jerry Garcia Band, and Robert Palmer had a hit with Sneakin Sally Through The Alley. His version of the Allen Toussaint song Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky is referenced in the Beastie Boys song Sure Shot, Ya Ya was spoken by Cheech Marin in Cheech and Chongs Next Movie, as he was waiting for his girlfriend
25.
Teddy Pendergrass
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Theodore DeReese Teddy Pendergrass was an American singer–songwriter and composer. He first rose to fame as singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s before a successful solo career at the end of the decade. In 1982, Pendergrass was severely injured in an accident in Philadelphia. He subsequently founded the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, a foundation that helps those with spinal cord injuries and he commemorated 25 years of living after his spinal cord injury with the star-filled event, Teddy 25 - A Celebration of Life, at Philadelphias Kimmel Center. His last performance was on a PBS special at Atlantic Citys Borgata Casino in November 2008, born Theodore DeReese Pendergrass on March 26,1950 in Kingstree, South Carolina and was the only child of Jesse and Ida Geraldine Pendergrass. When he was very young, his father left the family. Pendergrass grew up in Philadelphia and sang often at church and he dreamed of being a pastor and got his wish when, at 10, he was ordained a minister. Pendergrass also took up drums during this time and was a deacon of his church. He attended Thomas Edison High School for Boys in North Philadelphia and he sang with the Edison Mastersingers. He dropped out in the grade to enter the music business. The recording, however, was not a commercial success, Pendergrass played drums for several local Philadelphia bands, eventually becoming the drummer of The Cadillacs. In 1970, the singer was spotted by the Blue Notes founder, Harold Melvin, however, during a performance, Pendergrass began singing along, and Melvin, impressed by his vocals, made him the lead singer. Before Pendergrass joined the group, the Blue Notes had struggled to find success, in 1972, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes released their first single, a slow, solemn ballad entitled I Miss You. The song was written for the Dells, but the group passed on it. Noting how Pendergrass sounded like Dells lead singer Marvin Junior, Kenny Gamble decided to build the song with Pendergrass, Pendergrass sings much of the song in a raspy baritone voice that would become his trademark. The song, one of Gamble and Huffs most creative productions, became a rhythm and blues hit. Pendergrass and LaBelle developed a friendship that would last until Pendergrass death. By 1975, Pendergrass and Harold Melvin were at odds, mainly over monetary issues, despite the fact that Pendergrass sang most of the groups songs, Melvin was controlling the groups finances
26.
Discogs
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Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and crowdsourced database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs. com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc. and are located in Portland, Oregon, US. While the site lists releases in all genres and on all formats, it is known as the largest online database of electronic music releases. Discogs currently contains over 8 million releases, by nearly 4 and he was inspired by the success of community-built sites such as Slashdot, eBay, and Open Directory Project, and decided to use this model for a music discography database. The sites original goal was to build the most comprehensive database of music, organized around the artists, labels. In 2003 the Discogs system was rewritten, and in January 2004 it began to support other genres. Since then, it has expanded to include rock and jazz in January 2005 and funk/soul, Latin, in January 2006 blues and non-music were added. On 30 June 2004, Discogs published a report, which included information about the number of its contributors and this report claimed that Discogs had 15,788 contributors and 260,789 releases. On 20 July 2007 a new system for sellers was introduced on the site called Market Price History. However, at the beginning of 2008, the Market Price History was also free of charge for all users. In late 2014, the company released two new beta websites, gearogs lets users add and track music equipment like synths, drum machines, and other electronic music making equipment. At the start of 2015, the company began another beta project — Bibliogs, users can submit information about their books, physical or electronic, different versions and editions, and also connect different credits to these books. 21,000 books were submitted by the end of 2016, the project remains in its beta phase. The license has since changed to a public domain one. Prior to the advent of this license and API, Discogs data was only accessible via the Discogs web sites HTML interface and was intended to be viewed only using web browsers, the HTML interface remains the only authorized way to modify Discogs data. On 7 June 2011 version 2 of the API was released, notable in this release was that a license key was no longer required, the default response was changed from XML to JSON, and the 5000 queries per day limit was removed. On 1 November 2011 a major update to version 2 of the API was released and this new release dropped support for XML, data is always returned in JSON format, however the monthly data dumps of new data are only provided in XML format. Additionally the Premium API service was dropped, on 24 June 2014 Discogs deprecated their XML API in lieu of a JSON-formatted API
27.
MusicBrainz
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MusicBrainz is a project that aims to create an open data music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the placed on the Compact Disc Database. MusicBrainz has expanded its goals to reach beyond a compact disc metadata storehouse to become an open online database for music. MusicBrainz captures information about artists, their works, and the relationships between them. Recorded works entries capture at a minimum the album title, track titles, and these entries are maintained by volunteer editors who follow community written style guidelines. Recorded works can also store information about the date and country. As of 26 July 2016, MusicBrainz contained information about roughly 1.1 million artists,1.6 million releases, end-users can use software that communicates with MusicBrainz to add metadata tags to their digital media files, such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis or AAC. As with other contributions, the MusicBrainz community is in charge for maintaining and reviewing the data, besides collecting metadata about music, MusicBrainz also allows looking up recordings by their acoustic fingerprint. A separate application, such as MusicBrainz Picard, must be used for this, in 2000, MusicBrainz started using Relatables patented TRM for acoustic fingerprint matching. This feature attracted many users and allowed the database to grow quickly, however, by 2005 TRM was showing scalability issues as the number of tracks in the database had reached into the millions. This issue was resolved in May 2006 when MusicBrainz partnered with MusicIP, tRMs were phased out and replaced by MusicDNS in November 2008. In October 2009 MusicIP was acquired by AmpliFIND, some time after the acquisition, the MusicDNS service began having intermittent problems. Since the future of the free service was uncertain, a replacement for it was sought. The Chromaprint acoustic fingerprinting algorithm, the basis for AcoustID identification service, was started in February 2010 by a long-time MusicBrainz contributor Lukáš Lalinský, while AcoustID and Chromaprint are not officially MusicBrainz projects, they are closely tied with each other and both are open source. Chromaprint works by analyzing the first two minutes of a track, detecting the strength in each of 12 pitch classes, storing these 8 times per second, additional post-processing is then applied to compress this fingerprint while retaining patterns. The AcoustID search server then searches from the database of fingerprints by similarity, since 2003, MusicBrainzs core data are in the public domain, and additional content, including moderation data, is placed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0 license. The relational database management system is PostgreSQL, the server software is covered by the GNU General Public License. The MusicBrainz client software library, libmusicbrainz, is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, in December 2004, the MusicBrainz project was turned over to the MetaBrainz Foundation, a non-profit group, by its creator Robert Kaye
28.
Tower Records
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Tower Records was a retail music chain based in Sacramento, California. It currently exists as a franchise and an online music store. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, Tower. com was purchased by a separate entity and was not affected by the retail store closings. The corporate name was MTS Inc. but this was compared to the much more widely recognized Tower Records. In 1960, Russell Solomon opened the first Tower Records store on Watt Avenue, in Sacramento and he named it for his fathers drugstore, which shared a building and name with the Tower Theater, where Solomon first started selling records. By 1976, Solomon had opened Tower Books, Posters, and Plants at 1600 Broadway, in 1995, Tower. com opened, making the enterprise one of the first retailers to move online. Seven years after its founding, Tower Records expanded to San Francisco, opening a store in what was originally a store at Bay Street. The Tower Records stores in Japan split off from the chain and are now independent. In New York City, Tower Records operated a suite of stores on and it was a noted hangout for teenagers from the wider metropolitan area. The Tower Records Annex was in the building, but located in the back at the southwest corner of East 4th and Lafayette Streets, and stocked items that were older. The third store, Tower Video located on the southeast corner of East 4th and Lafayette Streets, specialized in video and, for a while, the second floor of this location also sold books. Their location on the Upper West Side, near Lincoln Center on 66th Street, the Nashville location on West End Avenue was in a former Packard dealership. The old showroom floor in front was devoted to CDs, cassettes, the area in the back housed videocassette sales and rentals, PC and console games and music paraphernalia. The strip mall next door contained a separate Tower Books, the location was famous for their late-night Monday events that culminated at midnight on Tuesday when staff started ringing up sales of new releases. Because of the proximity to Music Row, country music stars could occasionally be seen performing or shopping there. As part of a 2002 settlement with 41 states over CD price fixing Tower Records, along with retailers Musicland and Trans World Entertainment and it is estimated that between 1995 and 2000 customers were overcharged by nearly $500 million and up to $5 per album. In 2005, the company began using scan and listen stations in its stores and these stations allowed customers to listen to audio samples from CDs and to search for particular songs, albums and artists. This model of listening station is used at the Arizona-based chain Zia Records
