Mantronix: 80-жылдардың хип-хоп және электро-фанк тобының тарихы

American hip hop band
the video game

Mantronix was an influential 1980s hip hop and electro funk music group from New York City. The band was formed by DJ Kurtis Mantronik (Kurtis el Khaleel) and rapper MC Tee (Touré Embden). The group is primarily remembered for its pioneering blend of old school hip hop, electronic, and club music. They underwent several genre and line up changes during its seven year existence between 1984 and 1991, and released five albums beginning with their 1985 debut The Album.

Kurtis Mantronik (Kurtis el Khaleel), a Jamaican American émigré, began experimenting with electro music in the early 1980s, inspired by early electro tracks like "Riot in Lagos" (1980) by Yellow Magic Orchestra's Ryuichi Sakamoto. In 1984, while working as the in store DJ for Downtown Records in Manhattan, Kurtis Mantronik met MC Tee, a Haitian born, Flatbush, Brooklyn based rapper (and regular record store customer). The duo soon made a demo, "Fresh Is The Word," and eventually signed with William Socolov's Sleeping Bag Records.

Mantronix's debut single, "Fresh Is the Word," was a club hit in 1985, reaching No. 16 on Billboard Magazine's Hot Dance Singles Sales chart, and was featured on The Album which was released the same year. The influence of The Album is seen among other artists through the sampling of "Needle to the Groove" by Beck in the single "Where It's At" from the 1996 album, Odelay ("we've got two turntables and a microphone "), as well as, "Fresh Is The Word" by the Beastie Boys in the single "Jimmy James" from the 1992 album, Check Your Head ("for all the Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and the White people too ") The Beastie Boys later sampled "Bassline" for the song "3 the Hard Way" on their 2004 album To the 5 Boroughs.

Mantronix's second album, Music Madness, was released in 1986. During this period, while Mantronix was signed to Sleeping Bag Records, Mantronik was employed by the label in their A&R Department, In Full Effect marked the last Mantronix album with rapper MC Tee, who left the group to enlist in the United States Air Force. Mantronix's 1988 track "King of the Beats" was one of the first songs to sample the Amen break.