\
THE NOISE
Arl e
ing Arf
Rap legend' Run
DMC ar back at it again
with th r cent rele of
their new ingle "Down
With The King" (featur­
ing Pete Rock & CL
Smooth). The group
takes no shorts on new
jacks trying to take their
throne. The album
"Down With the King"
has an ortment of pro­
ducers including the
Bomb Squad, A Tribe
Called Quest, and
Naughty By ature. The
kings of rap will arrive in
record stores May 4,
1�3.
Run DMC's Jam Mas­
ter Jay along with hip hop
stylist April Walker have
started a clothing line
called "Walker Wear",
which features velour and
denim sui ts, shirts, base­
ball cap , skull caps and
sack ha
ur -with
headl in Run D C i
scheduled for the summer
of '93. Opening acts in­
clude Onyx, Redman and
Detroit's own B
spiritu I
age - son 0 ec ta y, pion
and pain that guide the lis ner
through th pathway wher th
spiritual and the in rpersonal
converg . With th ir cond Gee
Str til landlPLG r le ,The
Bliss Album ... ? (Vibrations 'of
Lov and Anger and th Pan­
derance of Life and Exist nee),
PM Dawn br ks even more
boldlyacr the ski s of today's
music scene, exploding in amaz­
ing, all-too-rarely en hue .
Prince Be/The octurnal and
OJ Minutemix/J.C. Th Eternal
(ak Attrell and Jarrett Cordes),
two young brothers who 'grew up
in Jersey City in the 197 , came
to be PM Dawn ju t over four
years ago.
p
a
of th
P it' po ible to lay your
hand . They are uniqu ."
Uniq ,t be certain. But Of
Th Heart, Of The Soul, Of ThP
era s was n ver int nd d to be
pi asure for th co n nn
alone. Pow red by sing . lik "
Watcher'S Point Of "i..:�," "Set
Adrift On Memory Bliss" (whch
hit #i on the Billboa d pop, R & B
and dance cham) and "Paper
Doll," all tripping from radio
everywher , the a.bnm went gold
ju t two month aft r relea and
platinum on aft r.
While the duo's debut, 0 'The
Heart, Of The Soul; otti« ,'ro s:
The Utopian Experienc ) sent
shivers down the collective spine
with its dayglo, multi-cuitural
mix of rap technique, pop ng­
craft and spiritual depth. TheBli s
Album. .. ? intensifies each of
those elements, to the point 0 vir-
n ound
boundarie
Ain't 2
Proud 2 Feud
Prince Be/The Nocturnal be-
. gan dcejaying at local parties and
writing songs while in the ninth
grade, But while hi influences
came largely from the hip-hop
scene that was exploding around
him, he also delved deep into the
genre-busting record collections.
of his stepfather (who drummed
in an early incarnation of Kool
and the Gang) and hi uncle.
Thus, Prince Be/The Noctur­
nal became conversant in the sun­
shine-streaked pop of the Beach
Boys and Paul Revere, the
Beatles' headi st experimenta­
tions as well as the first flower­
Ings of funk as planted by Sly and
the Family Stone and, of course,
Kool and the Gang.
The Bobby Brown tour
rocked 50 cities, It also
rocked the relationship of
tour mates TLC and Mary
J. Blige.
Due to Blige getting
top billing over TLC
(more money and expo­
sure for Blige) things in
both camps have been
getting nasty shouting
matches - the whole'
nine yards ..
TLC's left eye and
Chilli allegedly made
public statements on a
talk show interview con ..
demning Blige's talent
and her hair extensions.'
There may be a little
more to the story. Mary
J. Blige has publicly been
seen dating K-Ci of
Jodeci. Rumor has it that
a member of TLC is dat­
ing a mem ber of J odeci,
could it be good ole' K-
C·?
1.
BY THE TIME he left high
school, even his non-m usical ac­
tivities fed his aspirations: an
"easy gig" as a night guard at a
shelter for the homeless not only
afforded Prince Be/The Noctur=­
nal time to write, it earned him the
$600 needed to record th first
demo by his group (by then
named PM Dawn, after the theory
that from the darkest hour comes
the light),
Gee Street Record, which
launched the Jungle Brothers
(who rated with Prince Be/The
Nocturnal's favorite artists) and
Stereo MC's, released the duo's
first single, "Ode To A Forgetful
Mind," in Britain late in 1989,
generating a, considerable buzz
among Britain' notoriously
fickle music pr s.
In 1 , the br thers returned
to Great Britain t record their
debut album, Of Th � H art, OJ
The Soul; OfTh era " Tire Uto­
pian Experience.
Upon its 1 1 relea ,the al­
bum garnered raves from both
ide of the Atlantic: Pul
Dimitri Ehrlich d crt d the al-
bum as "one f th r re r cord
that come along on e in a
and pr ves all of the co 1 n
haven 't been written," while Brit­
i hEll pra d PM Dawn a "pur-
Quick .Sn�ps
Arrested Development
will headline the Lollapa­
looza tour thi summer.
Watch for their album in
September. .. Public En­
emy's album "Music in
our M sage" hits stor
in late May ... DJ Ouik
plans to marry his fi­
nance/mother of hi four
month old daughter later
this year ... LL C 11'. al­
bum "14 Shots To The
Dome" hits t r a we
speak ... Hip-Hop High:
Onyx, the birth of a great
rap group.
•
tual sensory-emotional overload .
OVER TH COUJ� E of
fourteen ngs-fr m t .. sensual
smash ballad "I'd Die Without
You" (featured in the h.it hlm B -
me rang) to "Plastic," the h rdest
message yet to trumpe. f rth from
the gates of Dawn-the uo wirl
in the eye of a hurricane of perpet­
ual innovation. "Plasuc," for in­
stance, find Prince Be/The
Nocturnal dropping rhymes with
eloquence and street-savvy while
OJ Minutemix/J.C. The Eternal
lobs muscular beats guaranteed to
silence folks ho the ong de-
cribes as "hard at first but who
melt in the heat"-that ac U' d PM
Dawn of softne . Similarly, "So
On & So On" employs a hard­
driving freestyle beat, adding
ome of the duo's most h avenly
harm ani s yet.
Among its "vibrations of lov ,
and anger and 'ponderance of Ii f
and existence," The Bli AL-
bum ... ? counts several passag
of PM Dawn s singular spiritual
guest (described in Request as "an
otherworldy dogma, equal parts
Zen, Catholicism and Edgar
ayce-speak"). "I Don't Want To
Be Filthy Rich," a reaffirmati n of
Prince Be/The Nocturnal's rcjcc­
tion of the material world, ts sail
paceward n a el gantly WOV",l
magi car of jazzy pian and
vibraphone, Later, numer u nu­
merological and symboli mark­
ers I ad his Ii teners on a mystic
journey over the course of the lush
"When Midnight Sighs."
Of course, the collag of
unds that", ts PM Dawn's debut
apart-a und cape that' made
Prince B /I'l: 0 turnal one of
the mo t in-demand producer
around-remain, and in fa t ha
gr wn even more vivid, "To Love
Me More," a heart-rending r -
man' ballad employ a full
string section whil the wistful
"Way Of The Wind," with its
, ftly waying acoustic guitars,
bring. a clas ic ound t the mix.
"More Than Likely," yet an­
other beautiful ballad, boasts v -
cal assistance fr m Boy George.
And, in loving tribut t a band
whose legacy is often cited, but
rarety lived up to, they de, on-
truer and reas embl the Beatles'
"Norwegian Wooe( " adding
punchy, tat -of-th -str et beats
and aring el ctrie guitar whil
r taining the hazy psychedelic
aura f the riginal.
That their appeal was universal
houJd come as no surprise after
all, PM Dawn's sound itself rec­
ognizes no boundaries. "Music is
music:" ays Prince Be/The Noc­
turnal, "and that s what we do."
I
I
ICET
m t ritically acclaimed act in 1 l's succe ful
Hap ) za t ur and continued to tour through­
out America and int rnati nally during 1992.
r p' m t articulate spoke man, Ice T .
CUff ntly working on a k and touring the coun­
try n ( II lecture circuit - Harvard, NYU,
tanford to name a few.
Re .ntly, th influential artist was cho n by
Rolling to read rs a, 1 'Be t Male Rapper
(Rolling Stone, March 4, 1 3.)