“It was all a dream
I used to read Word Up magazine
Salt’n’Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine
Hangin’ pictures on my wall
Every Saturday Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl”
–Biggie
“Growing up in Queensbridge, it was Marley Marl and the Juice Crew that gave rap niggas like myself hope that there was another life beyond our ‘hood”
–NaS
Born in ’62 in Queens, New York, Marley Marl is arguably the greatest producer in Hip Hop. He was one of the first Hip Hop superproducers and innovated the genre by changing how samplers were used. He was an important DJ and also founded the label Cold Chillin’ Records, assembling a roster filled with prominent MCs from New York, way before Puff Daddy. His music influenced RZA, DJ Premier and Pete Rock.
“The collective chorus of the streets held that ‘soft as butta Queens niggas ain’t got no skills’ but when the Queens innovators – including Run-D.M.C., Eric B. and Rakim, LL Cool J, Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor, and future mogul Russell Simmons – finally began to make their own cellar-dweller noise, rap music would never be the same.
“Unlike some of his more middle-class sonic rivals, Marley Marl had no basement to rehearse in, yet he had no problem working on his turntable skills. ‘My brother was Larry Larr in a crew called Hi-Fidelity, who used to play out in the parks,’ he says. ‘He’d say to me, “Don’t touch my shit when I go out!” That just made me want to play with his stuff. As soon he’s leave the house, I’d be clickin’ on POWER. I had to be ten or eleven then, and I was doin’ what I seen him do.
“In New York City the problem kids, from dyslexic dudes to brawling bros, were shipped to the 600 (code number for “special”) schools. ‘I was in 600 schools from as far back as fifth grade.. At Manhatten High School I met a guy from the Bronx named Breakout. He used to have these tapes of his crew just cuttin’ up – not even really rhyming. I thought that shit was kinda hype. I formed a little crew around the neighbourhood called the Sureshot Crew around 1977. Other crews would come around and battle us, but we held a fort up in the Bridge.’
Marley used to DJ locally at River Park and the recreation hub The Jacob Riis Center.
His girlfriend at the time was Dimples D. ‘I remember when Marlon used to come out with his speakers and turntable. People just started rhyming on the mike, and I was like “Dag, I want to get down with that.”
Marley started interning at Unique Studio, off times Square. Unique was famous for having the very latest equipment. ‘The studio was practically a laboratory for the latest technology, with many musical instrument manufacturers sending their first units of the latest gear there’ says Wikipedia. Arthur Baker was his mentor, who had produced and remixed tracks for artists like Afrika Baambataa, Madonna and New Order.
Marley produced his first track “Sucker DJs (I WIll Survive)” (Dimple D’s answer to Run-D.M.C.’s “Sucker MCs”) in 1983, and sold it for $6000 to a label called Party Time. Then he spent the money on a Roland 808 drum machine. He says “every time I made some money I would buy a piece of new equipment. Still do.”
At the time, there were two main radio stations in New York that played Hip Hop on weekend nights – WBLS, which had Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack show (the first exclusively Hip Hop music program to be aired on a major radio station), and Kiss FM which had DJ Red Alert. There was fierce rivalry between the two shows, and Marley Marl hooked up with Mr. Magic as his DJ or “Engineer All Star” as he was later called.
Marley explains ‘In those days Kurtis Blow was the king rap producer – producing the Fat Boys himself.. They started throwing little singing hooks in there, Linn and DMX [drum machine] beats, all that dumb shit sounding stupid. But I was Magic’s DJ, and since Kurtis was his man, I had to play all these wack records I hated. I was like, “Yo man, I can make better records than this.”‘
Marley also wanted to put his hood, Queens, on the map and he converted his sister’s living room into what he called “The House of Hits”.
“Unlike the gleaming smooth production skills that Kurtis Blow perfected, Marley Marl’s aural style was more true grit than neo-disco glam. Instead of making records that sounded pristine booming from massive speakers, the House of Hits rcordings were distinctive for their extreme dirtiness – best experienced blaring from a boom box, over the roar of a screeching subway.
“During his tenure with Baker at Unique Studios, Marley stumbled upon one essential part of his trademark sound: sampled drums. “I wanted to sample a voice from off this song with the Emulator and, accidentally, a snare went through”. After listening to his mistake a few times, Marley realised the implications of his discovery. “I looked at the engineer and said ‘You know what this means? I could take any drum sound from any old record, put it in here and get the old drummer sound. No more of that old dull DMX shit’. That day I went out and bought a cheap bullshit sampler that I still use to this day” Since there weren’t any sampling laws at this point in rap history, the possibilities were unlimited for an aspiring producer..’
–The Vibe History of Hip Hop
Here is an example of Marley DJing early on in his career, an electro sound with his scratching:
“DJ Cuttin'” by “NYC Cutter”==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbmK-CxA7Zo
Marl started working for Tuff City Records. He was originally an electro producer and began with Hip Hop hits like electronic based “The God-Father” by Spoonie Gee, making his debut with his unique sampling techniques.
The God-Father==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry-o4DwEoFY
He was also affiliated with Andre Harrell’s Uptown Records and featured on the label posse cut “Uptown is Kickin’ it” as well as producing for Uptown Artist and friend Heavy-D and the Boyz.
Uptown is Kickin’ it (video)==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX7naWUE0ns
“The end of the ’80s is often referred to as Hip Hop’s Golden Era, a time when the form’s creativity was expanding by leaps and bounds. Marley’s Juice Crew was an important force in ushering in this era thanks to its advances in lyrical technique and the distinctive personalities of emerging stars”
The Juice Crew
The Juice Crew that Marley and Mr. Magic established included new school artists Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Roxanne Shante and Kool G Rap. The crew produced many answer records and beefs – mostly with radio rival Red Alert and the South Bronx’s Boogie Down Productions, a group originally composed of KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock.
They released their music on the Cold Chillin’ record label, a producer-and-crew outfit founded by manager Tyrone Williams and run by Len Fichtelberg.
The Roxanne Wars
Their breakout hit “Roxanne’s Revenge” was an attack on UTFO’s “Roxanne, Roxanne”. Roxanne Shante was 14 years old and insulted the crew members Kangol Kid, Educated Rapper and Doctor Ice scathingly. The hit was so popular that the original group (with the help of a young female rapper claiming to be The Real Roxanne) responded but also dozens of rappers made response records. This was known as the Roxanne Wars.
Roxanne Roxanne [U.T.F.O]==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOTp3-jEMjQ
Roxanne’s Revenge [Roxanne Shante]==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9IFs13w_JQ
“Sparky’s Turn (Roxanne You’re Through) [Sparky D]==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JejdHFKQcM0
Queen of Rox [Roxanne Shante]==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIO2Hf6c6pU
Round 1 [Roxanne Shante v. Sparky D]==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B00v_02I1bM
The Bridge Wars
‘Marley’s next artist after Roxanne Shante was his cousin MC Shan. In ’86 he released “Beat Biter” dissed local Queens superstar LL Cool J for allegedly stealing Marley’s music. Its B-side “The Bridge”, proved much more popular, finding not only considerable radio play but also causing anger in the Boogie Down Productions camp.
The Bridge==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS4RpBR0Zn0
They took offense to a contested interpretation of MC Shan’s lyrics: they understood Shan to be claiming Queens as the birthplace of Hip Hop, when they argued it originated largely in the Bronx. Adding to the beef was the ongoing feud between Mr. Magic and his arch-rival DJ Red Alert who supported Boogie Down Productions when they were starting out – wheras Mr. Magic had dismissed their early efforts.
BDP launched their attack with “South Bronx”, which was premiered live in concert after an MC Shan performance of “The Bridge”.
South Bronx==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepqptjVwD4
Shan and Marley responded with “Kill That Noise” in ’87 calling out KRS-One’s attention-grabbing methods:
Kill That Noise==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0pJZytdP5E
KRS-One and the BDP Crew released “The Bridge Is Over” also in ’87:
The Bridge Is Over (video)==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-alEhlHSzk
The Bridge Wars continued, drawn-out over a number of proxies, but in 07, the feud was officially laid to rest when Marley Marl and KRS-One released the collaborative album, Hip Hop Lives – a quasi-sequel record to NaS’ Hip Hop Is Dead.
Marley Marl albums
Marley put out the first full-length release under his own name in ’88.
‘In Control, Vol. 1 was mostly a showcase for various Juice Crew affiliates to strut their stuff, notably on the larger-than-life posse cut “The Symphony.”‘
The Symphony (video) ==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiUsXm-ElOc
‘Marl scored his greatest crossover success in ’90 with LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out; with Marl’s state-of-the-art production, the album improved LL’s street cred while becoming his biggest seller ever, making Marl an in-demand remixer.’
’91 brought the release of In Control, Vol. 2, which unfortunately displayed signs that the Cold Chillin’ talent pool was being depleted.’
In ’08, he released a collaborative album with Craig G called Operation: Take Back Hip Hop.
Legacy
In September 2007, Marley received an award from the Berklee College of Music for his contribution to music. Having previously had a radio show called Private Radio as well as Future Flavas with Pete Rock and K-Def, now Marley has a Golden Era Radio show at WBLS which is where he first started.
He is on Twitter at:
https://twitter.com/GoldenEraRadio
https://twitter.com/marleyskills
Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/goldeneraradio
Marley is also still tours the world DJing, and is a member of the worldwide DJ organization, The Core DJ’s. He is currently producing a film called The Vapors, based on himself and the Juice Crew in the late 80’s.
He suffered a heart attack in ’07, but was released from the hospital a few days later. He blamed the heart attack on stress brought on by his worries about being a good father.
1ncredible 