My Sons, My moms, The pursuit of knowledge and unearthing the truth. Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Malcolm X,
Professor Godfred Humphrey, Huey P. Newton, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh,
Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, DJ Linx, Bob Dylan, Chuck D, KRS-ONE, Slick Rick, Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Jeru Tha Damaja,The Hieroglyphics, Special Ed, Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes,
Organised Konfusion (Pharoahe Monch & Prince Poetry),
JayDilla (R.I.P) & Slum Village DJ Cash Money, The BootCamp Clique, Buju Banton, Sizzla, London Posse, Silent Eclipse, The Wu, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, James Brown,Prince, Anthony Hamilton, D'angelo, Michael Jackson, De La Soul, The Roots, Che Guevara, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Brand Nubian, Millie Jackson, Isaac Hayes, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jay-Z, Biggie (R.I.P),
Digital Underground, Tupac Shakur (R.I.P), EPMD, Redman, Tiamat, Ultramagnetic MC's
Psychologists will tell you that what happens in the first five years of a child's life will shape them mentally for the rest of their days. Little surprise then that DJ/ MC/ broadcaster/ all-round entertainer Kid Fury's earliest childhood memories are of the black music soundtrack that resonated from his Mum's household. "My mum would always say, 'I can sing, y'know. I should've been a singer. Almost everything she did was to music - she tidied, cooked and gave me and my brothers licks all to a beat."
Born Franklin Humphrey in Oxford on Christmas Eve 1976 to parents hailng from St Vincent & Barbados, musical aspirations soon replaced the usual wild-eyed ambitions in the young Fury's heart. His mum's music consisted of black music greats like Dennis Brown, Garnett Silk, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield and Al Green.
Admitting 'I didn't get out much,' a lot of the 80s were spent absorbing pop of the 'Now That's What I Call Music' variety. But it also saw Fury discovering early rap like Run DMC, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and Doug E Fresh.
By then it was clear that music was the only thing that would do for a future career.
Fury's first DJing gig came about in the classic fashion - as a last-minute fill-in. In Summer '91, he was recruited by Steven 'Breadback' Williams of Oxford sound system Yard Force to play a community centre jam. He'd been a collector up to that point, and never DJed before, but by the end of the night the art of crowd-pleasing had set in. He worked hard to secure more gigs, primarily at Oxford's legendary Roots Club with round-the-way MC De Stressbringer as his hype man.
Next up was a Thursday residency at The Park End Club(now Lava & Ignite), still at the tender age of only 15. Constantly playing hip hop had inspired Fury to start studying the art of rhyming, too, and before long, he'd developed his verbal skills enough to join local crew Statiks, alongside co-members DJ Linx, Fly, G Money and Tiamat.
The missing link was radio, and Fury achieved his big break in this field when he was approached by his friend Nic Regisford to become a temporary Summer co-host on a show called 'Da Boombox' on Oxford station Juice FM, (later Oxygen and Passion FM now Oxford's FM 107.9)
Station bosses allowed him to stay on when the rest of the crew returned - David Laub, Ben Daines, A.N.T and Bennie G, now of The Mixologists - and Fury became a firm fixture in the team. Some useful links were forged in this period, as the show's guests included Aspex, Roots Manuva, Braintax, Lewis Parker, MK, Apollo and Jehst. Fury also hit it off with Harry Love and Verb T, and before long, they'd recorded their track 'Ill Lyrical Behaviour' on Apeman Records. In 2000, the Boombox crew disbanded, leaving Fury to carry on the show solo. By the end of the year, it had been voted fifth best radio show by readers of Hip Hop Connection magazine.
Another key alliance was with DJ Mark Devlin, with whom Fury presented two more memorable shows entitled 'Joints & Jams' on the station. For a two-year period, they travelled the length and breadth of the UK blazing up clubs, the mileage decreasing the value of MD's car unfeasibly in the process. The flagship event was the Saturdays at The Forum in Cardiff, one of the largest-attended and highest-profile urban music events outside of London. Fury's quirky and witty freestyles also became an eagerly-awaited feature of MD's nationally-distributed mix CDs.
Recent years have seen Fury grinding further in all areas; he's secured a new Saturday show called Passion Phat Club alongside DJ Kim and Spex, DJs at a wide assortment of venues in Oxford and London, and continues to perform as an MC at live shows and on track, in various collaborative guises. As a DJ, Fury draws inspiration from giving his competitors a run for their money. "I'm trying my hardest to be somebody that shows bandwagon DJs they need to quit," he explains. "I do it by being a turntablist, but not letting trickery prevent me from moving the crowd at the same time."
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our third LP release...
"Anutha Kinda Brotha" is the debut LP from underground legend ART TERRY. Since moving to the UK from his native Los Angeles in the early 90s, Mr Terry has established himself as one of London's characters.
Describing Art's sound to the uninitiated usually involves debunking some of the stereotypes of what the 'typical' black Californian might play. Despite his jazz training, and coming of age to the sounds of classic soul and funk, these styles are only a part of his musical vision. His fascination with folk styles, classical music, punk rock, pure pop, easy listening, musical theatre and the European avant garde have taken him on different paths from most...
The result is an orchestral pop record full of sonic inventiveness, whether it's the blend of Shuggie Otis's 60s California and Sun Ra's ancient Egypt on 'Bible', Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons leading a mariachi band on 'Escort', or the Walt Disney music box orchestra of 'Miss Dominatrix', but whilst this is very much a sonic feast, we shouldn't overlook Art's extraordinary lyrical adeptness, and the distinctive character this brings to the proceedings, with a knack for unique and colourful imagery, and how like a great short story writer he is able to paint an engaging picture whilst keeping back from casting judgement on his characters, always leaving open ends for the listener to tie; giving us the feeling that however far astray someone might have gone, there is always sympathy and human feeling for them in Art's mind...
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our second official LP release...
"Modern Mediaeval" is the third LP from singer-songwriter DAVID GARSIDE, and the first to receive the full Frizz Records vinyl treatment. It’s also clearly the most fully-realised statement of his distinctive vision so far…
It’s an easy route to locate David in the tradition of his ‘classic’ influences (McCartney, Nick Drake, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, The Beach Boys, Love, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Dexy’s…), but there are few songwriters working today that have absorbed these influences so fully, and arrived at a mature style as David has…
This is ’singer-songwriter’ music in the sense that it’s focus is on song-craft and the unfolding of the lyrical vision of a single individual, but if so then it’s definitely at the sophisticated end of the scale (’progressive’ if that term isn’t too loaded…), filed alongside ‘Bryter Layter’, ‘The Hissing Of Summer Lawns’, ‘Pretzel Logic’ or ‘Surf’s Up’...another FRIZZ RECORDS instant classic!
"Modern Mediaeval" can be downloaded from the iTunes Store
The album is also available on heavyweight vinyl LP, or on Digipack CD from www.FrizzRecords.com & all good retailers
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our first official LP release...
"It's Not The Wand, It's The Magic" is the debut release from AUGUST, the London based band centred around the songwriting partnership between vocalist VEDINA MOSE and multi-instrumentalist / producer RAPHAEL MANN (MR HUDSON / JOY JOSEPH / ART TERRY), with master drummer CLEAN CUT MARK and clarinetist / vocalist MAREE CHOIE completing the core line-up, and a supporting cast including ART TERRY (keyboards), SHOHEI KAWAMOTO (AKA Japanese producer Baraki, Bass clarinet, soprano sax and flute), and KAI HOFFMAN (French horn)
Always an act that juggled a diverse set of influences, the album has been compared to artists as diverse as KATE BUSH, PRINCE, DE LA SOUL, SLY STONE, MADLIB, SERGE GAINSBOURG and THE DELFONICS, for its concoction of wild experimentation and traditional song craft, organic production and futuristic electronic touches, funk bass & drums and jazz & orchestral references, infectious melodies and lyrical flights of fancy...with nods towards classic soul, JB funk, Studio One, 60s pop, psychedelia, left field hip hop, new wave, doo wop, tropicalia, high life, & avant garde jazz, without any song ever fitting squarely into any of those categories...new music, basically...and an instant classic!
"It's Not The Wand, It's The Magic" can be downloaded now from the iTunes Store
The album is also available on heavyweight vinyl LP in a sumptuous gatefold sleeve, or on Digipack CD from www.FrizzRecords.com & all good retailers
Abstrakt never went away, I have been working with Jonzi D, Breakin Convention and more for last few years. How's you? i have a great Hip Hop theatre show coming to Oxford so thought I'd look you up!!! Are you still on the scene?
In result for spamming me, i am going to return the favour!
Doctor Freud and Methodz are...Purple Rain - The Winter Stormz EP out NOW! Available from www. myspace. com/winterstormz for less than five of your british pounds!
