DJ Spen | |
|---|---|
 DJ Spen in 2018 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Sean Spencer |
| Born | October 13, 1968 |
| Genres | Hip hop, dance music |
| Occupation(s) | DJ, record producer, record executive |
| Years active | 1981–present |
Sean Spencer (born October 13, 1968), better known by his stage name DJ Spen or Spen, is an American DJ, record producer, and record executive.
Spencer got his start, at the age of 13, as a local DJ in Baltimore, Maryland, making mix tapes for local radio shows and playing parties. In 1983, Spencer started the hip hop group Numarx with Kevin Liles, Rodney "Kool Rod" Holloman, Darryl "Junie Jams" Mims, and Wayne Mallory. With Kool Rod and Junie Jams as the MCs, the group performed around Baltimore and the surrounding areas and opened for acts such as LL Cool J and Run-DMC. [1] Numarx released the song "Buss It" on KMA Records in 1984. [2]
Later Spencer, Liles, and Holloman (along with Bill Pettaway and Ky Adeyemo) wrote "Girl You Know It's True", [3] which became a popular hit in German nightclubs and was eventually heard by Milli Vanilli producer Frank Farian. [4] Milli Vanilli's version of the song was a major worldwide hit single. [5] Numarx released the album Our Time Has Come, featuring their own version of "Girl You Know It's True", in 1988. [6]
Spen also worked for several Baltimore-area-radio stations, including V-103, WERQ-FM "92Q", WKYS-FM, and WWIN-FM "Majic 95.9" (where he started the popular Flashback Saturday Night Dance Party). He eventually became the Mix Show Director at V-103. [7]
In 1989, Spen moved away from hip hop and joined the dance music production team The Basement Boys, who remixed or produced artists such as Paula Abdul, Michael Jackson, Crystal Waters, and Ultra Nate. [8] Karizma later joined the group and was DJ Spen's production partner. The two often produced under the alias Deepah Ones. [9] Spen completed a full-length dance music production called A Feelin' in 1995. [10]
Spen continued to work with the Basement Boys for several years before starting a business venture called Code Red Recordings in 2004. [7] During this period he also founded a production team called the Muthafunkaz which released recordings on Code Red. [11] In 2011 he founded Quantize Recordings and serves as the President and CEO. [12]
Spen continues to perform internationally and has appeared at Ministry of Sound; Coachella, Southport, Weekender UK, and SunceBeat Festival Croatia. In 2018, Spen and Italian producer Michele Chiavarini scored a number 1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart with their remix of Donna Summer's Hot Stuff. [13] Also in 2018, Quantize Recordings had a #1 Billboard Dance Chart song with Barbara Tucker's cover of the Lyn Collins song "Think (About It)". In 2020, Spen produced the song "Party People" with Crystal Waters. In 2021, the Louie Vega remix of Spen's production “Praying For You” was nominated for a Grammy Award. [14]
In December 2023, Spen released his Remix Masterclass [15] educational course for music producers.
Milli Vanilli was a German R&B music act from Munich. The act was packaged by Boney M. founder Frank Farian in 1988 and consisted of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus as the lip-syncing performers, with the two actual main studio singers, Brad Howell, John Davis and studio singers, Charles Shaw, Jodie Rocco, and Linda Rocco, with an unrelated touring band. Their debut album, as All or Nothing in Europe, and expanded, including "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It on the Rain", composed by Diane Warren, as Girl You Know It's True in the United States, achieved international success and brought them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist on 21 February 1990.
The 32nd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 21, 1990, and hosted by Garry Shandling. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.
Fabrice Maxime Sylvain Morvan is a French singer, dancer, and model who was half of the pop duo Milli Vanilli, along with Rob Pilatus. It was later revealed that the two had not actually sung on any of their recordings. After the scandal, the group reformed as Rob & Fab in the 1990s, with limited success. Morvan had a solo comeback in the 2000s, releasing the album Love Revolution in 2003.
Franz Reuther, known professionally as Frank Farian, was a German record producer and singer who founded the 1970s disco-pop group Boney M., the Latin pop band No Mercy, and the pop band Milli Vanilli. He frequently created vocal groups in which the publicised members merely lip-synced to songs sung by session members. Farian owned the record label MCI and several subsidiaries. Over the course of his career, Farian sold over 850 million records and earned 800 gold and platinum certifications.
Robert Pilatus was a German singer, dancer, model, and rapper. He was a member of the pop music duo Milli Vanilli with Fab Morvan.
Girl You Know It's True is a 1989 album that served as the North American debut of German R&B duo Milli Vanilli. It is a reconfigured and repackaged version of the group's album All or Nothing for the North American market.
All or Nothing is the debut studio album by dance pop duo Milli Vanilli, released only outside of North America in November 1988. In 1989, it was repackaged and retitled Girl You Know It's True for release in North America on the Arista label, with several of the original album tracks replaced and/or remixed. All or Nothing was a moderate success, reaching the top 40 in several European countries and #1 in New Zealand. It originally reached #37 in the UK, but was packaged together with The U.S.-Remix Album: All or Nothing in 1989 under the name 2×2 and reached #6. After 1990, due to lip-synching allegations, a disclaimer sticker was added on the cover to explicitly name the singers who provided vocals on the album.
"Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" is a song by German dance-pop group Milli Vanilli. It was released in July 1989 as the third single from their debut album, All or Nothing (1988), as well as its American counterpart, Girl You Know It's True (1989). The single was a success, hitting the number one spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and being certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The song also reached number one in Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands and Switzerland, number two in Ireland, the United Kingdom and West Germany, and number three in Australia.
"Blame It on the Rain" is a song written by Diane Warren and performed by the German dance-pop group Milli Vanilli. It was released as a new track from the group's North American debut album, Girl You Know It's True (1989), and did not appear on All or Nothing (1988), their debut album in other regions. An extended remix of the song did appear on The U.S.-Remix Album: All or Nothing (1989), which served to release the new tracks included on Girl You Know It's True that did not appear on All or Nothing outside of North America.
"(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me" is a song recorded by American singer Paula Abdul for her debut album Forever Your Girl (1988). Written and produced solely by producer Oliver Leiber, the song was originally released in its remix form as the second single from the album on August 2, 1988, by Virgin to minor success in the States. Following the breakthrough success of her next three singles, the song was re-released on September 15, 1989, under its original version to commercial success, becoming Abdul's fourth consecutive top three entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and to date, tying with "Straight Up" as her longest charting performance on the chart. The song, however, did not replicate the same success in the UK where it managed to peak at number seventy-four on the UK Singles Chart, thus becoming her lowest charting single in the region to date.
"Girl You Know It's True" is a song by Maryland-based group Numarx, later made internationally famed by German dance-pop group Milli Vanilli. Released as the lead single from MV's European debut album, All or Nothing (1988), and the duo's American debut album, Girl You Know It's True (1989), the song peaked at number one on the German Singles Chart, number two in the United States and number three in the United Kingdom, becoming one of Milli Vanilli's most successful singles.
The Basement Boys is an American house music production team that was formed in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The founding members are Jay Steinhour, Teddy Douglas and Thommy Davis.
"All or Nothing" is a song by German dance-pop group Milli Vanilli. It was released in January 1990 and was their final top 10 single, peaking at number four in the United States. This was their final single before the lip syncing scandal. In November 1990, the duo's manager, Frank Farian, publicly announced that he had fired Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. He also confirmed long standing rumors that Morvan and Pilatus did not actually sing on any Milli Vanilli releases. Session singers had provided the lead vocals while Morvan and Pilatus lip synced to the recorded tracks when performing live.
"Keep on Running" is a song credited to German pop group Milli Vanilli before and during the lip-synching scandal and later credited to The Real Milli Vanilli after. It was released in 1990 and peaked at number two in Austria, number four in Germany, number six in Italy and number eight in Switzerland. The song was also released in France, but failed to enter the singles chart, as did "Too Late ".
"A Milli", abbreviated occasionally as "Milli", is a song by American rapper Lil Wayne. The song was released April 23, 2008, as the second official single from his sixth album Tha Carter III.
Kevin Liles is an American record executive and co-founder and CEO of 300 Entertainment. In 2020, Kevin was recognized by Billboard Magazine as R&B/Hip-Hop Executive of the Year for both his efforts in activism and the continued success of Megan Thee Stallion.
This is a discography of Milli Vanilli, a pop/dance music project formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1988, fronted by Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus.
Darko Juranović, better known by his stage name D'Knock, is a Croatian record producer, songwriter and artist, as well as a promoter of the Croatian club and hip-hop scene. He is also one of the founding members of the production team PlayOne, a member of the music duo D'Knock & Jay, the owner of D'Knock Production record label, as well as a co-CEO and co-founder of the production company Urbani ZvukArchived 2018-08-19 at the Wayback Machine and video production company JMJ Factory.
Karizma is an American electronic musician, DJ and record producer, known for his wide variety of music production in deep house, deep techno, hip hop, jazz, and broken beat.
Girl You Know It's True is a biographical film about the controversial late-1980s/early-1990s music duo Milli Vanilli that caused one of the most infamous scandals in international pop music. Between 2021 and 2022, German-Austrian filmmaker Simon Verhoeven wrote, directed and co-produced the biopic, which was produced by Wiedemann & Berg Film, with Leonine as the theatrical distributor, released in cinemas in late 2023. The movie stars Tijan Njie and Elan Ben Ali as the lip-synching stage artists Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan respectively, as well as Matthias Schweighöfer as the instigating music producer/manager Frank Farian.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
