Justin Mark Boreland, better known as Merlin, is a British rapper of Jamaican descent from Brixton, London and nephew of reggae singer Smiley Culture. [1] [2] [3] He was the featured vocalist on the B-side "Megablast" of the UK top-ten single "Don't Make Me Wait" by Bomb the Bass (1988) [4] and A-side of the UK top-ten single "Who's in the House (The Hip House Anthem)" by the Beatmasters (1989). [5] [6] Merlin also contributed vocals to the track "Pimps, Pushers, Prostitutes" (for which he received a writing credit) on the 1989 UK top-five album Original Soundtrack by S'Express. [7] An eponymous studio album was released the same year followed by a second, The New Rap Messiah, in 1992. [1] [2]
In 2020, Boreland became a tutor in music composition and production at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, London. [8]
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120-130 beats per minute as a re-emergence of 1970s disco. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.
Breakbeat hardcore is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In addition to the inclusion of breakbeats, the genre also features shuffled drum machine patterns, hoover, and other noises originating from new beat and Belgian techno, sounds from acid house and bleep techno, and often upbeat house piano riffs and vocals.
Stephen Anthony James Duffy is an English musician, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member, vocalist, bassist, and then drummer of Duran Duran. He went on to record as a solo performer under several different names, and is the singer and songwriter for The Lilac Time with his older brother Nick. He has also co-written with Robbie Williams and Steven Page.
S'Express were a British dance music act from the late 1980s, who had one of the earliest commercial successes in the acid house genre.
8 Mile: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture is the official soundtrack album to the 2002 film of the same name. The album, performed by various artists, was released by Universal Pictures' then subsidiary Universal Music, through Interscope and Shady/Aftermath. It spawned the hit single "Lose Yourself" by Eminem, who also stars in the semi-autobiographical movie.
Indian hip hop is a genre of popular music developed in India. Desi hip hop is a term given by Bohemia for music and culture which combines the influences of hip hop and the Indian subcontinent; the term desi referring to the South Asian diaspora. The term has also come to be used as an alternative for rap music and even pop music which involves rappers of South Asian origins.
M.O.P. is an American hip hop duo composed of East Coast rappers Billy Danze and Lil' Fame. After years of mostly underground success, they gained more mainstream recognition in 2000 with the song "Ante Up", which would become their biggest hit. The group has frequently collaborated with DJ Premier and is part of the Gang Starr Foundation. Fame sometimes produces under the moniker Fizzy Womack, and has produced tracks on every M.O.P. release since 1996's Firing Squad, as well as work for other artists including Kool G Rap, Teflon and Wu-Tang Clan.
D Train was an American duo that had hits on the Billboard magazine Dance and R&B charts during the first half of the 1980s. Three of their singles also reached the top 30 in the UK Singles Chart.
Romeo Must Die: The Album is the soundtrack to Andrzej Bartkowiak's 2000 action film Romeo Must Die, composed of hip hop and R&B music. It was released on March 28, 2000 through Blackground Records and Virgin Records in association with Warner Bros. Records. Recording sessions took time between May 1999 and January 2000.
Mark Moore is a British dance music record producer and DJ. He was founder of the dance / sampling pioneers S'Express, and runs the London nightclubs, 'Electrogogo' and 'Can Can'.
David Alistair Pearce is an English dance DJ, EDM producer and broadcaster, who has performed across the United Kingdom and the world. He previously presented Dance Anthems on BBC Radio 1 for ten years. He is renowned for playing a key role both as a performer and behind the scenes in the development of English dance and club culture.
Black Star is an American hip hop duo formed in 1996, from Brooklyn, New York City. The duo is composed of rappers Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli. The duo is named after The Black Star Line, a shipping company founded by Marcus Garvey. Their critically-acclaimed debut album Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star was released on September 29, 1998. After decades of only releasing singles and appearing on compilations, Black Star released their sophomore studio album No Fear of Time May 3, 2022 on the podcasting platform Luminary.
Rhythm King Records Ltd was a British independent record label, founded in the mid-1980s by Martin Heath, Adele Nozedar, DJ Jay Strongman and James Horrocks. It was based in Chiswick, London.
The Beatmasters are an English electronic music group who gained success in the UK in the late 1980s with four top 20 hit singles. They then went on to produce and remix records for many other artists. The group's string of chart hit singles include "Burn It Up", "Hey DJ! ", "Who's in the House" and "Rok da House". The latter, having been recorded in 1986, is one of the earliest examples of hip house and most likely the first song of the genre. Hip house is a subgenre of house music which features rap vocals performed over a house rhythm track.
Richard Anthony Simpson, also known as Chubb Rock, is an American rapper who released several successful hip hop albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A National Merit Scholar, Chubb Rock dropped out of Brown University to pursue his musical career.
Broken Silence is the third studio album by American rapper Foxy Brown, released on July 17, 2001, by Violator and Ill Na Na Entertainment; distributed under Def Jam Recordings. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 131,000 copies. It has been certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States. This is Foxy's only album to be released in the 2000s, and remains her most recent release.
Original Soundtrack is the debut album by English dance music act S'Express, released in 1989. It was predominantly written and produced by Mark Moore along with Mark McGuire. Pascal Gabriel co-produced the album's two biggest hits, "Theme from S'Express" and "Superfly Guy". The album charted well in the UK, reaching number five on the UK Albums Chart, and was also received well on the US dance chart. The album was certified gold in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry.
The Fast and the Furious: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the first of two soundtracks to Rob Cohen's 2001 action film The Fast and the Furious. It was released on June 5, 2001, by Murder Inc. Records, Def Jam Recordings, and Universal Music Group. Production was handled mostly by Irv Gotti, as well as twelve other record producers, including Channel 7, Damizza, Nick "Fury" Loftin and Swizz Beatz. It features contributions from the film star Ja Rule, along with Armageddon, Ashanti, Black Child, Boo & Gotti, Caddillac Tah, DMX, Faith Evans, Fat Joe, Funkmaster Flex, Limp Bizkit, Method Man, Nate Dogg, N.O.R.E., O-1, Petey Pablo, Redman, R. Kelly, Scarface, Shade Sheist, Tank and Vita. The album reached number seven on the Billboard 200, number five on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and went platinum in 2002 in both the United States and Canada.
Lakshmi Narasimha Vijaya Rajagopala Sheshadri Sharma Rajesh Raman, professionally known as Blaaze, is an Indian Tamil language playback singer and rapper in Indian cinema who specializes in writing and performing rap music. An Indian by birth, born in Chennai, he grew up in Zambia and later did his education in England and in the US.
In a Perfect World... is the debut studio album of American singer Keri Hilson. It was released on March 24, 2009, through Zone 4, Mosley Music Group and Interscope Records. Originally planned for a 2007 release, it was pushed back numerous times into 2008, amid her label's budget issues and minor single releases. The production on the album was handled primarily by Timbaland, Polow da Don and Danja, among others.