C Boogie Brown And Dinco D "Murder By Numbers"

By Ralo

The legacy that is known as Leaders Of The New School began when founding member C Boogie Brown heard the vocal dexterity of the Cold Crush Brothers back in 1981. Fascinated by the discipline and team work demonstrated by The Cold Crush Brothers, C Boogie Brown decided he had to form a crew, and thus patterned his his first group the Destiny 3, after The Cold Crush Brothers. In 1985, The Destiny 3 included C Boogie Brown (who was then known as CCB), Busta Rhymes (then known as Chill-O-Ski), Dinco D and another local M.C. named Mystery. Their first Dj was Johnny Juice who later became the DJ/ producer for Public Enemy. In 1989 the group was complete when Cut Monitor Milo joined as producer and lyricist.

During the mid to early 80's, Brown travelled with his big brother Higgy Higg who DJed at some of Hip-Hop's earliest events. Carrying records for his brother got him into parties during the infancy of Rap Music.

The three Uniondale Long Island residents known as The Destiny 3 would often meet with neighbour Eric (Vietnam) Sadler to do work at his near by studio. Recording with Sadler would often put the trio in the company of Public Enemys' Hank Shocklee and Chuck D, who came up with the name Leaders Of The New School. "We need a real name" recalls Brown of the groups first name. However, they were told by Chuck D that the name was for another group he was developing. Brown insisted "we got to have that name". At that point Chuck D told them to come to an audition for the group. "We arrived late and missed the audition" recalls Brown. However, as fate would have it, they ended up with the name anyway.

In 1991 Leaders released their first full-length album A Future Without a Past..., which spawned three singles, Case Of The P.T.A. (produced by Milo), Sobb Story and The International Zone Coaster.  Their well received debut was followed by T.I.M.E. in 1993. T.I.M.E. singles included Whats Next and Classic Material.

C Boogie Brown and Dinco D have continued to record together and also turned out solo efforts over the years. In 1999 Brown released the underground classic I'll Always Be Around, and in 2012 Dinco D released Dinc-To-The-Dinc. Always busy and always in the lab they have come up with another underground classic, Murder By Numbers.

Murder By Numbers, produced DJ El Rhan Amazin, explores what happens when black men are confronted by the Police. The lyrics bring compassion and insight to the ongoing struggles of being black males in America. It is the raw story of Police oppression and subjugation of black people. They detail the personal struggles of being black in a system that prefers to treat black men as suspects instead of citizens. Lyrically they are coming to terms with the unjust system of police brutality and state sanctioned murder.




  

Busta Rhymes: Brooklyn Hip-Hop Fest.

By Ralo

For music fans in New York City the summer is a time for an exceptional amount of outdoor and even indoor concerts. New York residents can find live performances from every genre of music imaginable, in every borough of the city. Summer concerts can also be found through out the suburbs of Long Island and Upstate New York as well. For fans of urban music there is Central Park Summer Stage, Black August, Afro Punk Fest and plenty more.

For the last eight years, showcasing non-commercial Hip-Hop acts has been the focal point of The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. The organizers have found a formula that resonates with underground Hip-Hop fans. This annual event has been a home to artists and DJ's like DJ Premier, DJ Evil Dee, Nitty Scott, Jeru The Damaja, De la Soul, Atribe Called Quest, Skyzoo and many more. The event has always been hosted by "Uncle" Ralph McDaniels of the now thirty year old Video Music Box. What host could represent the borough of Brooklyn better?

This years performance was made special by it's headline act, Busta Rhymes. The first thing to appreciate about Bustas' performance was the way he opened his show by  performing the crowd motivating "Jump, Jump", which drew a very excited reaction from the audience. Busta showed his deep commitment to doing a monumental performance by adding respected Hip-Hop luminaries to his peformance. Lil Fame of M.O.P. joined Busta on stage to do a very energetic version of "Ante Up". Buck Shot of Black Moon touched the mic to do his classics, "How Many M.C.'s" and "Don't Front". The CoCoa Brovaz, Tek  And Steele joined Buck Shot on stage to do even more Boot Camp Classics. As if that wasn't enough Busta brought the legendary Slick Rick on stage to do what can be considered a Hip-Hop fable, "Childrens' Story".

Apart from doing a string of his own hits, Busta reached a critical point in his performance when he reunited the members of Leaders Of The New School, Dinco D and Charlie Brown.They did their crowd pleasing classic "Case Of The P.T.A." This was the first time Leaders Of The New School performed on stage together in nineteen years. Busta went a step further to bring A Tribe Called Quest on stage to do the groundbreaking "Scenario", which generated very rowdy reaction from crowd.

In the final analysis Bustas' 2012 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival performance was equally as good as the legendary past performances of Q-Tip and De La Soul. It will be the topic of discussion for years.