Elbee Bad - Decisive Podcast Special
Aug 21, 2018•1 hr 4 min
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Episode description
Hello Music Freaks, Another podcast here, chasing after your ears to listen into our guest who a major player in the underground music industry The Prince Of Dance Music eLBee BaD. Thats right on the Decisive Podcast series Special. Check out his interview and music mix with your host Roberto Q. Ingram.
More about Elbee,
30 years ago the first 12" vinyl 1988 'Just Don't Stop The Dance' The idea to produce 'a dance rhythm' not heard in dance music.
From childhood to late in teenage years L.B. was playing the drums.
Most time playing with one band consisting mainly of 2 sets of brothers.
Platinum Enterprise. (guitar) Claude & Eddy Howard (drums),
(Bass) Linwood & Lamont Booker (drums).
Having an elder bass playing brother & often playing with another drummer, taught LB to be tight & literally how to ride with or on another groove.
Excellent DJ lessons learned.
The band members were all 3 to 5 years older & when the oldest member was on way to college, his whole attitude changed, as he was taken into what we now call 'the matrix'. Entering university, preparing for adult life & the dream of playing music & making records for a life time dwindled. The dream got sucked away into societies realities. The other 2 band members followed that same basic path.
There was 'The MaD Drummer' losing his band family as each year got closer to being grown up. New York Hip Hop motion was starting up strong. The first modern day raves, block parties, school parties, 2 turntables & a mic parties were replacing bands performing 'everywhere'.
Quickly 'dj'ing' became the fascinating 'thing'.
Platinum Enterprise was performing at a well paid wedding. When the bands first set of music was finished, the dj started. The needle dropped on the vinyl & the static was loud enough to 'grab all attention'. Then it came in like the sound of a musical bomb dropping in front of your face…The hits of a snare drum & then horns smoothly flowing & the smoothest LOUDEsT clean & clear sound of madness. Kool & the Gang's live version of Summer Madness. The volume, the Bass & then, toward the end, the synthesised keyboard solo. The moment changed eL's life. The volume & bass coming out the Cerwin Vegas, which was far away from the turntables blew his mind into a musical oblivion & he knew…that's the path.
Records!! Turntables! Big speakers!!
The young teen got a summer job in which he invested in 2 turntables. That December his mother got him the mixer he was after. (Father did buy the 1st few drum sets). If one could today, imagine never seeing dj's mix. Not having any guides or rules at all. It was all new & nothing was set, & no leaders to follow.
Lots of info on sound systems, making speakers, & use of crossovers etc., were somehow the most important at the time. Probaby due to the fact that sound systems were often thrown together from multiple 'family home systems' that came with lots of watts.
Originate was the key. Tracks (beats) that no one had, was key. New & old music, different genres, nothing mattered & no one cared as long as it was hot & different/unique!
The mix & manipulation of records quickly became more important then the actual sound of the system.
& that is where DJ Bad shined like no other. His ideas on different ways of mixing were unique, & he quickly became a local fav. Building up to a radio stations (WGLI engineer to on air & then WBLS) as a mobile music jock, gave access to city wide block parties.
The band members (all but the eldest) became crucial members of the 'Super BaD Crew. Growing, they went city wide. Block parties, halls, & onto creating events with our new sound system partners, Mark Blagrove & Michael Webster, both becoming key members of what later came to be Wild Pitch parties.
Creating LaRhon Records gave reason to be at record pressing plants. Old factories, dark lighting, with the terrible smell of plastic burning. The friendly feeling in one of them, Apexeton. LB manufactured the 1st two LaRhon releases & there is where he met & befriended the owners, The Ropiak Brothers (City Limits), & the 2 coolest knowledgeable 'helping hand' guys, Silvio Tancredi (Northcott) & Frank Mendez (Nu Groove).
Bad's 2nd batch of 12's came out thru the Apexton connections. Nu Groove & City Limits lead the path. With Apexton LB started his own distribution for some records pressed there. Around the same time 'Gotta Get Some Money' dropped on Nu Groove, it was the first glimpse into a record company as a family, & how it really operated.
Touching both NY's film industry & banging music industry doors LB was laying foundations.
With the heat & action turned up high, on to the 3rd batch of 12"s being released (the 2nd Nu Groove release 'True Story of House' & Lisa Angels 'Show Me' was buzzing in clubs in & around NY) an invite to finally perform in Europe came, yet he turned it down. Nu Groove techno artists were in & out of Europe, but the House music artists seemed to stay local.
Berlin calling & BaD was not with it. 3 months and many many telephone calls later, Mark Ernestus finally convinced him to visit Berlin. 12 day trip never ended. The physical stay affair started with the mishap of a wrong return date announced (NY landing date was given/not the European flight take off, one day earlier).
Mishap after mishap. Or so it seemed. Paths. Unseen paths layed down.
synchronisation of life events become evident.
With Mark E, (Hardwax) inside a reggae record store, ''with my back turned to the door, a voice calls out my 1st name & it's not Mark'' (the only person knowing it). Turn slow & almost into shock seeing a friend from high school. Dexter Porter, time to time singer in Platinum Enterprise, & personal friend of Chaka Khan.
Together, years before, we've seen her perform & here he is, finding Lamont, in Berlin, in a reggae record store.
He had another powerful & special woman eLBee had to meet. Odella Saille.
She was the turning point to work in Europe. Offered a position in a new club as resident, & LB became assistant manager-booking agent-dj for the wonderous club called Exit. That gave him opportunity to stop trying to get home. Exit experience also gave way to building club sound systems, booking pop-ular artists (Sister Sledge/Gil Scott Heron/BG The Prince of Rap/Incognito) club management, rave operations, & months of (very little sleep) Friday to Monday basically non-stop. It also birthed the name change, as advised by an angel. Calls herself a witch, saying L.B. Bad (morphed from D.J. Bad) …''for numeric reasons should be more 'strong', than those 5 letters.''
rebirth- eLBee BaD
On births, Exit was so big (holding 3000) a chosen few of us (working there) having offices upstairs, actually had artsy apartments (downstairs) in the club…
It was in Exit, sunday to Monday morning Berlin hardcore Techno, where resident Dj Tanith dropped Smokebelch two weeks in a row as the last song. Life changer, seventeen 12's records, into the career & the 1st song to generate income, a lovely ambiental song named "New age Of Faith' (bonus track that Frank of Nu Groove did not want)…covered & reproduced by Andrew Weatherall (Sabres of Paradise).
Building up a recording studio for the 3rd time, it took a while to truly find 'his groove'.
The Berlin influence of hardcore Techno up'd his dj bpm's, yet never losing soul, the line of Tech House was crossed. Entering the 2nd record label family; DJ Hell put out a search party for 'Mr. BaD…
International DJ Gigolo. Home of professionalism & true artist care!
Never losing the Mad Drummer flavor & it shows up in complex rhythms again & again.
*Gonna Be a Great Night (LaRhon). The time arrived when producers started asking eL to voice their recordings. Often taking the artist role instead of producer, more learning was in store, just by seeing how many other producers (from across the globe) create. Dole & Kom, Slam, Savas Pascalidis, Logo, Samuel Sessions, & Basic Channel (I slept With Her But Didn't sleep With Her).
Music became more & more catorgorized & to help maintain production freedom, Mr. Bad started to add new characters to his own persona.
eLBee BaD - the voice/the dj
The Nervous DJ - hypnotic tracks
The Mad Drummer - rhythm tracks (only drums)
The Voodoo Man - tribal tracks
Mad Man in the attic - samples & loops
Dr. Spark - drum & bass/breakbeat
The Banging Man - Techno
LB GooD - will replace eLBee BaD (vocal retirement) Mr. GooD is the bad seed &
The Prince of Dance Music is the brain & heart of it.
—————————————————————-
As the internet helped change how we listen to music, that new freedom allowed for wider music variation.
Henceforth the return of Platinum Enterprise. Productions created today, with 'our band might sound like this' attitude. Giving room for more growth, the meeting of Randy Murray, former lead Trumpet player in Sun Ras Arkestra. Birth of the musical experience: 'Sun Ras Children' (Learned a lot of Jazz)
More about Elbee,
30 years ago the first 12" vinyl 1988 'Just Don't Stop The Dance' The idea to produce 'a dance rhythm' not heard in dance music.
From childhood to late in teenage years L.B. was playing the drums.
Most time playing with one band consisting mainly of 2 sets of brothers.
Platinum Enterprise. (guitar) Claude & Eddy Howard (drums),
(Bass) Linwood & Lamont Booker (drums).
Having an elder bass playing brother & often playing with another drummer, taught LB to be tight & literally how to ride with or on another groove.
Excellent DJ lessons learned.
The band members were all 3 to 5 years older & when the oldest member was on way to college, his whole attitude changed, as he was taken into what we now call 'the matrix'. Entering university, preparing for adult life & the dream of playing music & making records for a life time dwindled. The dream got sucked away into societies realities. The other 2 band members followed that same basic path.
There was 'The MaD Drummer' losing his band family as each year got closer to being grown up. New York Hip Hop motion was starting up strong. The first modern day raves, block parties, school parties, 2 turntables & a mic parties were replacing bands performing 'everywhere'.
Quickly 'dj'ing' became the fascinating 'thing'.
Platinum Enterprise was performing at a well paid wedding. When the bands first set of music was finished, the dj started. The needle dropped on the vinyl & the static was loud enough to 'grab all attention'. Then it came in like the sound of a musical bomb dropping in front of your face…The hits of a snare drum & then horns smoothly flowing & the smoothest LOUDEsT clean & clear sound of madness. Kool & the Gang's live version of Summer Madness. The volume, the Bass & then, toward the end, the synthesised keyboard solo. The moment changed eL's life. The volume & bass coming out the Cerwin Vegas, which was far away from the turntables blew his mind into a musical oblivion & he knew…that's the path.
Records!! Turntables! Big speakers!!
The young teen got a summer job in which he invested in 2 turntables. That December his mother got him the mixer he was after. (Father did buy the 1st few drum sets). If one could today, imagine never seeing dj's mix. Not having any guides or rules at all. It was all new & nothing was set, & no leaders to follow.
Lots of info on sound systems, making speakers, & use of crossovers etc., were somehow the most important at the time. Probaby due to the fact that sound systems were often thrown together from multiple 'family home systems' that came with lots of watts.
Originate was the key. Tracks (beats) that no one had, was key. New & old music, different genres, nothing mattered & no one cared as long as it was hot & different/unique!
The mix & manipulation of records quickly became more important then the actual sound of the system.
& that is where DJ Bad shined like no other. His ideas on different ways of mixing were unique, & he quickly became a local fav. Building up to a radio stations (WGLI engineer to on air & then WBLS) as a mobile music jock, gave access to city wide block parties.
The band members (all but the eldest) became crucial members of the 'Super BaD Crew. Growing, they went city wide. Block parties, halls, & onto creating events with our new sound system partners, Mark Blagrove & Michael Webster, both becoming key members of what later came to be Wild Pitch parties.
Creating LaRhon Records gave reason to be at record pressing plants. Old factories, dark lighting, with the terrible smell of plastic burning. The friendly feeling in one of them, Apexeton. LB manufactured the 1st two LaRhon releases & there is where he met & befriended the owners, The Ropiak Brothers (City Limits), & the 2 coolest knowledgeable 'helping hand' guys, Silvio Tancredi (Northcott) & Frank Mendez (Nu Groove).
Bad's 2nd batch of 12's came out thru the Apexton connections. Nu Groove & City Limits lead the path. With Apexton LB started his own distribution for some records pressed there. Around the same time 'Gotta Get Some Money' dropped on Nu Groove, it was the first glimpse into a record company as a family, & how it really operated.
Touching both NY's film industry & banging music industry doors LB was laying foundations.
With the heat & action turned up high, on to the 3rd batch of 12"s being released (the 2nd Nu Groove release 'True Story of House' & Lisa Angels 'Show Me' was buzzing in clubs in & around NY) an invite to finally perform in Europe came, yet he turned it down. Nu Groove techno artists were in & out of Europe, but the House music artists seemed to stay local.
Berlin calling & BaD was not with it. 3 months and many many telephone calls later, Mark Ernestus finally convinced him to visit Berlin. 12 day trip never ended. The physical stay affair started with the mishap of a wrong return date announced (NY landing date was given/not the European flight take off, one day earlier).
Mishap after mishap. Or so it seemed. Paths. Unseen paths layed down.
synchronisation of life events become evident.
With Mark E, (Hardwax) inside a reggae record store, ''with my back turned to the door, a voice calls out my 1st name & it's not Mark'' (the only person knowing it). Turn slow & almost into shock seeing a friend from high school. Dexter Porter, time to time singer in Platinum Enterprise, & personal friend of Chaka Khan.
Together, years before, we've seen her perform & here he is, finding Lamont, in Berlin, in a reggae record store.
He had another powerful & special woman eLBee had to meet. Odella Saille.
She was the turning point to work in Europe. Offered a position in a new club as resident, & LB became assistant manager-booking agent-dj for the wonderous club called Exit. That gave him opportunity to stop trying to get home. Exit experience also gave way to building club sound systems, booking pop-ular artists (Sister Sledge/Gil Scott Heron/BG The Prince of Rap/Incognito) club management, rave operations, & months of (very little sleep) Friday to Monday basically non-stop. It also birthed the name change, as advised by an angel. Calls herself a witch, saying L.B. Bad (morphed from D.J. Bad) …''for numeric reasons should be more 'strong', than those 5 letters.''
rebirth- eLBee BaD
On births, Exit was so big (holding 3000) a chosen few of us (working there) having offices upstairs, actually had artsy apartments (downstairs) in the club…
It was in Exit, sunday to Monday morning Berlin hardcore Techno, where resident Dj Tanith dropped Smokebelch two weeks in a row as the last song. Life changer, seventeen 12's records, into the career & the 1st song to generate income, a lovely ambiental song named "New age Of Faith' (bonus track that Frank of Nu Groove did not want)…covered & reproduced by Andrew Weatherall (Sabres of Paradise).
Building up a recording studio for the 3rd time, it took a while to truly find 'his groove'.
The Berlin influence of hardcore Techno up'd his dj bpm's, yet never losing soul, the line of Tech House was crossed. Entering the 2nd record label family; DJ Hell put out a search party for 'Mr. BaD…
International DJ Gigolo. Home of professionalism & true artist care!
Never losing the Mad Drummer flavor & it shows up in complex rhythms again & again.
*Gonna Be a Great Night (LaRhon). The time arrived when producers started asking eL to voice their recordings. Often taking the artist role instead of producer, more learning was in store, just by seeing how many other producers (from across the globe) create. Dole & Kom, Slam, Savas Pascalidis, Logo, Samuel Sessions, & Basic Channel (I slept With Her But Didn't sleep With Her).
Music became more & more catorgorized & to help maintain production freedom, Mr. Bad started to add new characters to his own persona.
eLBee BaD - the voice/the dj
The Nervous DJ - hypnotic tracks
The Mad Drummer - rhythm tracks (only drums)
The Voodoo Man - tribal tracks
Mad Man in the attic - samples & loops
Dr. Spark - drum & bass/breakbeat
The Banging Man - Techno
LB GooD - will replace eLBee BaD (vocal retirement) Mr. GooD is the bad seed &
The Prince of Dance Music is the brain & heart of it.
—————————————————————-
As the internet helped change how we listen to music, that new freedom allowed for wider music variation.
Henceforth the return of Platinum Enterprise. Productions created today, with 'our band might sound like this' attitude. Giving room for more growth, the meeting of Randy Murray, former lead Trumpet player in Sun Ras Arkestra. Birth of the musical experience: 'Sun Ras Children' (Learned a lot of Jazz)
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