Ced Gee’s unique approach led to him ghost-producing the bulk of Boogie Down Productions’ uber-classic debut album, Criminal Minded, in 1987, and it set the stage for the Ultramagnetic MCs’ own innovative first album a year later. “It was just something nobody had in the hood,” he said to Sway in the Morning in 2018. According to Ced, nobody else was doing that at the time. “The Bridge Is Over” Boogie Down ProductionsĬed Gee (Cedric Miller)’s early claim to fame was that he was one of the few producers in the Bronx who owned an E-mu SP-12 drum machine, which allowed him to chop up samples and make it sound like he had a full loop in there. “Larry Smith is one of the greatest producers in Hip-Hop ever that nobody knows about.” “This muthafucka made ‘Rock Box,’ ‘It’s Like That,’ ‘Sucker M.C.’s,’ ‘Freaks Come Out at Night,’ ‘Five Minutes of Funk,’ ‘King of Rock,’ ‘Darryl and Joe’!” Darryl “DMC” McDaniels stated in 2016, rattling off a string of Smith-produced hits. and King of Rock, giving the group a commercial-friendly sound that set them at the forefront of both the stripped-down, trunk-rattling boom bap and crossover-friendly rap rock that become their trademarks. Smith would go on to helm Whodini’s successful mid-’80s albums and hits by the Fat Boys, in addition to Run-D.M.C.’s first two albums, Run-D.M.C. He said, ‘Yo yo let’s lay this down.’ And that was the hellish bassline that became ‘Rock Box.’ And I’m sitting there as a young producer mesmerized by the drive.” So Larry pulled out his bass and he just started riffing. D and Run came in and laid some vocals on a track and then broke out. “I was in the studio at Chung King Studios with Russell, Rick Rubin, and Larry. “One real quick story,” rapper Spyder D told The Halftime Show back in 2014, shortly after Smith’s passing. He was a bass player, after all, and he used his own musicianship to propel his hits for others. But even with that stripped-down trademark, instrumentalists were still a fixture in his approach. Smith’s approach gave mid-’80s Hip-Hop a foundation on which to launch the genre into the mainstream. Russell and I took our money and made those early records any way we could.” “If I had had the budget, I would have hired live performers on the whole first Run-D.M.C. “‘Sucker M.C.’s’ was just them and a drum machine,” Smith told Brian Coleman in 2006. tracks, like “Together Forever” and “Darryl and Joe.” Smith used an Oberheim DMX drum machine to turn Davy DMX’s original “Action” drumbeat into a digital mutant of itself, and the skeletal backdrop (dubbed “the Krush Groove” by Smith) became the foundation for Run-D.M.C.’s classic “Sucker M.C.’s” and other famous Run-D.M.C. Larry played bass, Davy DMX was on guitar, Trevor Gale was on drums, Bobby Gas on guitar, Rakim’s brother Ron Griffin and Kenny Keys on keyboards and Eddie Colon on percussion.” “They were the first Hip-Hop band to back up a rapper. “Larry and Kurtis Blow had the idea of having a band go out and perform with Kurtis, called Orange Krush,” engineer Akili Walker told Cuepoint’s Robbie Ettelson in 2014. At the behest of Smith’s friend and partner, music promoter Russell Simmons, Orange Krush would play on Smith-produced tracks by Kurtis Blow. He started out as a bassist and formed a band called Orange Krush alongside Trevor Gale and Davy DMX. Smith was the engine behind that iconic trio’s sound - and a host of rap hits from others. “Larry put me inside his Cadillac…” he rapped. Run”) gave a high-profile shout-out to his friend and producer, Queens legend Larry Smith, on Run-D.M.C.’s first smash, “Sucker M.C.’s.”
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