RIP MC Duke

RIP MC Duke 

Another of those figures who moved through the UK rap scene and into hardcore rave and jungle. 

"Can't beat the system, go with the flow" - source of the famous sample as used by (fellow former Britrap cru) The Criminal Minds, on "Baptised By Dub"

 

"Educated Snares" - you gotta love that title!

Associated with Suburban Base / Boogie Times - recording, with a partner, under the name e.kude

Sample from Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men there (or perhaps impersonation)

                                                 

   Gorgeous Chaka Khan sample in there.

But before Suburban Base, MC Duke put out a couple of aliased records with Shut Up and Dance ("fast rap' turned breakbeat h-core)

Discogs bio: 

Born Anthony Mark Hilaire / Kashif Adham

Died 21 April 2024, aged 58

MC Duke got his big break when the emcee who had won the DMC MC Battle got on stage at the DMC World Championships after party and announced that he would battle anybody in the house, MC Duke got up and beat him. Derek B saw what happened and as he had just signed to Music Of Life asked Duke to meet him at the label the next day. While waiting for Derek B, Duke met the owner Simon Harris, and rapped live as he didn't have a demo, needless to say the rest is history.

Later he joined the Shut Up And Dance label and released two 12 inches with DJ Leader 1 under the name I.C.3..

He then went on to produce for Boogie Times/Suburban Base label and set up the Harddisk and Bluntly Speaking Vinyl label

Discography

Messy playlist of MC Duke under various guises and in various eras

Interesting that despite being MC Duke, he graduated from rapping in the Britcore scene to producing in the Ardkore scene and running labels, as opposed to being a rave MC.  

Check out the nifty little sample from Specials "Gangsters" - another example of the 2-Tone / Nuum connection

"Common Sensi", teehee

This E.KUD.CM stuff is good ruffstuff - clattery and jittery - and some classic vocal licks (“spread out and skiatter", "sekkle" etc)

It has taken me a ridiculous amount of time (well, a full half hour) to notice that the name E.KUD.C.M.  is MC Duke backwards. 

Fits the hardcore as hip hop turned inside out idea -  hip hop but the MC is the occasional ancillary phrase bobbing about amid the beats, and the drums are doing all the real talking.

2-Tone / Rough Tone

been thinking about connections between 2-Tone and rave / nuum

there are samples

                                            

Those from The Specials ("Friday Night, Saturday Morning" and "Monkey Man" respectively)

Another Specials sampling tune - this time "Gangsters" - by MC Duke under an alias.

I'm sure there's one on Formation that samples the "heavy heavy monster sound" bit from Madness's "One Step Beyond"

Ah it came to me belatedly - Mastersafe, "Monster Sound"

                                        

The Madness tune is itself based on sampling - or rather it interpolates from Dave and Ansell Collins's "Monkey Spanner"

Nuumtastic. 

And then wheeling a lot further along the timeline - didn't Kode9 do a version of "Ghost Town"?

Yes indeed - him and Spaceape (RIP)

I'm sure there are others...

But this here is an unusually direct connection, if we count UB40 as on the edge of the ska / 2-Tone moment, which I think they were:

Rough Tone Recordings - UK Hardcore/Jungle/Drum & Bass Label set up in 1992 as a side project by UB40 member Earl Falconer together with Reggae trumpet player Patrick Tenyue and sound technician Gerry Parchment. They also formed the main act E.Q.P. and promoted the Earthquake raves in Birmingham.

Sublabels

EQP Music, Rough Tone Records

and 

And lo and behold a sample from the Specials - "Why" - the same EP that produced the "No Sleep Raver" / 4 Hero sample,  "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" being the other of the two B-sides to "Ghost Town". On TNT's "Till the Last Sucker Drops" on the EQP label. 

EQP's real claim to fame, this demented tune

More tuff tuneage from Rough Tone Recordings 

decent tuneage