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MESSIN' WITH MANTRONIX
Kurtis Mantronik abandoned
hardcore techno-rap to search for chart success. So far it's got him a
BMW sports car, New York's most hi-tech studio and an ego the size of Manhattan.
As the new line-up of his group Mantronix, release their new album The
Incredible Sound Machine - an infectious mix of soul, rap, funk and danceable
techno groove, Philip E Jones meets them in New York.
"I love the madness of New
York. I hated it at first, but then i became one of the mad people,"
says Kurtis Mantronik as he reclines on the sofa in his hi-tech basement
studio in downtown Manhattan, looking contended, comfortable and remarkably
sane.
With the various guises of his
techno-rap group, Mantronix, Kurtis has always been a groovy character
in the American dance scene, but hasn't yet been upfront enough in the
profile stakes to achieve the success of contemporaries like LL Cool J
or Public Enemy. So he turned his baseball cap the right way round, bought
suits by Armani and Versace, and left all his earlier hardcore stuff behind
to go in search of mainstream chart success.
The New Mantronix album, The Incredible
Sound Machine, looks set to achieve just that - being a highly infectious
mixture of pure pop melody, housey piano, pumping basslines, funky-rhythm,
slick, soulful singing from vocalist, Jade, and the tongue twisting rap
of Bryce Luvah. In fact there's only one concession to hardcore rap with
the excellent Make it funky (it's got swearing in it).
Kurtis, Bryce and Jade (who are
permanent members rather than just featured artists) have been lucky to
be able to channel the New York "madness" Kurtis has been talking
about into more creative pursuits than the disturbingly large number of
the city's other inhabitants. And when Kurtis isn't experiencing the madness
on offer in hip "hang-out" joints (his current favourites are
alchemy and the soul kitchen) he's busy creating his very own craziness
in the studio, where he can be surrounded by his huge array of beloved
gadgets and create the smooth techno sounds for which Mantronix are known.
Most of the songs, he reveals,
are created by accident and experiment. "It's all state-of-the-art
equipment, "he says. "Stuff that the rest of the country hasn't
seen yet, because in New York i can deal with the manufacturers direct
and get everything real fast.
"It's cool", he continues.
"I come in here, sit down and say, "Ok cool, I've got an idea,
and i just knock it out. I'm not a trained musician so my keboard players
do the more intricate bits, but i come up with the groove - and the technology
helps."
The more human elements are provided
by Jade and Luvah - both relatively new recruits to the Mantronx machine.
Bryce Luvah joined in time for
Mantronix's last akbyn This Should Move Ya, in 1990, the first for Capitol
Records. Bryce was having his solo work produced by Kurtis at Sleeping
Bag Records. But Kurtis was also producing, a whole host of other artists
too, Including Joyce Simms, Nu Shooz and Jean Paul Gaultier ("a weird
experience"). He liked the work, that wasn't a problem, but things
were far from satisfactory. "As far as fees were concerned, I wasn't
treated right", he says. "When i started complaining they'd give
me a few dollars here and there to shut me up. The Money wasn't really
a factor until it came down to, like, everybody else is having a good time,
now it's my turn to have a good time".
So Kurtis went to Capitol and Bryce
followed, changing his rap name to MC Luvah from MC Fame along the way
on the sound advice of LL Cool J. This Should Move Ya established Mantronix
as a highly saleable dance outfit. It went gold and spawned the number
two single Got To Have Your Love (the only think Kurtis can find to say
about that tune now is, "I like the bassline").
Success in the music business seems
inevitably to be accompanied by cries of "selling out" from snobbish
music journalists. But Kurtis and Bryce aren't the least bit worried about
that sort of pretty niggling. "When i did Got To Have Your Love, I
did it for a reason", says Kurtis. "I did it because i wanted
to get a song on the radio".
To Mantronix popularity is everything,
and Bryce explains their way of achieving it : "In America they're
really slow musically. When the American public hears a song on the radio,
if it's not produced by particular people, like Teddy Riley or Babyface,
it's not a hit. And these guys just do the same thing over and over.
"Overseas they accept change
like that, "he continues, clicking his fingers for emphasis. "So,
when i write songs i think about what'll chart outside the states. If your
song is a hit in England, or other world territories, it'll be a hit in
America. We want to be a hit all over and that's the way to do it".
The Incredible Sound Machine's
"hit" status should be given a helping hand by the contribution
of singer, Jade, who's been employed with Mantronix since September after
bumping into old junior high school colleague, Bryce, just around the time
they were looking for a singer. Jade gladly left her old job, performing
with a musical dance troupe in a production of The Wiz in Ohio, and rather
than just featuing and disappearing, she intends to stick around and "focus"
on her singing. "Once something is working you keep doing it, And
this is working", she says.
Although at first she found singing
in the studio scary and had to conquer her urge to sing "In that Broadway
style", Jade declares herself well satisfied with the work that's
emerged. "yeah", she says. "I'm proud. I'm real proud. Like,
my sister goes to parties and she'll say, you know, I can actually dance
to this stuff. And i'm going like, Really! So, yeah, I feel real good about
it".
Hanging around in the small office
above Kurtis studio which belongs to his manager, Chuck Rue (a consistently
witty man whom until recently, kept nine cats), Jade and i are waiting
to make the short journey to the photographer's studio and waiting for
Kurtis and Bryce to return after having disappeared for an hour and a half.
Talks turns to the Gulf War.
Mantronix are coming to Europe
to promote The Incredible Sound Machine around now and later in the year
to do some live shows. (something they're very tight-lipped about except
to promise "something special", whatever that may be). So is
she worried about travelling, considering the increasing number of American
artists who've cancelled their trips? "Oh no", he says.
"That sort of thing doesn't bother me at all". We agree that
the people who've blown Europe out are pretty pathetic and, anyway, Jade
is too excited: "I met this girl called Maxine the other day and she's
from London. I was asking her all about it, and it's a lot different, you
know, like the streets are smaller".
In fact, of the three, it's only
Bryce who shows any concern over the impending trip: "It definitley
worries me. But i've got to go anyway. I'm definitely worried , though.
This war, it's just not cool."
It's also becoming less and less
cool waiting around for two popsters who've gone AWOL. A few passing producers
and musicians pop in until there's a small crowd gleefully discussing the
more violent aspects of their home city. One guy relates a tale of how
he was asleep in bed when someone was trying to break into his apartment.
If that wasn't bad enough, the building it's in is owned by Hell's Angels
and they'd shot a neighbour who'd been behind with the rent. Flying across
the Atlantic should be the least of their worries.
Chuck eventually decides that we
should go to the photographer's studio anyway. Jade leaves a couple of
messages on Bryce's pager which, she says, "He wouldn't go anywhere
without, it's like his office". Then she tuts with mock disapproval
and says, "That's the last time Kurtis tells me Bryce is irresponsible.
They're as bas as each other".
So off we go for another couple
of hours waiting in the photographer's studio. Jade uses the time to sort
out her Filofax. She pauses to admire the photographer's apartment - "It's
real deep". Chuck, meanwhile keeps phoning his wayward charges, leaving
messages here and there, and takes time out to have a dig at musicians
less talented than Mantronix. The villains? MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice.
The Favourite joke of the day is,
"Ten million, can't tocuh this", repeated over and over, the
10 million referring to dollars, and the Mantronix entourage spend considerable
amounts of time, and experience dangerously high blood pressure, dissing
Hammer and Ice. When the latter's name is mentioned a sneer develops across
Kurtis face: "Vanilla Ice has opened up the door for every wack motherfucker
who wants to rap", he spits. "It's not rap. He just copies stuff".
The Ice man provokes a similar reaction from Bryce: "He's a complete
phoney. Like, he tells everyone he's from the gangs in Miami, but it turns
out he's from a middleclass, suburban family in Texas. He's very arrogant,
and the talent does not correspond to the arrogance at all".
Eventually Chuck manages to track
Kurtis and Bryce down via Bryce's portable phone (the two boys are gadget
fiends it seems). They claim to have been stuck in traffic. Jade repeats
that, "It's the last time Kurtis tells me Bryce is irresponsible",
and she and Chuck agree that the two have just spent an overlong lunch
hour miles from where they should be. When they do finally turn up Chuck
goes outside to meet them, "So i don't have to bawl them out in here".
Kurtis refuses to take his baseball
cap and sunglasses off for the photographs, so i'm begining to wonder what
he really looks like under there. He is, after all, something of a "ladies
man", so it's doubtful that he's crosseyed and bald. No he's six foot-six,
square-jawed and hunky. It's not surprising that Kurtis, Bryce and Chuck's
favourite subject is women and, as we're leaving, Bryce suggests that "romantic"
success should be assured as his genitals have grown considerably.
At this point Jade decides it's
time to go home and the rest of us hop in Kurtis car for the drive back
to his studio. Kurtis obviously likes to look cool, and the combination
of a nifty BMW 325 convertible sports car (around $50.000 worth) and a
James Brown remix blasting out it's windows attract many admiring glances.
So with his cool car, futuristic
studio, carefully considered marketing strategy and steady income, Kurtis
Mantronik is claiming success. "I'm listening to what's happening
in the club, house and rap scene, and it's the same thing i was doing years
ago," he says. "Mantronix are something different. What's up
and coming now, which is from Jamaica, my home country, is reggae...We'll
be doing something different than that".
Meanwhile, we can look forward
to seeing Mantronix live in the near future. "We're the first rap
R'N'B group and that makes us really exciting. If no one wants to show
up in Britain, we'll still be there", he says. "we're gonna kick
some ass!".
Written by Philip E Jones
1991 - typed from paper to pc by ME!! - Mag provided by Pim Bonten
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