Kool Moe Dee

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Kool Moe Dee
  US 83 06/06/1987 (21 weeks)
How Ya Like Me Now
  US 35 
platinum
platinum
May 21, 1988 (50 weeks)
Knowledge is King
  US 25th 
gold
gold
07/15/1989 (23 weeks)
Spark spark wisdom
  US 72 07/13/1991 (9 weeks)
Singles
Go see the doctor
  US 89 04/25/1987 (5 weeks)
  UK 82 12/27/1986 (4 weeks)
How Ya Like Me Now
  UK 86 01/30/1988 (2 weeks)
Wild Wild West
  US 62 May 21, 1988 (11 weeks)
They want money
  UK 91 06/24/1989 (1 week)

Kool Moe Dee (born August 8, 1962 in Harlem , New York as Mohandas DeWese ) is an American rapper of the styles pop-rap and east coast hip-hop and is assigned to the old school and golden age periods . He was the first rapper to appear at a Grammy Awards and is considered the inventor of battle rap .

biography

Kool Moe Dee grew up in New York and was known from a young age for his appearances at local block parties , which he did as Treacherous Three with high school friends LA Sunshine, Special K and DJ Easy Lee . The group eventually got a recording deal and recorded a few albums and singles before separating in the mid-1980s.

DeWese then took a break from music and graduated from the State University of New York . However, he then began to work on his solo career. He recorded the single Go See the Doctor and had it produced by the then unknown, 17-year-old Teddy Riley . The humorous song about the dangers of unprotected sex made it to the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom .

This success brought Kool Moe Dee a contract with the label Jive Records , where he eventually published in 1986 to be named after his own solo debut album. Although this was not yet a resounding success, that changed with the successor How Ya Like Me Now . This album was all about his beef with LL Cool J , whom he accused of copying his style of aggressive and fast rapping. On the cover , for example, a jeep was depicted running over a red Kangol cap, the trademark of LL Cool J. Also the single with the same name as the album was an attack on LL Cool J. Already in 1982 Kool Moe Dee had a gig at the club "The Harlem World" in Manhattan together with LA Sunshine after the finished performance of the rapper Busy Bee and attacked it lyrically. Because of these two incidents, Kool Moe Dee is considered the inventor of the battle rape . The resulting media attention helped the album to platinum status in the US.

Kool Moe Dees' third solo album, Knowledge Is King from 1989, was also successful and was awarded gold. He also appeared with pieces from it as the first rapper in history at the presentation of the Grammy Awards . That same year he also helped KRS-One in the project "Stop the Violence Movement", a musical call that against the increasing violence within the hip-hop taught Association of and worked with Quincy Jones on his album Back on the block with . For the track of the same name contained on it, he later received the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group , as did Big Daddy Kane , Ice-T , Melle Mel , Quincy D. III & Quincy Jones .

However, his success quickly waned thereafter. His work Funke Funke Wisdom , published in 1991, only stayed on the Billboard 200 for nine weeks . As a result, Jive Records only released one greatest hits album from him in 1993 and then released him from his contract. Kool Moe Dee then recorded a comeback album by the Treacherous Three and released his fifth album Interlude on the label of group member DJ Easy Lee. Despite the importance of the title ( interlude ), it remained his last and did not achieve commercial importance.

DeWese then mainly devoted himself to acting. However, his roles remained small, except for appearances in the two documentaries Beef and its sequel Beef II , which deal with the phenomenon of beef in hip-hop.

In 2003 he also wrote the book There's a God on the Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs , in which he lists and talks about the 50 best MCs in his opinion .

In the music field he only appeared sporadically as a guest artist, for example on Will Smith's single Wild Wild West from 1999, which sampled his own single of the same name from 1989 and was the title track of the film Wild Wild West , and in 2015 on the song Downtown by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis . Both of these pieces were successful and were awarded gold and platinum in the USA.

Discography

Albums

  • 1986: Kool Moe Dee
  • 1987: How Ya Like Me Now
  • 1989: Knowledge Is King
  • 1991: Funke Funke Wisdom
  • 1994: Interlude

Compilations

  • 1993: Greatest Hits
  • 1995: The Jive Collection, Volume 2
  • 2005: I'm Kool Moe Dee

EPs

  • 1990: African Pride

Singles

  • 1986: Go See the Doctor
  • 1989: Wild Wild West
  • 1989: I Got to Work
  • 1990: God Made Me Funke
  • 1991: Rise 'n Shine
  • 1991: How Cool Can One Black Man Be
  • 1991: Death Blow
  • 1993: Can U Feel It

Video albums

  • 1991: Funke Funke Wisdom

Filmography

Books

  • 2003: There's a God on the Mic

Awards

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ a b Billboard chart history by Kool Moe Dee
  2. ↑ a b Kool Moe Dee's chart history in the United Kingdom
  3. ↑ Music Sales Awards: US
  4. ↑ Search in the genre Rap in the Grammys database
personal data
SURNAME Kool Moe Dee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES DeWese, Mohandas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American rapper
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Harlem , New York , USA