About Doug E. Fresh
Douglas Davis, known professionally as Doug E. Fresh, is a Barbados-born American rapper, record producer, and beatboxer, also known as the "Human Beat Box". The pioneer of 20th-century American beatboxing, Fresh is able to accurately imitate drum machines and various special effects using only his mouth, lips, gums, throat, tongue and a microphone.
In the early 1980s he formed the Get Fresh Crew with DJs Chill Will and Barry B and later added rapper Slick Rick. Two of their songs "The Show" and "La Di Da Di" are considered early hip hop classics. "La Di Da Di", in particular, is one of the most sampled songs in music history.
Doug E. Fresh was born in Barbados with other family roots in Trinidad and Tobago as well. Fresh's grandfather, who came to Harlem, raised him alongside his mother. Fresh went to a school with a music program, where he played drums, percussion and the trumpet. The school then cut the budget of the music department and Fresh had to return the trumpet.
Fresh became acquainted with rapping from his brother bringing tapes of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and DJ Hollywood into the house. Locally on the neighbourhood block there was a group called D & D Express with one of the members known as Teddy D, Teddy's nephews were making hip hop in the basement of a store playing on a turntable and experimenting with the echo chamber. It was there that Fresh would join in on the mic and start to rap. While in school he would write rhymes for poetry, as he was a big of fan of Langston Hughes, where he also won the local Langston Hughes award. During this time several local groups popped up including Ray Von and Johnny Wa, Harlem World, Celebrity Club, and Randy’s Place, the groups would throw parties in cafeterias of surrounding elementary and high schools in which Fresh would attend the parties. In Fresh's personal crew he had Damon and James who were cousins, as a group they were big fans of The Cold Crush Brothers so they named themselves the Cold Cash Crew. At this time Fresh went by several names including Dougie Doug, Dougie D, Law-D, Dougie Doug the Prince of Love, and Christian D and the Criss Cross Crew. The name Doug E. Fresh came from someone at school doing an art piece of his name on the wall and he told them to list him as Dougie’s Fresh but the person incorrectly spelled it out as "Doug E. Fresh" instead. With his new name he would go to other schools and rap battle.
As for beatboxing, walking home after school every day Fresh would pass by the mom and pop record shop owned by Bobby Robinson where records would play outside of the store to passerby's. He would hear records from artists like Grandmaster Flash, Spoonie Gee, Funky 4 + 1, and practice humming along to the bass-lines of the songs. One day outside listening to records, Fresh would try beatboxing in between records to which his friends reacted enthusiastically. Word of Fresh's skills spread further at a party in a park in the Lincoln Projects in East Harlem, where he rapped and beatboxed live. Another event came soon after where Kurtis Blow, who produced for The Fat Boys, lacked turntables and needed instrumentals to perform over so he recruited Fresh to beatbox.
Fresh began his recording career as a solo artist; he was among the last artists on Enjoy Records and one of the first on Vintertainment Records . He and a new team of DJs known as the Get Fresh Crew , along with newcomer MC Ricky D , came to fledgling New Jersey-based hip-hop label Danya/Reality Records the following year and recorded "The Show", which borrowed the melody of the Inspector Gadget theme by Shuki Levy. They also recorded "La Di Da Di", a tune that was completely voiced by MC Ricky D and backed by Doug E. Fresh's beatboxing for the entire duration of the song. The release of these two songs as a 12" single launched Doug E. Fresh into stardom. Both songs are considered among the greatest early hip-hop classics. "The Show" peaked at #7 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1985.
Doug E. Fresh was interviewed in the 1986 cult documentary Big Fun In The Big Town. Slick Rick left the group almost a year after the release of "The Show"/"La Di Da Di" single, reappearing in 1988 as a Def Jam artist and releasing his debut album, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick. Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew continued on, now officially signed to Danya/Reality/Fantasy, by releasing Oh, My God! in 1986, which included the hit song "All The Way To Heaven". In 1988, The World's Greatest Entertainer was released, featuring the song "Keep Risin' To The Top", which was named after Keni Burke's then-obscure 1981 hit "Rising To The Top" . Doug E. Fresh's "Keep Risin' To The Top" also samples the main chorus of Heatwave's 1976 classic "Ain't No Half Steppin'," which Big Daddy Kane also sampled that same year for his song of the same name.
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