dinsdag 19 juli 2011

DJ KID SUNDANCE....the tale of the lone hip hop ranger

Thanx 2 Raimond for talkin' endlessly after 2 Jupiler!   ;-)


RAIMOND GESTHUIZEN's first acquintance with the hip hop phenomanon is a pretty common one....as seen with a lot of other Dutch old school guys. He remembers seeing a video of SUGARHILL GANG's "Rapper's delight" on tv that immediatly caught his eye. Later on he tried to keep up with the latest sounds by listening to famous Dutch black music radioshow "The Soulshow". Using the nickname SEARCHY E he was at first focussed on rapping but soon realized he could better try his luck at DJ'ing and making beats. In 1984 he bought the Roland 505 to start things off together with a pair of crappy ERRES turntables. At fleamarkets he hunted down vinyl to find good samples. In 1986 Raimond changed his monniker into DJ KID SUNDANCE (DJ KS) (after the character in the westernmovie "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid"). But instead of trying to be quick on the trigger obviously he wanted to be quick on the turntables. One year later DJ KS went shopping with his mother in Eindhoven cause he wanted to buy the Roland 626 to replace his 505. When passing "Bullit", a famous recordshop at that time, his mother noticed an add posted on the window. The add said "SCRATCHER WANTED" and DJ KS decided to respond. Through the add he came in contact with 3 rappers from Valkenswaard (small town near Eindhoven); ARC-S, COLD STEEL and C.R.P.J. DJ KS got accepted as the new DJ and the crew was called THE LIVING DREAM (T.L.D.) POSSE. C.R.P.J.'s uncle had a nice record collection that proved to be great for finding rare samples. Some demo tracks got layed down and live performances got done.

Check the T.L.D. demo track "We're running" (1988) here:


Home made concert poster T.L.D. Posse (1988)

T.L.D. POSSE was short lived. Another new crew in Eindhoven got formed called 24K and ARC-S switched groups. COLD STEEL and C.R.P.J. lacked motivation to continue without ARC-S so T.L.D. POSSE got terminated late 1988. DJ KS continued improving his DJ and beatmaking skills. Being without his own group he hang out a lot with befriended crews like DIVORZE POSSE and BUGAS POSSE. Occasionally he performed with them, for example when playing support-act for DE LA SOUL and RUN DMC in 1989.
In 1990 DJ KS felt the itch to start a new group again and placed an add in the Dutch hip hop magazine "Know Color" asking for a rapper to join forces:


A rapper from Leerdam responded to the add, his name was RAGOO. This guy had worked with ALL STAR FRESH and B.C. BOY in 1990, laying down some vocals on the KING BEE project album (including for the GREAT track "Zzignal of hope"). As RAGOO gained some instant fame through this project, DJ KS figured this would be a good time to work with this rapper. The crew "TREETOP UNIT" was a fact after another rapper was found called TEEBEE MC. A couple of demotracks got produced and the crew did a few live shows.

Check TREETOP UNIT's 1991 demotracks "It all fades away" and "What you got to say" here:


Unfortunately RAGOO quickly changed focus from rap to the fastly emerging house scene. TREETOP UNIT soon dissolved and RAGOO built a DJ career using artistnames like OOGAR and DJ RAFADELIC, working with RONNY HAMMOND amongst others.
DJ KS now took it easy for a few years, playing music as a DJ in bars and clubs. His musical taste expanded to soul, funk, jazz etc and he became one of the resident DJ's of famous Eindhoven concerthall "De Effenaar". Through hip hop he got interested in the foundations of popular music and started digging for any style that contains 'dope sounds'. With these sounds he performed as a DJ, spinning lots of different styles to move the crowd. DJ KS's broadened musical taste eventually saw him become a group member of Eindhoven fusion-style band ZOVA NEMBLA where he tries to use his turntables as an instrument. Their 1995 demo was announced "demo of the month" in music magazine "Music Maker".

Hip hop still had been calling out to DJ KS and finally between 1999 and 2000, by the turn off the millenium, the call got answered. DJ KS started collaborating with talented Dutch MC RESCUE and THE PROGRAMMING MAN. RESCUE already made a name for himself in Dutch hip hop, having collabarated with DJ KNOWHOW, 2 OUTTA MILLIONS and THE PROOV. The 3 guys formed the new group BOOMOPERATORS. They even launched there own label "Fair Deal Records" as their own independent platform. Their first release was a stunningly fresh slice of vinyl called  “The Goodyear e.p.” in 2001. German label "Groove Attack" acted succesfully as their distributor in Europe.


Cover "The Goodyear e.p." (2001)

BOOMOPERATORS also worked on an exclusive project with "Clone Records" from The Hague. The result was the electrifying song "Focus". The track appears only on the cd/lp "Men with boxes" (Clone Records, 2001). Grab the "Focus" track here:


One year later DJ KS's "Fair Deal Records" launched another vinyl record, being the 12" "Pop the clutch".....a collabo between Dutch DJ MASS, MC RESCUE and New York MC ROYAL FLUSH.
In 2003 RESCUE and DJ KS produced the track “Alive” for the DJ FLIP compilation album in Belgium and reinstated their collaboration as BOOMOPERATORS.

The 3rd release on "Fair Deal Records" would turn out to be an extra special one for DJ KS. After meeting USA rapper DUDLEY PERKINS a.k.a. DECLAIME in Holland, DJ KS rose to the occasion and  recorded the tracks "Fault" and "Mother Earth" with him. The tracks got released in 2002 on the 12" record "In G major". This collabo with DUDLEY PERKINS was nominated for the "All Winners 2002" chart of BBC's "Worldwide" (host Gilles Peterson) and was a favorite with many DJs around the world. Check the track "Fault" :



From 2001 on, DJ KS has also been producing and DJ-ing for X PLASTAZ, a rap group from Tanzania (Africa) whose line-up includes three full grown emcees, two rapping kids and a traditional Maasai singer. He produced the track "Msimu kwa msimu", a danceable Indian influenced tune which was featured on the 2004 compilation cd "Rough Guide to African Rap" and described by Billboard (USA) as one of the standout tracks on that compilation. It got played by John Peel (infamous U.K. radio DJ) twice...
X PLASTAZ

DUDLEY PERKINS and DJ KS joined forces once more in 2006. The follow-up to "In G Major" was released under the title "The Godfather" (4th release on "Fair Deal Records"). According to the same Gilles Peterson (see above) this was a "brilliant ep"! With a few instrumental tracks and five rap tracks by the USA rapper, this 30 minutes e.p. is quite a trip.

In 2003 DJ KS saw the great chance to hook up with old school New York rap legend BUSY BEE. The rapper visited Eindhoven to do a brief showcase at a hip hop exposition. It took some time but finally the track "Hip Hop Icon" got released in 2007 on "Fair Deal Records". It got lots of press and it ended up in playlists from all over the world. Zulu Nation fathers Africa Islam and Donald-D gave it their official stamp of aproval.

Cover "Hip hop icon" 12" (2007)

In 2008 a 7" single for Japanese label "Jazzy Sport Morioka" got released. DJ KS had put nine snippets in the SP1200, added the lovely voice of URITA, some extra keyboard action by RONES and flavour it had! "Crazy Lady" took off like a rocket with even BOBBITO from New York spinnin' it!

At this point in time DJ KS is finalizing another BOOMOPERATORS release. It's going to be a full length album that'll make heads bob all over the place again. Here's a little taster accompanied with a great video:



DJ KID SUNDANCE....commin' atcha fresh for 2011!

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