RIP Keith LeBlanc

Sad to hear of LeBlanc's passing yesterday. Interesting that a white dude was the house drummer at Sugar Hill and was responsible for many of the classic hip hop beats. I really enjoyed his work in Tackhead and on his 80s solo albums as well. According to his website, they were working on a documentary of his contributions to hip hop, so I hope they far enough into it that it will still be released.

And he produced a song based on Malcolm X samples: [www.youtube.com]

This is an impressive list of side collaborations:

His writing and production skills were utilised by Living Colour, Peter Gabriel, The Cure, Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails. As a drummer/programmer he worked with everyone from James Brown to Trevor Horn, Seal to R.E.M., The Rolling Stones, Jalal (Last Poets), The Stone Roses, Robert Palmer, Bomb The Bass, Annie Lennox, Tina Turner, Bryan Ferry, Depeche Mode and Sinead O'Connor.

I always figured he was black! Had no idea till I saw a picture of him a few days ago when he died that he wasn’t. Apart from being a founding father of hip-hop, “Malcolm X” sure seemed like something a black artist would do.

“Malcolm X“ was quite the college radio sensation when it came out circa 1983. Might seem pretty basic now, but apart from Eno/Byrne‘s “my life in the bush of ghosts“, I’d never really heard any music using sampling so extensively. It was really like the sound of the future opening up when that record came out.

My favorite Keith LeBlanc side gig was his crushing beatbox programming that helped make ABC★★★ "How To Be A Zilionaire" so epic.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

Always liked the Freakatorium record, there's a song on there called Uncut Funk which gives a good indication of his partnership with Wimbish. Some of the Little Axe records are pretty nice, too, especially the remixes.