Before they became a group, Richard (aka Slick Rick) and Gregory (aka MBG) played sports together, while Charles (aka Charlie Prince) preferred to remain indoors playing music. Richard was also into music, and he played drums, mixed music, and belonged to another group; however, this was never known to Charles.
Gregory, who was a photographer (and still is to this day), gathered the two together for a show performance in New Haven, Connecticut, at a club called the "Le Joint" run by his cousin Cody.
Richard did not want anything to do with Charles due to the fact they had a previous dispute about his childhood sweetheart. Therefore, he wanted another guy to go with him named Buster, who also lived in the building across from them. However, Gregory brought Charles anyway, along with both Richard and Buster. At the New Haven show, they had yet to come up with a group name, so they were just called them Charlie D and the Crew.
They performed, stayed out there with Gregory's family members for a several days and then returned to New York. They then decided to call the group Devilish Three. Unfortunately, Buster could not continue to be with the group because he was an MC for another DJ named Smitty Rock and his MC partner's name was Charlie Rock. That was when Gregory decided to take Buster's place. They were still called Devilish Three until they entered a battle at a club across the street from their building called Your Spot (formally a Burger King). A man by the name of Jerry Blood Rock changed it into a club and needed to get some known MCs to perform there as a grand opening. The Devilish Three happened to be one of the groups he asked. The only problem was they did not have a DJ.They all knew of a neighborhood DJ known as Kool Dee. Since Charles was taught how to mix and scratch records by him, they asked him to be their DJ for the battle. He agreed but they never had time to practice with him, and so they practiced amongst themselves. When the day came for the battle he showed up to DJ and while they won, they felt they needed to get a reliable DJ. That is when they met up with Mark (aka Master Scott; prior to that he was known as Rockmaster).
Scott was the DJ of another group who was also in that battle, but he decided to take the DJ position for the group. He was always on time for practice. They were inspired by The Cold Crush Brothers and The Fantastic Five, when they used to have their battles. They practiced at Gregory's mother's house from time to time, but their main spot to practice was at Richard's mother's house. To clarify the matter of there being two Slick Ricks, if one looks at the release date (1984) of "Request Line" by RockMaster Scott and the Dynamic Three (who started the label), and at the date release (1985) of "The Show" by Dougie Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, the original Slick Rick was with the Dynamic Three and the other Rick was named Ricky D (who was with Dougie Fresh). Both groups were on the same label (Reality Records), which is why many people got their information wrong about these two people.
14 окт 2024
