Maurice Benjamin Cenac aka Ben "Cozmo D" Cenac grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Park Slope neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Passionate about comics and hip-hop, he became a DJ in 1976, creates a group of DJs together with his cousins Monique and Pierre "Pete" Angevin, respectively known as "Niqu D" and "Master Quadro" (later also known as MC Harmony), and organizes house parties and block parties. When Niqu D goes to college she is replaced by Cenac's friend David "Dr. Freeze" St. Louis, who has a group of DJs together with Al T. "Tuga" McLaran Jr. (other sources incorrectly indicate McLaren). With the arrival of Dr. Freeze, Cenac's crew takes the name Jam-On Productions and is made up of numerous DJs and occasional emcees.
The crew performs at block parties playing disco dance and funk songs, where it gains ever greater popularity, in this period Cenac found his own pseudonym by combining his passion for comics and music in Cozmo Disco, then shortened to Cozmo D in a period when the best-known DJs and MCs used similar monikers. Around 1976-1977, Cozmo D joined a rock band as a singer and here he met Bob Crafton, bassist of the group who also DJs with his own group under the pseudonym Chilly B. In 1979, Cenac met Yvette Cook, emcee who is introduced into Jam-On Productions as Lady E, while Monique Angevin begins dating Crafton.
In late 1979, the park party scene in Brooklyn begins to quiet down, because people start destroying all the equipment that DJs bring to the parks for free, when thefts and robberies against DJs don't occur. As he worked, Cenac acquired the necessary equipment to create his own songs together with Cook. In 1980, Cozmo D, Lady E and Tuga (in the meantime integrated into Jam-On Productions), together with other guys from Jam-On Productions they created the rap song "Freak City Rappin'", and they take it to different labels, without finding any matches, because the labels ask that Cozmo D leave the tape while the leader of the group wants him to be heard on the spot because he has only one copy. Cozmo D then takes the tape to Joe Webb's Reflection Records, a small New York label dedicated to disco dance and rap singles. One of the label's biggest hits is Ronnie Gee's song "Raptivity" released in 1980, also known as "Chilltown, New York". Webb is the only one of the guys Cenac meets who decides to sit down and listen to the tape with him, even if he refuses it.
The following year, Cozmo D decided to form his own musical group: Positive Messenger is born, composed of the founder, Yvette "Lady E" Cook, Monique "Niqu D" Angevin and Bob "Chilly B" Crafton. Tuga should also be inside the group, who's the main rapper of "Freak City Rappin'" and is also a musician, however, the boy decides to join the army. Positive Messenger intend to convey socio-conscious lyrics, which deal with religion, spirituality, love and [texts] that make sense with their songs, having a background related to a Christian education. The group is also among the first in hip-hop to play all instruments without the help of outside musicians, bringing a drum machine: the group is therefore the first "hip-hop band". They record a few songs and take their demos to labels looking for a contract, without getting one. During this period, the group continues to participate in hip-hop jams with the Jam-On Productions crew and one of the DJs, Salvador Smooth, insists that the guys should make a rap song. Cozmo D has already been through 70s battle rap in Brooklyn and isn't particularly fond of the rap songs that played on the radio in the early 80s.
The founder of the group therefore chooses to make a parody song as a sort of joke, inspired by a battle won against another DJs crew around 1978-1979. "Jam-On's Revenge" is born, a sort of "anti-rap" song that the boys perform at parties and around the city, but which they have not yet recorded in the studio. At the end of 1981, the group also created "Computer Age", and subsequently Cozmo D began to put together Positive Messenger songs in a demo tape to be played by labels looking for a contract, where the strongest piece should be "Computer Age". After inserting the songs, there's still room at the end of the tape to put "Jam-On's Revenge", the song is a pure filler compared to the rest of the contents offered by the group and features each member's vocals sped up to resemble the chipmunks, pilfering bits and pieces of songs by the Sugarhill Gang ("Rapper's Delight") and Grandmaster Flash ("The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel") to build the track.
Cenac è intenzionato ad andare a far ascoltare il suo demo tape alla Tommy Boy Records, la stessa etichetta che ha pubblicato "Planet Rock" di Afrika Bambaataa, convinto che i dirigenti apprezzeranno "Computer Age" così come hanno apprezzato "Planet Rock". Tuttavia, il ragazzo cambia idea e va a cercare Joe Webb, l'unico che aveva deciso di ascoltare il suo brano registrato nel 1980: la Reflection Records non esiste più, nel frattempo è fallita, ma grazie a un elenco telefonico, Cenac cerca e trova ugualmente Webb, che rimane molto impressionato dal nastro. E' proprio grazie a "Jam-On's Revenge" che i Positive Messenger ottengono un contratto, Webb porta i ragazzi alla sua Mayhew Records: il gruppo lo registra nuovamente nel 1982 e l'etichetta lo pubblica come singolo nel 1983.
Cenac intends to go and listen to his demo tape at Tommy Boy Records, the same label that released Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock", confident that executives will appreciate "Computer Age" as much as they appreciated "Planet Rock". However, the boy changes his mind and goes looking for Joe Webb, the only one who had decided to listen to the song he recorded in 1980: Reflection Records no longer exists, in the meantime it has gone bankrupt, but thanks to a phone book, Cenac still searches and finds Webb, who's very impressed by the tape. It's thanks to "Jam-On's Revenge" that Positive Messenger get a contract, Webb takes the kids to his Mayhew Records: the group recorded it again in 1982 and the label released it as a single in 1983.
The birth and explosion of the Newcleus
Webb takes the group to record the song at Quadrosonic Studios (later known as Quad Studios) who at the time mainly recorded soundtracks for pornographic movies. Cozmo D forgets the synthesizer at home and the bass part is played live by Chilly B. "Jam-On's Revenge" becomes a great success on the streets of the city and because of the hook it's also popular as "the Wikki-Wikki song". The group changes name to Nucleus — due to the fact that Cenac marries Cook and Angevin marries Crafton, and the boys live in the same house, in addition to the fact that the group is forced to abandon the initial intentions of creating music with messages — immediately renamed by Webb into the definitive Newcleus, and releases the single in 1983 with the title "Jam On Revenge" (the label forgets the hyphen between 'Jam' and 'On' and forgets the 's') and under the name Newcleus featuring Cozmo & The Jam-On Production Crew. Radio DJ Jonathan Fearing begins playing the single on his radio station at weekends and contributes crucially to making it a success.
That same year, Webb promoted Newcleus' music to Sunnyview Records, label owned by Morris Levy and Henry Stone, and the single is released under the new label as "Jam on Revenge (The Wikki-Wikki Song)", with the help of Jonathan Fearing, who gains total trust in the label, so much so that he's granted full control over Newcleus' music and is allowed to exclude the group from mixing sessions during the recording of new songs. The single became the group's first hit, reaching the Top 40 among Billboard singles. At this time, the group hasn't yet signed a contract. Sunnyview decides to draw up the contracts, Webb deals with the matter directly, stipulates the contracts and has them signed by the Newcleus, who see them for the first and last time, without managing to get any royalties from the songs.
While in Korea, Tuga manages to listen to "Jam On Revenge" and contacts Cozmo D: the boy returns home on leave and his friends take him to the studio to record an electro song, "Drunk Driving", with lyrics written by Cozmo D and Chilly B. Produced by Webb, the song was released as a single in 1984 with MCA Records, who around the same time had entered into agreements with some labels of Morris Levy, co-owner of Sunnyview.
Between 1983 and 1984, after the release of "Jam On Revenge" the boys start doing shows and go on a national tour with the funk group Cameo and O'Bryan, most of the proceeds end up in Webb's pockets. He decides that the Newcleus can't just be four people and begins to add others at will, especially his family members: Webb adds several dancers to the group, including his son and friends and drummer Tracy Greene, while Newcleus introduce Salvador Smooth on keyboards and Denise Cook, Lady E's sister, for background vocals. The original four of the group are originally paid better, therefore Webb requires that the salary be equal for all members, and there are more or less a dozen of them.
"Computer Age" is in pole position to be the next song Newcleus records in the studio, Cozmo D intends to build all the group's new songs around this song: the group actually records it, Webb instead asks for a rap song, "Computer Age" — made around the same time as "Jam-On Revenge" and which Webb listens to along with that hit on the demo brought to him by Cenac the second time — has to wait before being released. Cozmo D and Chilly B improvise as rappers, the former writes the lyrics for both and the boys invent "Jam On It" out of nothing, which continues where "Jam-On Revenge" ended. Webb doesn't like the piece, but it was released anyway by Sunnyview during the tour that Newcleus undertook with Cameo and O'Bryan in 1984, and again features the accelerated voices of the squirrels like the previous song, an influence derived directly from George Clinton and his groups Parliament / Funkadelic, which Cozmo D listened to. Newcleus' second single hits the radio and becomes the young group's second hit, although at first the radio stations refuse to play it: it reaches the top ten among the rnb singles and enters the Hot 100, stopping at position 56.
First album
The warm reception received by the public for the two songs convinces Sunnyview executives to finance a full album. In May 1984, Newcleus released his debut studio album, which takes its name from the first track recorded in the studio and released the year before. The group can't put the songs they want on the album, because the label only wants danceable dance music that gets strong radio replay and sells well.
The LP is opened by "Computer Age (Push the Button)", fantastic cut close to eight minutes which is released the following August as Newcleus' third single and it proved to be another successful single, reaching the top 40 of the rnb chart. The second track is "Auto-Man" (or "Automan"), shorter song than the previous one which is originally a sort of rock ballad in which Newcleus sing: Jonathan Fearing messes up the song in the mix and turns it into a dance song, subtracting some instruments from the original recording. "I'm Not a Robot" is the shortest choice on the project, clocking in at five minutes: again, Fearing gets his hands on the original recording and ruins it, Cozmo D sings "off the beat" on this track and he doesn't sound great, because Fearing believes the original track is too slow and chooses to speed up the beat.
Jonathan Fearing's passage is devastating on side A of this LP, the guy also touches "Destination Earth (1999)" and decides that the song is better as an instrumental than as a track with the lyrics and vocals of Cozmo D and Chilly B, which he arbitrarily decides to exclude without the kids having any say in the matter. A dreamy five-minute instrumental piece is born that is excellent thanks to the rhythm, but perhaps it could have been better in its original version with the performance of Newcleus. The second part of the tape opens with one classic after another featuring chipmunk vocals, in fact, the two most successful singles ever in the history of Newcleus arrive: “Jam On Revenge (Re-Mix)” and “Jam On It,” totaling about a dozen minutes that are among the best of both the album and all of 1984 in hip-hop.
"Where's the Beat" is among the most curious songs on the album, because it's not even a "real" Newcleus song. Joe Webb sees a commercial on TV and wants the band to make a song around a stupid advertising catchphrase, the boys refuse to do it. The piece wanted by Webb, "Where's the Beat", was also recorded, included in their album and released as a b-side of the single "Automan" in 1985: Newcleus leader Cozmo D claims that none of Newcleus took part in the recording and none of them are credited as songwriters (except drummer Tracy Greene), Webb then turns to the same musicians who made Ronnie Gee's single "Raptivity", the brothers David and Dennis Williams, the first drummer and the second keyboard player, both have worked at Webb's previous label, Mayhew Records, since the late 1970s.
Joe Webb's son Paul "Fresh Kid" and his best friend Otis "Lil O Me" Brown participate by providing background vocals, also, the guy who says "where's the beat" in the chorus is Joe Webb himself. In any case the piece isn't considered a real cut by Newcleus, unlike all the other songs that are children and heirs of their works with Positive Messenger, and is excluded from reissues of the album over which Newcleus have decision-making power (as well as the other single released in 1985 "I Wanna Be a B-Boy", which ended up on their second LP, in which the original members of Newcleus are joined by Fresh Kid and Lil O Me). “No More Runnin'” closes this superlative record and is another tune touched by Fearing and ruined by him, according to Cozmo D. In the liner notes half of the tracks change titles, with small variations.
This cassette is unexpectedly surprising, cohesive, clean, pricelessly fresh, beautiful. It makes its way among the best of the genre, thanks to a theme supported by wonderful, melodic and polished avant-garde dance-electro productions, with the numerous brilliant synths that bind together giving sci-fi vibes and compensating for the few rap included.
The album sells many copies and is a great success with the public, however, no certification arrives and almost all the money from the records and singles ends up in Webb's hands. The album gained global distribution over the next two years and is marketed by Sunnyview in the US, Precision Records & Tapes Limited in the UK, Bellaphon in Germany, Vogue in France, RCA Victor in New Zealand as cassette, RCA in Australia and New Zealand as LP, Powderworks in Australia, Interdisc in Argentina, Tower Records in the Philippines, Blue Music in Nigeria in 1985 and Top Tape in Brazil in 1986. In the wake of the album's success, between autumn and winter 1984 the group took part in the Fresh Festival, the first major national hip-hop tour ever, alongside artists such as Run-DMC, Whodini, Kurtis Blow and Fat Boys.
Second album and the end
After finishing the tour, the guys start recording songs for Newcleus' second album "Space is the Place", satisfying the label's requests. The guys don't put their heart into this project due to the thousand problems with the first album, Jonathan Fearing is dying and barely manages to mix "Why" at his house with the boys bringing all his gear there before returning to hospital with a serious illness, dying shortly after. The album features "Why", one of the first tracks created by the boys, which would have been destined for the first album if it weren't for the fact that according to Newcleus it doesn't fit with the rest of the songs: is the only tune produced by Cozmo D and Chilly B, while the other six choices are made by Frank Fair and Joe Webb, the producers of the first album. Among these songs are the singles "Let's Jam", "I Wanna Be a B-Boy" and "Space is the Place", all released in 1985. The album is mixed entirely by Jonathan Fearing and published by Sunnyview.
While recording the second album, Cozmo D and Joe Webb go to Florida to work on some songs: the singles and the first album are selling a lot, but the group isn't making any money and Webb continually states that the boys have no money. Not convinced by Webb's words, Cozmo D also talks to Morris Levy's son, Adam, who has a marketing role in Sunnyview and promoted the Newcleus album, he later founded and owned Warlock Records: Adam Levy says the label just signed a check for a quarter of a million dollars (or $280,000, depending on sources) to Joe Webb, that therefore he's defrauding the group and not allowing them to earn from the sales of the singles and the subsequent album, who sell hundreds of thousands of cassettes and records without obtaining any official certification from the RIAA, as happened in the other labels managed or financed by Morris Levy, including the famous Sugar Hill Records. On the day the second album is released, the group meets Webb with their lawyers, because Webb has defrauded Newcleus.
In the summer of 1985 Newcleus should go to the Fresh Festival again like the previous year, given the great success achieved by the boys, but Joe Webb boycotts them, he demands a lot more money and makes sure that Newcleus doesn't go on tour, stating that the group is so big that they can go without the Fresh Festival and organizing his own tour together with the Harlem group Boogie Boys. The kids are used to an audience of thousands of people, they find themselves doing concerts in front of a few dozen people, on a tour that has non-existent promotion, again because of Webb. Newcleus goes on tour while album doesn't sell, neither they nor the record get any promotion and their label is in legal trouble, also, the money isn't coming in because it keeps going to Webb.
The tour ends, Adam Levy leaves the label to found his own Warlock Records, telling the guys that they can no longer perform and do shows like Newcleus because their name is owned by Sunnyview, but they can still produce songs. Starting to produce for other artists, the boys (along with Lady E and Niqu D) leave the group Newcleus and begin to break away from Webb, who's forced to find new members to reorganize the group. The new lineup of Newcleus includes Fresh Kid, Money Mike, who replaces Lil O Me, Reggie Reg, called to replace Tracy Greene on drums, and Jason, singer from Niagara Falls, the same city where Greene, friend/relative of Joe Webb, comes from. There should also be Tracy Greene in the new group, but he refuses. The new lineup of Newcleus continues to release singles with Super Power Records, another Henry Stone label, without getting the same response earned by the original members and ceasing activity after a few years.
In 1986, Henry Stone put Cozmo D and Chilly B in contact with Amos Larkins because he wanted Newcleus to be on a song produced by Larkins, famous Miami bass producer that Cozmo D already met during that trip to Florida. The subgenre of Miami bass isn't exactly that of Newcleus, but Cozmo D and Chilly B agree to rap over it, and for the first time since the beginning of their short career in the music industry they begin to earn some money without the profits going directly to Webb, creating "Na Na Beat", Newcleus' new single. After the group has already recorded and presented the song, out of spite, Webb goes straight into the studio together with other guys shouting the name of the song at the end of it, and Webb later claims to be among the writers of "Na Na Beat", somehow managing to get a writing credit (along with the members of Newcleus) thanks to Henry Stone and starting to receive royalties for that song as well.
At that point, Cozmo D and Chilly B began to dedicate themselves to other things, returning to Jam On Productions and focusing on live performances, while the Newcleus recordings, name that's still Sunnyview, are carried out by Paul "Fresh Kid" Webb and Otis "Lil O Me" Brown, who in 1987 released the new Newcleus single "Huxtable House Party" for Super Power Records, unbeknownst to Cozmo D, who only finds out when he contacts Atlantic: the label would like to sign the group, but Cozmo reiterates that he's no longer part of Newcleus, and that the group has changed members. Webb would have the opportunity to properly promote the new lineup, but he's unable to do it well and the new group disbanded after a few years and several unsuccessful singles released by his son and his friend.
In 1986, Cozmo D and Chilly B join together in the new group The Move. The guys record, produce and release the new electro single "Greedy Girls", released by Sunnyview: the song also gets good critical response, but shortly thereafter Morris Levy is convicted and Sunnyview ceases to exist. In the years and decades since, the boys continue to struggle with Webb and several fraudulent releases of Newcleus material.
While "Space is the Place" is an average electro album, Newcleus' debut "Jam On Revenge" is one of the best albums of the year in the scene and one of the best electro records of the decade, deservedly defined as a "classic" album.
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