Blak Prophetz

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The Blak Prophetz was formed in the mid 1980s in England by the original DJ Sure Shot (Mark Duffus), a DJ, Rapper and Jazz drummer originally born in England. DJ Sure Shot was known for his vast music/record collection, including thousands of vinyl albums from his long djaying career, and it was he who created and produced all the music for the band. This can be seen on the album credits. He was also the lead vocalist until he recruited new member Retro (Chris Hodge), a rapper from London, England, in the early 90's and the two has been together ever since making powerful Hip Hop tracks.

The first track known to be released by this band can be found on a rare compilation called "The Wheel Project" which was a community project for local talent. The Blak Prophetz had no real interest to be on this project as they saw it as a step in the wrong direction, but Sure Shot offered his production skills to help some artists who were to appear on the album. One of the chosen artists got nervous, and decided to back out of the album deal. They asked the Blak Prophetz to take their place on the album. After a long discussion, the Blak Prophetz agreed and released a track entitled "Feel the Force". This track got the Blak Prophetz their first real record deal with a small independent record label called GTI/Kick in Records based in West London, United Kingdom. It was with this label that the Blak Prophetz released another track entitled "Fax on Wax", which for legal reasons only came out on limited edition promos.

The Blak Prophetz were soon signed by Tony Powell (Director of Pinnacle Distribution, London who had his own label called Kold Sweat Records. It was with this label the Blak Prophetz release the track called "Chapter One". DJ Sure Shot started to get requests from bands and artists all over the world asking him to assist them with their productions. This meant that the Blak Prophetz was somewhat put on hold for a short period so that Sure Shot could complete his productions and projects. During this time, DJ Sure Shot worked with/production tracks for Urban Species, Us3, Preeyah Kalidas (Actress from the movie Bend It like Beckham) and also worked on remix projects for D-Influence Records who requested Sure Shot's production skills on a duet track by Warren Stacey & Justin Timberlake which can be heard and purchased only within in the Japanese territory distributed by Avex Distribution, Japan. It was disguised as 'The WS Project' for legal reasons and was released by D-Influence Records in association with Avex Records Japan, located on an album called 'Soul Essentials Vol 6', released by Avex Records.

Whilst DJ Sure Shot was working in Minnesota as an engineer, the demand for Blak Prophetz material grew. When DJ Sure Shot made moves to New York, he became close friends with Ced Gee (Ultramagnetic MC's), Grafiq Sebek, DJ Tony Tone (Cold Crush Brothers) and Afrika Bambaataa. Since then, the Blak Prophetz have been working very closely with these guys and in the late 1990s, a Blak Prophetz release came out from their very own record label which they formed called "Fatt Jointz Records". The track was a 12 inch called "With FX" on FJ Entertainment, which was released in New York and distributed through the major distributors, TRC Distribution, Los Angeles, USA. The track was an instant hit in the Hip Hop genre in the USA and the news grew to other areas like the UK & Europe. DJ Sure Shot and Retro decided that it was time to do their first album and so they did. The follow up was an album which was made in 2003 and released in 2005; It was called "The 2nd Coming" released on their own label. The album included DJ Tony Tone, (The Cold crush Brothers); Guest vocals from Ced Gee (Cedric Miller) and close friend Grafiq (Greg Ward), Miss Merciless from the Bronx, New York and many others.

Since the album, there have been other releases from the previous album, e.g. "What Is Rap - Remixed" and also an underground unreleased single from 2004 entitled "A Time 4U", which was given away free to make way for their newer releases. The Blak Prophetz are now back in the studio and are currently working on their next album due end 2007/2008. DJ Sure Shot will also be producing Afrika Bambaataa's next album.

Discography

Year	Cat No	Label	Track Name	Produced By	Performed By	Format
1989	N/A	N/A	Feel the Force	Sure Shot	Sure Shot	Compilation
1991	Kick8	Kick'in	Fax On Wax	Sure Shot	Sure Shot	12 Inch
1992	KS EP 205	Kold Sweat	Chapter One	Sure Shot	Sure Shot	12 Inch
2001	FJ001	Fatt Jointz	With Fx	Sure Shot	Sure Shot	12 Inch
2002	UND 002	Undercover	Spitt'in Words	Sure Shot	Sure Shot	Compilation
2005	FJCD003	Fatt Jointz	2nd Coming	Sure Shot	Sure Shot & Retro	Album/CD/Digital
2006	FJCD005	Fatt Jointz	What Is Rap	Sure Shot	Sure Shot	Single/Digital