Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three
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| Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three | |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | Hip hop |
| Years active | Early 1980s |
| Label(s) | Reality |
| Associated acts | Slick Rick |
| Former members | |
| Rock Master Scott Charlie Prince MBG Slick Rick |
|
Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three was an old school rap group that is best known for the single "The Roof Is on Fire" which has since been sampled by many other groups. They all grew up in the Bronx of NYC, and three of the members lived in the same building on Webster Avenue.
[edit] Origins
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 until 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 discrepancy 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 New Haven, they never had a group name at that time, so people 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 is when Gregory decided to take Buster's place. They were still called Devilish Three until they entered a battle at this 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. They happened to be one of the groups he asked and others were also 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 to this 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 (aka Slick Rick)'s mother's house. To clarify the matter of there being two Ricks, if one looks at the date release (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.
They wanted Dougie to be on the label with them. Their main purpose was to get all the good rappers on that label with them like other labels. But of course it was never acknowledged by Dougie Fresh. But any way Richard aka Slick Ricks mom, she was like there mentor and gave them a lot of inspiration. They would be in her living room rehearsing and she would be sitting on the couch watching them, making sure they did it right. She fed them, gave them something to drink when they were out of breath. She been with them from the beginning til her departure. She been with them on many road trips and met some of the other performers like Force MDs, Rappin Duke and a few others. This was during the times they made (Request Line and The Roof Is On Fire). But prior to that, they started doing shows with other local groups that were well known such as, The Cold Crush Brothers, Grand Wizard Theodore and The Fantastic Five, Master Don Committee, DJ AJ when he was with Chief Rocker Busy Bee etc. They started performing in places like T Connection, Harlem World also places in New Jersey with other groups such as, Sweet, Slick and Sly. Doing shows for another promoter named Armstrong. Now Scott had a connection with another promoter named Man Dip Lite, who always had shows lined up for Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, he also had shows lined up for them (Master Scott and The Dynamic Three) at this roller skating rink up in Long Island. After doing a few shows here and there, finally the day came when Jerry Blood Rock wanted to record the group in the studio. It took one year from the time of him asking them, but finally that time came. Then they recorded their first song called: It's Life (You Gotta Think Twice). DJ Wiz Kid was responsible for the music. This was the first time they have ever seen a recording studio, which was called unique recording studio. Once the song was complete they waited for about one to two weeks and Jerry Blood Rock (the producer of the song) came around the block of their neighborhood and called them downstairs to show the pressing of the records on his label called Reality Records, and they were happy to see the progress. The first thing they did was take them to the local record stores to sell boxes of the new song. During that time, Charles aka Charlie Prince was working in one of the top record stores called Rock N Soul part time, was able to get the owner to buy a few boxes. Charlie Prince use to sleep with the alarm clock set for 7:00 am and one morning the alarm went off and BAM, there it was, their song was being played on the radio by Ken Spider Web on 98.7 Kiss. He called the other members and told them the great news. They were like The Five Heartbeats hearing their song (I've Got Nothing But Love), jumping and cheering. That is when Profile Records got involved and did the distribution. It became a regular rotation in the morning. They started performing at places like Broadway International, Cerlebrity Club Etc. They became the neighborhood super stars in the year of 1983. In the year of 1984, they were back in the studio recording the songs (Request Line and The Roof Is On Fire), but at that time, they were in different studios. One was in a small studio in New Jersey at Joey Moore's house, one of Jerry Blood Rock's Associates. They laid the track, "The Roof Is On Fire" there along with "Request Line" then took it to unique studio to complete the work. But during their travels around with Jerry Bloodrock, they met people like Clark Jay who was the quiet man behind the scene, but had a big part in putting this project together. They saw Clark Jay one time in Jersey and have not seen him for a long time. Meanwhile, Clark was looking for the group and the group never knew much of Clark Jay until Charles aka Charlie Prince decided to research. The day finally came when Clark Jay was located. He was so happy to hear from the group members. This was in the middle of the 90s. So he wanted to know where were the rest of the group. Once he knew where they were, he started taking care of the group and even invited them where he was. Now back to the songs. Finally when the song was recorded on Reality Reords, it was put out. It took off pretty good. All they knew was that they had to take a flight out to Fayetteville, North Carolina to perform a show, only thing with that, was that Scott and Charlie Prince went there while Rick and MBG was out in New Jersey. That is when they met Divine Sounds. Next thing, shows started coming up back to back. After doing so many shows with other groups they was then put on a tour called the Jamatron. They met up with other rap artist such as, Kurtis Blow, Dougie Fresh, UTFO, Lisa Lisa, Roxanne Shante, Whodini, The Real Roxanne and a lot of others who are not mentioned.
[edit] Discography
The group released more than one single, but "The Roof Is on Fire" (1984), which charted at #5 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales was the main focus at the time. The A-side track "Request Line" was also well received, reaching as high as #21 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart.
The phrase and hook from "The Roof Is on Fire" has become more notable than the band itself, having been sampled by groups such as Chemical Brothers, Coal Chamber, Kid 'n Play, Rancid, and The Bloodhound Gang and many others.
