Name Rushden Diamonds Local time Tuesday 2:43 PM Shire county Northamptonshire UK parliament constituency Wellingborough | Role Town in England District East Northamptonshire Dialling codes 01933 | |
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Rushden & Diamonds (abbreviated R&D) is an electronic alternative hip hop group from Vancouver, British Columbia, consisting mainly of the duo Michael Rushden (Michael James Gilbert) and Lord Diamonds (Robert Karl Edward Koch). Frequent collaborators include rapper Kool Keith, hip-hop producer Kutmasta Kurt, vocalist Moka Only, rapper Dylan Ross, and, most recently, Japanese Video Game Music composer Naoto Tanaka. Rushden & Diamonds's first claim to fame was their song "Fast Lane" which was featured in Sega's PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 beat 'em up video game, Anarchy Reigns, and its subsequent soundtrack. Fellow west coast hip-hop group Dilated Peoples also contributed to the game and soundtrack.
Contents
History
Rushden & Diamonds was founded in the mid-2000s by Vancouverites Michael Rushden (Michael James Gilbert), Lord Diamonds (Robert Karl Edward Koch), and Davidson (Ivan Mathew). Michael Rushden & Lord Diamonds had been friends since high school while Davidson first met with Michael while attending Vancouver Film School. During the mid 2000s Michael and Davidson were primarily focused on working in animation while Lord Diamonds began working on an unnamed hip-hop project. Soon after taking interest in Lord Diamonds production, both Michael and Davidson began contributing to the album's writing. Davidson proposed the name of the group to be Rushden & Diamonds in which Michael and the Lord later adapted into their current alias's.
In 2007, Lord Diamonds met with American hip-hop producer Kutmasta Kurt outside his concert with Kool Keith in Victoria BC. At that time they exchanged contacts and discussed artwork services from Michael. Later that year Michael created the album artwork for Kool Keith & Kutmasta Kurt's 2008 release, Dr. Dooom 2 in trade for some additional production to be added to Rushden & Diamonds still unnamed project. While Michael was busy working on artwork, Lord Diamonds started to produce a beat for Memphis based Crunk rappers Lord T & Eloise. The beat that Lord Diamonds created was used for the song Coup d'Etat which was featured on both Lord T & Eloise's second album, Chairmen Of The Board and Rushden & Diamonds debut album 2010.
Throughout 2008, Rushden & Diamonds continued collaborating with artists including MC Paul Barman, Moka Only, Baba Brinkman, Jacky Jasper, Elaine Lil'Bit Shepherd and Dylan Ross. The album 2010 was released on August 10, 2010 physically in the United States via Kutmasta Kurt's label Threshold Recordings. The album was also physically released in Canada by Lord Diamonds label Volunteer Media with distribution by Fontana North.
Since the release of 2010, Rushden & Diamonds have toured extensively throughout North America and Europe including playing at Lyon France's Nuits Sonores festival in 2012 alongside Kool Keith. Other hip-hop artists to have toured with Rushden & Diamonds are KRS-ONE, Kutmasta Kurt and most recently the Ultramagnetic MC's.
Musical styles
Michael Rushden & Lord Diamonds (aka Rushden & Diamonds) musical styles "compliment each other in differentiating themselves from one another." Michael Rushden dubs himself as the "Marlboro Man" of rap with a gravelly vocal tone and boisterous delivery, while Lord Diamonds vocals are delivered significantly smoother as the Lord carries himself in an "almost English accent as he raps." On Rushden & Diamonds debut album 2010, the group used the term "hip hopera" to summarize the album's musical genre. The instrumentals that Lord Diamonds created for Michael Rushden's disc "Suddenly" primarily featured sounds reminiscent of mid to late 1980s funk, soul, R&B, new wave and pop rock. On Lord Diamonds disc "Is Forever", the instrumentals were accompanied by harpsichord and baroque style music creating a royal sound-scape for 2010's second disc. Drawing from a diverse palette of influences, the group admits to have been primarily influenced by the arcade and console video games that they grew up with in the late 1980s to early 1990s.