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T La Rock

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Birth name
  
Clarence Ronnie Keaton

Origin
  
Bronx, New York, U.S.

Name
  
T Rock

Siblings
  
Special K

Also known as
  
The Lyrical King

Instruments
  
Genres
  
Old-school hip hop


Occupation(s)
  
Rapper, recording artist

Years active
  
1984–1989, 2008–present

Albums
  
Lyrical King (From the Boogie Down Bronx), Love Blind / Runaway, Come and Give It to Me (Ecstasy), He's Incredible

Record labels
  
Similar People
  
Jazzy Jay, Grand Mixer DXT, Todd Terry, Rick Rubin, Omar Santana

Profiles

A Hip Hop classic T La Rock It's Yours


T. La Rock - On A Warpath (Hiphop / Hip Hop / Rap)


Clarence "Terry" Ronnie Keaton (born September 16, 1961), known by the stage name T La Rock, is an American old-school emcee best known for his collaboration with Def Jam Recordings co-founder Rick Rubin and the 1984 single "It's Yours." He disappeared from the hip hop scene after a traumatic brain injury in 1994, but as of 2008, he was back on stage.

Contents

T La Rock Microphone Mathematics T La Rock Part 3 of 3 Fifth

Early years

T La Rock Microphone Mathematics T La Rock Part 2 of 3 Fifth

T La Rock was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx borough of New York City. A former break dancer, he is the older brother of fellow old-school MC Special K of the Treacherous Three. T La Rock stands 6'3" tall. T La Rock has been a part of hip hop since its birth, having been a DJ and emcee since the early 1970s.

Hip-hop career

In 1984, Rick Rubin released "It's Yours" 12-inch single (Cat. PT-104), which was the very first release on Def Jam Recordings. Although some might argue that LL Cool J's "I Need a Beat" 12-inch single was the first, this is not exactly true. The "It's Yours" recording was something that Rick Rubin put out a few months before joining forces with Russell Simmons. The song was the first single to feature a Def Jam logo, but it was released through producer Arthur Baker's independent label Partytime, which was the hip hop division of his dance music label Streetwise Records. The recording was never part of Def Jam’s collection of master recordings.

T La Rock unkutcom A Tribute To Ignorance Remix

In a 1996 interview with The New York Times, Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons commented about the effect T La Rock and "It's Yours" had on the early hip hop scene:

T La Rock CB T La Rock

The influence of T La Rock's "It's Yours" is monumental. The song was sampled by countless artists, including hip-hop group Public Enemy in "Louder than a Bomb" from its 1988 release It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back; Nas in "The World is Yours" from his seminal 1994 album Illmatic; by many sample-based house-music tracks by Todd Terry. The song was later in the soundtrack of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, on the old school hip hop radio station the Classics 104.1.

It was also used by the Beastie Boys on its song “Paul Revere” off the famous 1986 album Licensed to Ill, an album also produced by Rick Rubin and released on Def Jam Recordings. On the Sirium XM show "Sway In The Morning," Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys pointed out that he can be heard on the backing vocals of "It's Yours."

The Wu-Tang Clan did not sample T La Rock in their track "It's Yourz" on its classic album Wu-Tang Forever, but the chorus of that song clearly emulated him. Southern emcee Mystikal did a remake of "It's Yours" on his 1997 album Unpredictable. The song sampled the original drums and had a similar hook, but it had a southern twist to it as it was titled "It Yearns."

On the strength of "It's Yours," T La Rock was signed by Fresh/Sleeping Bag Records and released two albums: Lyrical King (From the Boogie Down Bronx in 1987, and On a Warpath in 1989. Lyrical King was produced by T La Rock, Kurtis Mantronik, and DJ Louie Lou (La Rock's original DJ), while Todd Terry produced On a Warpath.

1994 injury and recovery

In 1994, T La Rock suffered a traumatic brain injury while breaking up a fight in front of his brother's Bronx apartment building. He spent part of his recovery at the Haym Salomon Home for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where he recovered from memory loss and a loss of motor skills.

After recovering, T La Rock began work on a film project about his life written by Antwone Fisher. Casting director/ Producer Bonnie Timmermann . He also began to record new music. He is back on stage performing all of his hits, both in the United States and internationally. He performed in Brazil on August 2008.

Albums

The Lost Tapes (2000)

Songs

It's Yours
Breaking Bells
Lyrical King
Back To Burn
Bass Machine
This Beat Kicks
He's Incredible
Tudy Fruity Judy
Having Fun
Three Minutes Of Beat Box
Bust These Lyrics
Scratch Monopoly
It's Time To Chill
Big Beat In London
Live Drummin' With The Country Boy
T La Rock Rockin the Party
It's Yours - Part 2
Breakdown
Section 6: The Home of Hip-Hop / Strong Island / Kowalski / Time to Get Ill / I'm Gonna Love You a Little More Baby / Public Enemy Number One / Blow Your Head / Breakin' Bells
Housin' With the T's
Housin' With the T's
Doing Damage
T-N-Off
I'm Getting Mine
T-N-Off
Housin' With the T's
Incredible Dub
Runaway
Housin' With the T's
Come and Give It to Me [Radio Mix]
T-N-Off
Love Blind

References

T La Rock Wikipedia


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