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Necro (rapper)

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Necro
Background information
Birth nameRon Raphael Braunstein
Also known asThe Sexorcist
Born (1976-06-07) June 7, 1976 (age 48)
OriginBrooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
GenresHip hop, rap rock, hardcore hip-hop, rap metal, horrorcore
Occupation(s)Rapper, record producer, CEO, film director
Years active1990–present
LabelsPsycho+Logical-Records
WebsiteOfficial Website

Ron Raphael Braunstein (born June 7, 1976), better known under his stage-name Necro, is a Jewish-American rapper, producer, director and record label owner from Brooklyn, New York.[1][2][3][4] He is the owner of Psycho-Logical-Records founded November, 1999.[5] He is the brother of fellow rapper Ill Bill.[6]

Biography

Glenwood Projects

Necro was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in the Glenwood Housing Projects, where he lived for eight years from about 6 years old to age 14, when he moved to Canarsie. He is the son of two Israeli expatriates and of Israeli and Romanian ethnicity.[7] Necro's father was a Romanian born Israeli combat soldier and his mother an Orthodox baalat teshuva.[8]

He began his musical career at 11, playing guitar in a death/thrash band named Injustice. But in due time, he made a transition from heavy metal to hip hop.[8] In 1988, he started rapping after being influenced by his older brother, rapper Ill Bill. Necro derived his stage-name from the Slayer song "Necrophiliac". Before that he called himself "Mad Mooney", which was a character from a Clive Barker book. He made his first demo in about 1990 and won a demo battle contest on the Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito show on WKCR-FM. In about 1993 Necro started rapping full time and made a demo called "Do The Charles Manson". In '95 he proceeded to rap on the Wildman Steve and DJ Riz show WBAU 90.3FM.[9][10]

Stylistic characteristics

Lyrical style

Necro lists Kool G Rap as one of his biggest influences in terms of multi-syllabic rhyme structure and content, as well as LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, Rakim and the Geto Boys.[11] Necro is also influenced by heavy metal/death metal lyrics, as well as gangster/horror movies and popular culture.[12][13]

Death rap

NYC 1998

Necro invented the term "death rap" to describe his style of ultraviolent hip hop and to set himself apart from other genre labels created by the media. This sub-genre of rap combines death metal beats with explicit raps about violence, death, the occult, and sex.[4][14][15][16]

Production

NYC 1998

Necro is a self-taught musician and has been playing instruments since the age of ten. He started producing hip hop beats in 1989 by looping up records and bought an Ensoniq EPS in 1991. In the following years he produced beats for artists like Non Phixion, Cage, Krist and Missing Linx, who all released independent singles. The first record he produced that received airplay was "No Tomorrow" by Non Phixion in 1996, put out on Searchlight Music/FatBeats Distribution.

The first wave of albums released on Necro's label were entirely produced by Necro himself. This includes the debut solo albums of Non-Phixion members Ill Bill, Sabac Red and Goretex after he already produced 7 songs for Non Phixion's debut album The Future Is Now in 2002.[3][9]

In 2009, a beat Necro produced in 1997 was used by Raekwon on his album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II for the song "Gihad", which also featured Ghostface Killah.

"Suffocated to Death"
An example of Necro's blend of hip hop and metal.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Death metal influence

Since the inception of his rap career Necro has been tied to the genre of heavy metal, and more specifically death metal, which has altered his path into hip hop. He has been quoted in interviews citing death metal as a key influence for his rhymes, Chuck Schuldiner's Death in particular. Necro's adoration for death metal is apparent in many of his lyrical themes such as the glorification of violence, the discounting and persecution of Christianity, and a proclivity towards narrating the horrors of war.[17][18][19]

Necro has said that he is heavily influenced by Kill 'Em All, Reign in Blood, Slowly We Rot, Leprosy, and Master of Puppets, and he has remarked that those albums take him back to "the '80s when shit was pure".[20]

Necro is the first rapper to ever rap over a grind blast beat on the track "Suffocated to Death by God's Shadow", with the drums being played by Mike Smith from the band Suffocation.[21]

Necro also collaborated with Scott Ian of Anthrax and Dave Ellefson of Megadeth, two members of the "Big 4", on the track "Evil Rules".

Necro has also been known to reference heavy metal acts in his rhymes as well. For instance, on "Underground", Necro states he will "penetrate your skull like a riff from Obituary's 'Slowly We Rot'" and quotes Metallica's "Master of Puppets" by saying "Taste me you will see / more is all you need / dedicated to / how I'm killing you". Over the years, Necro has increased his referencing and collaborations with underground metal acts, as evidenced by his 2004 album The Pre-Fix for Death, which features many references and collaborations with heavy metal musicians from Obituary, Hatebreed, Slipknot, and Voivod. In addition, Necro created his own supergroup known as The Circle of Tyrants, named after a song by Celtic Frost. The Circle of Tyrants album also contains collaborations with artists from Testament, Exhumed, and Sepultura as well as song titles named after '80s thrash metal songs such as Slayer's "South of Heaven" and Metallica's "The Four Horsemen".[22]

Necro wearing a Scarface hoddie.
Necro wears a Scarface hoodie.

Concepts

Necro is known for releasing conceptual songs. Songs have tackled topics like the Manson murders ("Creepy Crawl)" [23] "Cockroaches",[24] "Scalpel",[25] "The 12 King Pimp Commandments",[26] "Dead Body Disposal",[27] "The Human Traffic King",[28] "White Slavery",[29] "I Need Drugs",[30] "Food For Thought", "S.T.D.", picking up women ("86 Measures of Game"), cannibalism ("Human Consumption"), suicide ("You Did It"), bondage and sex games ("EdgePlay"), watersports and micturation ("Piss"), life as a pimp ("Out the Pocket"), a revenge tale ("Some Get Back"), and war narratives ("First Blood").

Necro is a devoted fan of the 1983 film Scarface.[31] Necro sampled the main character from Scarface, Tony Montana, in "Cockroaches". Necro has also rapped, "I live scarface scenes" in "Gory Days",[32] and rapped Montana's infamous quote, "you fuck with me you fucking with the best",[33] whilst sampling the quote simultaneously in "asBESTos". Necro also took the title from "Push It to the Limit" which appeared in the film's soundtrack and used the title for his own song "Push it to the Limit". Al Pacino's work besides Scarface plays a recurrent theme throughout Necro's work. Necro's new collaboration with Kool G Rap is called The Godfathers as is the movie The Godfather that made a star of Al Pacino. In "asBESTos", Necro raps, "I'm completely rehabilitated, reinvigorated, reassimilated"[34] which is taken directly from an Al Pacino quote in Carlito's Way.[35] Al Pacino's influence is also present in Necro's acting. Necro performed a scene from Heat which stars Pacino in the Manhattan Monologue Slam.[36]

Injustice

Injustice was Necro's first death metal band, formed in 1986, before he was a teenager, playing guitar. With this band, alongside his brother Bill, he played live shows with bands such as Napalm Death, Sepultura and Obituary at the Brooklyn club L'Amours. Injustice recorded two demos before splitting up in 1990 due to not securing a label contract.[16][37][38][39]

Psycho+Logical-Records

Necro founded the independent record label Psycho+Logical-Records[3][4] in November 1999. In seven years, Psycho+Logical-Records has released over 23 albums.

Touring

Necro has been performing live since the age of 11. In 2007, Necro played the Download Festival at Donnington.[38] Some of the groups he has opened for include Run DMC, Beatnuts, Sepultura, Kool Keith, Napalm Death & Biohazard. He has headlined sold-out shows in all of NYC's mid-sized venues such as Brownie's, Wetlands, The Knitting Factory & SOB's.[9] During the summer of 2009, Necro was a featured artist on the Rock the Bells tour appearing in Toronto, New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and San Francisco.[40]

Controversy

Sounds of the Underground

In 2007 Necro toured with Sounds of the Underground. On July 25, 2007, he decided to leave the Sounds of the Underground tour. Necro commented, "I decided to leave the tour collectively with my manager and booking agent (both tour organizers) because we felt the tour's demographic was not receiving hip hop well. I was facing hostile, disrespectful crowds and was returning the same energy back ten-fold by being more aggressive than them. It was making a lot of people in the tour crew nervous and there was concern someone might get hurt (NOT ME). It was also being suggested that maybe I tone down my live show and not antagonize the already antagonistic crowd. I couldn't roll with that as it's not my style. I was holding back enough as it is but there is a line. All the bands on the tour loved us and everyone behind the scenes knew we displayed major heart and never once got fazed by the hostility. We finished every show with middle fingers up and a big fuck you to the crowd.I will make one thing clear for the haters: we NEVER got booed OFF the stage. Not once. Yes a ton of emo kids booed us at every show, but we had a twenty-five minute set every night and we stayed on stage for every minute of it, and we represented. Every show had at least 100 to 200 NECRO fans in the pit tearing it up, and our meet and greets were incredible! It's just a shame these little kids are so closed-minded. The majority of the hate was coming from mop top emo sixteen-year olds who have no clue who the originators of metal are, and didn't respect my 'rest in peace' chant to metal legends (Dime, Cliff, Chuck, Piggy, Sob). As far as the tour organizers and I are concerned, you are my peoples so it's all love and I'm thankful for the opportunity to prove I can murder it in the worst of situations. This actually did a lot for me and is just one move in many my team will make to blow NECRO up".[41]

Riot at Vancouver show

On Saturday March 21, 2009 Necro had an appearance scheduled at a Vancouver, Canada nightclub (Richards on Richards). When promoters announced that the show was canceled at the last minute, fans became violent and chaos broke out. People began to throw bottles, chairs and tables at the venue's DJ (DJ Sage of the Vancouver hip hop radio show Urban Renewal Project).[42]

Perth incident

On June 5, 2009, Necro was fined $3000 after fracturing the cheekbone of a man who provoked him in a Perth, Australia street. Necro pleaded guilty to the assault. He was arrested at his hotel later that day, forcing the cancellation of his show at Perth's Hyde Park Hotel.[43]

Ani Difranco

On May 18, 2010, Necro released his latest album, entitled DIE! On July 17, 2010 Necro revealed (through his website's forum) that he is being sued by Ani Difranco due to sampling her song "Used to You" for the track "The Asshole Anthem". iTunes and Amazon subsequently removed the album from their stores, and Necro has confirmed he is in the process of re-releasing the album without this track included.[44]

Discography

Main article: Necro discography

Studio Releases

Compilations

Collaborations

Tours

Festival Appearances

Filmography

Films
Year Title Role Notes
2010 The Super Dt. Sardusky Film debut
2010 Avantegarde Dt. Falconetti

Directing and Necro Films

Necro went to Brooklyn College for film for two years where he had access to film making equipment. His movie 187 Reasonz Y had an anti-cop theme with a police officer getting shot in the head at the end of the film. The film department was repulsed by Necro's visions and he received no support from them.[9]

Necro's film company has already released three direct-to-video features (187 Reasonz Y, The Devil Made Me Do It and the I Need Drugs music video, all of which have received acclaim in publications such as The Source and Vibe magazine.[9]

Acting

Necro has been taking classes on acting and honing his skills in the acting department. In May 2009, he premiered in a short video-film titled, Triumph Of The Kill acting the role of a serial killer clown. The short film was premiered on YouTube and MySpace.[45][46][47]

Music videos

Solo videos

Non-solo videos

Other projects

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.14589/title.necro-releases-limited-edition-eight-inch-toy-figurine
  2. ^ http://www.discogs.com/label/Psycho%2BLogical-Records Psycho+Logical-Records @ Discogs
  3. ^ a b c Walking The Thin Line Between Sex And Death With Necro
  4. ^ a b c Beneath The Street – Death Rap: Special Edition
  5. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho%2BLogical-Records
  6. ^ http://www.hiphopug.com/ill-bill.html
  7. ^ Necro – "The Art of Necro" Interview
  8. ^ a b sputnikmusic New NECRO INTERVIEW from Jew School
  9. ^ a b c d e Artist Page: Necro
  10. ^ RapTalk.net – Exclusive Necro Interview!
  11. ^ Necro 6 Minutes to Die!
  12. ^ http://www.hiphop-elements.com/article/read/6/6465/1/
  13. ^ http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/Five-Underground-Rap-Groups-With-Outrageous-Lyrics/2912555
  14. ^ Top Death-Rap Artists – Trish's Picks
  15. ^ It's, it's Horrible – Music Feature
  16. ^ a b Necro – Necro, Secret Society, Injustice, The Circle of Tyrants
  17. ^ http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2011/04/metallica_slaye.html
  18. ^ http://www.horroryearbook.com/542260/necro-%E2%80%9Cdeath-rap%E2%80%9D-music-review-by-brain-hammer
  19. ^ http://www.horroryearbook.com/542260/necro-%E2%80%9Cdeath-rap%E2%80%9D-music-review-by-brain-hammer
  20. ^ "Death-Rapper Necro to Make European Live Debut in London". Blabbermouth.net. 27 November 2006. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  21. ^ http://www.horroryearbook.com/542260/necro-%E2%80%9Cdeath-rap%E2%80%9D-music-review-by-brain-hammer
  22. ^ http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2011/04/metallica_slaye.html
  23. ^ http://www.mortalgore.com/content/necro-creepy-crawl-official-music-video-manson-family
  24. ^ http://www.lyricsbay.com/cockroaches_lyrics-necro.html
  25. ^ http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Scalpel-lyrics-Necro/490FA24B192F05CA48256C13000B265F
  26. ^ http://www.lyrics007.com/Necro%20Lyrics/12%20King%20Pimp%20Commandments%20Lyrics.html
  27. ^ http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/dead-body-disposal-lyrics-necro/e5e2b407b11402fa48256c13000b4f90
  28. ^ http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/videos/id.3970/title.necro-the-human-traffic-king-white-slavery-pt2
  29. ^ http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/White-Slavery-lyrics-Necro/7116821E45AB047E48256E16002B3AEE
  30. ^ http://www.metrolyrics.com/i-need-drugs-lyrics-necro.html
  31. ^ http://necroofficial.blogspot.com/2011/12/yo-necro-whats-your-favourite-scene-in.html
  32. ^ http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Gory-Days-lyrics-Necro/442621E36A0533B748256C13000B21B5
  33. ^ http://www.metrolyrics.com/asbestos-lyrics-necro.html
  34. ^ http://www.lyricsbox.com/necro-lyrics-asbestos-c7nv9b7.html
  35. ^ http://www.quotefully.com/movie/Carlito%27s+Way/8/
  36. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89YzqnnrSNc
  37. ^ Necro – Death Rap – Review – Stylus Magazine
  38. ^ a b An Interview with Death-Rapper Necro
  39. ^ Tartarean Desire – Injustice – Death Metal band from USA
  40. ^ Rock The Bells Tour – Featured Acts
  41. ^ 'Death' Rapper NECRO Leaves SOUNDS OF THE UDNERGROUND Tour
  42. ^ Rapper Necro's No-Show Sparks Concert Riot
  43. ^ News.com.au June 5, 2009
  44. ^ http://www.necrohiphop.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=144889#Post144889
  45. ^ Necro Interview: The Sexorcist
  46. ^ YouTube Triumph of The Kill by Bryan Andre, starring Ron Braunstein AKA Necro
  47. ^ Myspace Video Triumph of The Kill by AmHi Productions
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