Keith LeBlanc, the multi-talented drummer/producer who helped form the sound of early hip-hop together with his taking part in on albums by the Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash has died at 69. LeBlanc’s dying was confirmed in an announcement from his label, On-U Sound, in addition to LeBlanc’s spouse, Fran LeBlanc, who instructed Selection that her husband died on April 4 as a result of an undisclosed sickness.
“All of us at On-U Sound are heartbroken to share the information that the nice Keith LeBlanc has handed away,” learn an announcement from the label.
Over the course of a four-decade profession that started together with his gig working alongside bassist Doug Wimbish and guitarist Skip “Little Axe” McDonald as a part of the home band for rap pioneers the Sugarhill Gang within the early Nineteen Eighties, LeBlanc performed with and carried out on information that spanned electronica, rock and pop.
LeBlanc’s work may be heard on such landmark Sugar Hill information as “Apache” and “eighth Marvel,” in addition to Grandmaster Flash & the Livid 5’s “It’s Nasty” and the 1982 album The Message. In a nod to his versatility, LeBlanc spent the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties taking part in classes with all kinds of acts, from Ministry to R.E.M., Seal and Annie Lennox, in addition to including his manufacturing and engineering experience to 9 Inc Nails’ landmark 1989 industrial rock basic debut, Fairly Hate Machine.
Born in Bristol, CT in 1954, LeBlanc additionally had a sturdy solo profession, drumming on tracks for English producer Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound productions. He snagged an sudden underground solo hit in 1983 with “No Promote Out,” which sampled the voice of late Nation of figurehead Malcolm X over bouncy synths and drum machine beats and is taken into account one of many first songs to make use of samples in a business launch.
He additionally carried out within the rotating lineup of Sherwood’s industrial hip-hop band Tackhead within the late Nineteen Eighties and early Nineties alongside Wimbish and McDonald after Sherwood was impressed with LeBlanc’s musicianship, inviting the trio to hitch him in London for experimental classes.
“As soon as ensconced within the studio, they continued their sample-based explorations, with the producer as a fourth member manning the blending desk. That is one thing they might additionally replicate of their reside set-up, with Adrian dubbing and processing the musicians in actual time as they performed on stage,” On U’s memorial learn. “Slicing information concurrently as Fat Comet (for the extra dancefloor-oriented materials) and Tackhead (for his or her extra aggressive political tracks), in addition they grew to become the second incarnation of The Maffia, the uncompromising backing band of Mark Stewart [the Pop Group]. The members have been moreover concerned in solo initiatives, session assignments, and appearances in different mysterious guises on the On-U roster, reminiscent of Barmy Military and Unusual Parcels.”
In an announcement, Sherwood stated, “Keith was a significant, main expertise ..unimaginable drummer, producer and musician.. Together with Doug, Skip and likewise dearly missed Mark Stewart we loved a few of the most inventive instances collectively that formed my musical life. Thanks Brother Keith..Love Ceaselessly. Coronary heart and Soul.”
LeBlanc additionally launched six solo albums throughout that interval, together with his 1986 album Main Malfunction, which was impressed by the area shuttle Challenger catastrophe. All through his musical adventures, LeBlanc folded in hip-hop, spoken phrase, movie/TV samples and a mixture of reside drumming and programmed beats, releasing materials by his Blanc Data label, which additionally provided followers budget-priced collections of “pattern packs” that includes beats and results.
Amongst his different notable recordings is an look on “Little” Steven Van Zandt’s 1985 anti-apartheid all-star single “Solar Metropolis,” in addition to collaborations with McDonald’s blues-leaning group Little Axe and writing/producing for Residing Color, Peter Gabriel and The Remedy and drumming on songs by James Brown, the Rolling Stones, Stone Roses and Sinead O’Connor, amongst many others.
Take a look at a few of LeBlanc’s music beneath.
