Atmosphere

The duo is made up of Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte, who met while they were both studying at the University of Colorado Boulder. Both of them were already making their first attempts at creating electronic music at the time, so after they became friends, they decided to team up and see what they could create. They found that they had an abundance of creative chemistry together and decided to form a band together, and since both of them were native to Boulder, Colorado, they took their collective postcode, 303, as the name of the band. With a few alterations, obviously. In 2007 they self-released their self-titled debut album and made their live debut around Boulder, both proved so sucecsful that the band signed to Photo Finish Records, a division of Atlantic, within a few months of the record's release, and immediately started work on its follow up.

“Want”, the band's second was released in July the following year, and while the album itself was a reasonable hit, reaching the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100, nobody could have predicted the success of its lead single. After over 20 weeks on the chart, “Don't Trust Me” began a steady climb into the upper reaches of the Hot 100, powered by near-constant radio play, the song's popularity on YouTube and live performances of the track on network television. It would peak at number seven on the Billboard charts and for summer 2008, their were fewer pop acts in the world that were hotter than 3OH!3. Ever since then, the band have remained one of the ultimate guilty pleasure acts of today, with no other act in the world quite as adept at a ridiculously catchy hook and a chorus as crass as it is utterly genius.

The band have released a further two albums to date, and have collaborated with everyone from Katy Perry to Wiz Khalifa as well, and for remaining as dedicated to partying as they every were, 3OH!3 come highly recommended.

Sclacca grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, US and in the early stages of his career he often collaborated with city locals such as DJ Emile and DJ Radar. However it wasn’t until his joint effort with DJ P that he became nationally recognized. Their 2001 release “Uneasy Listening, Vol. 1” was limited to only 1000 physical copies, but it experienced great success via the Internet. This effort essentially went viral and made it’s way to several respected media outlets, many of which cited this release to be one of the year’s best (ex. Rolling Stone, Spin, New york Times etc...).

This widespread publicity led to many sold out performances and several high publicity performances such as Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and an opening spot for rock legends Rolling Stones. Though Sclacca had been active in the music industry since 1989 and put out several recordings throughout the 90s and early 2000s it was not until 2005 that he made his 1st release through a major label.

On 19 April 2005 he issued “Shifting Gears” to critical acclaim and moderate commercial success. The album featured an expansive list of renowned guest musicians such as Chuck D (Public Enemy), Soup (Jurassic 5), Chester Bennington (Linkin Park), Murs, and Lyrics Born. This year also saw the release of a couple of singles like “Shock And Awe/ For My People”, “The Breakfast Club/About Face”, and “Listen to the DJ”.

In 2007 he issued his follow up album “Ahead of the Curve” with the help of Lateef. Towards the end of the year he scored and released the soundtrack for the EA Games series “Skate”. Z-Trip’s next project was another collaborative effort, this time with Toronto electro-house duo MSTRKRFT. Their mixtape was entitled “Soundclash of the Titans” and came out in 2008 through Obey Records.

Z-trip’s successive release revolved around US President Barack Obama’s pre-election campaign. The 2008 album “Party For Change” encouraged people to vote for Obama and it’s follow up “Victory Lap” was a celebratory album in response to Obama’s win. In 2009 Z-trip was listed as America’s best DJ by DJ Times Magazine and the No.1 DJ in Club District’s “Top 10 DJ’s in America Poll”.

Over the years Z-trip has remixed a diverse range of material, including rock recordings (Rush’s “Tom Sawyer”, Butthole Surfers “Shame of Life”, Nirvana’s “Lounge Act”), electronic/pop tracks (Daft Punk’s “Derezzed”, Jackson 5 “I Want You Back”, will.i.am’s “T.H.E.”) and the expected hip-hop titles (Missy Elliott’s “Get Your Freak On”, DJ Shadow “Right Thing”, Beastie Boys “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win”). He has also produced music for LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, Meat Beat Manifesto, Datsik, and Beck.

Born in Mitcham, London, UK, to British Jamaican parents, Walters was blinded in his right eye by broken glass at an early age and has wore a distinctive eye patch ever since. The family moved to Brooklyn, New York, U.S. in 1977 with Walters starting his music career in late 1983 after going Doug E. Fresh’s Get Fresh Crew under the moniker MC Ricky D. Within the hip hop genre, Walters recorded a series of highly acclaimed tracks including “La Di Da” and “Children’s Story” which received modest mainstream attention.

In 1988 Walters released his solo debut album “The Great Adventures of Slick Rick” on Def Jam Records, the biggest hip hop label at the time, due to an acquaintance with head Russell Simmons. The album achieved critical acclaim and reached No. 1 on Billboards R&B/Hop-Hop chart and featured the charted singles “Hey Young World” and “Teenage Love” and the highly popular but radio unplayable “Treat Her Like A Prostitute”.

Walters was incarcerated for five years in 1990, two years for shooting his cousin Mike Plummer after Plummer had Walters shot outside of a club, and three years for his continued struggle with Immigration and Naturalization Services over his U.S. residency. Before the sentencing Russell Simmons bailed him out and Walters’ second album “The Ruler’s Back” was released to limited commercial success and acclaim. His third studio album the suitably named “Behind Bars” was released in 1994 whilst he remained in prison and received much of the same lukewarm approval of his second.

Dubbed as the follow-up to the classic “The Great Adventures of Slick Rick”, “The Art of Storytelling” released on May 25, 1999, was Walters’ most successful album charting at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Featuring artists OutKast, Nas and Snoop Dog, the album cemented Walters’ position as a disciple of the golden age of hip hop.

Walters is known as a pioneer of narrative rap with his laudable storytelling and adoption of various voices in his tracks, as well as being noted for his use of the ‘Queen’s English’ including enviable diction and British-tinged pronunciation. The influence of Slick Rick on the hip hop genre is evident with consistent references to him in modern pop culture and covers of his songs.

Beginning his rap career at the turn of the 90's, Everlast (real name Erik Francis Schrody) certainly didn't achieve success immediately and his début album “Forever Lasting” failed to get as many sales as expected. But since joining up with Danny Boy and DJ Lethal in the group House Of Pain, he has managed to get respect as their front-man. House Of Pain are most well known for their self-titled album, which went multi-platinum, and also for their most recognisable hit "Jump Around", where Everlast features prominently on vocals.

Erik departed from the band on the same day they released their third and final album "Truth Crushed to Earth Shall Rise Again" to continue his work as a solo artist. His second studio album "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues" proved to be a massive improvement from his first release, selling over three millions copies and going double platinum in the process.

None of Everlast's following solo albums proved to be as successful as his second, but he did hit the top 50 with the albums "Eat At Whitey's" released in 2000 and the more recent "Songs Of The Ungrateful Living". Everlast once again teamed up with Danny Boy and DJ Lethal in the hip hop supergroup La Coka Nostra alongside Ill Bill and Slaine. They gathered huge respect from the rap community following the online releasing of singles and eventually made an album which featured the likes of Snoop Dogg, Bun B and Immortal Technique.

Erik has now moved away from hip hop since starting his own label Martyr Inc. and has been known to experiment with a more bluesy and relaxed style, shown by some of the releases from his most recent albums.