Remember him? Dubbed as the next Prince back in the early 90s. He had a little hit called "Sweat U" but he's probably more widely known as the skit-show host on De La Soul's 3 Feet High And Rising album (This is Don Newkirk!) and 3rd Bass's "Gasface" single.

Well, I came across his cassette single (Yes, cassette!) off the "Livin' Large" soundtrack called "Small Thing" and it's still bumpin' to this very day. Easily his best song, espcially since it talks about racism, environmental issues, and the Gulf War - The 1st one. Eery how that it's still a relevant song 15 years later. Then again, so is Marv's "What's Going On?".

I rememeber the video 2 "sweat u" him and some dancers doing their little dance thang on chairs

carlluv said:

Whew! I was about think I was the only person who remembered this dude

Afronomical said:

I just played this last week!!!

Yeah i thought this dude would have stuck around a little longer
than he did. After small thing he just fell off the face of the earth.
I dug this song, sweat u, and another single he had called i desire.
In fact he had the same fine ass redbone in the videos for sweat u and i desire.

phunkdaddy said:

"I Desire" was the jam!

I remember his hair He was down with another group from that era, The Black Flames (I went to high school with some of the members), who did a cover of Slave's "Watching You". They appeared in a video together. And they both faded away from the scene.

Afronomical said:

Don Newkirk was cool. I recently found his album 'New Funk City' on vinyl after years of searching. Its an overlooked gem from the new jack era.

I Desire
Double Dutch on the Sidewalk
Judy Judy Judy
Delicious

were all great tracks. Especially Judy.. which has him doing some Prince-like vocals and instrumentation. Man, people REALLY slept on this one. Nice to see him getting some org love 17 years later.

spelling edit
[Edited 5/18/07 6:36am]
[Edited 5/18/07 6:37am]

JesseDezz said:

Dayum! I remember The Black Flames! I had no idea he was with them. And I remember the remake of Watching You and it was damn good!

unkemptpueblo said:

Man! I got that CD about 4 years ago for 99 cents in the bargain bin at SecondSpin! I bump it to this day!

Afronomical said:

you found it on Disc?? That was a good find! It's gonna take another couple of years to figure out how to transfer my vinyl copy to disc.

unkemptpueblo said:

Yeah, talk about luck! And I KNOW there are some vinyl headz here that can tell you how to transfer from vinyl to CD. Hell, just start a thread here asking that very question and I'm sure you'll get some answers fast.

Afronomical said:

you may have a point, here.

Afronomical said:

The Black Flames album was tight, especially the music, most of which featured keyboardist Stanley Brown, who also did Run DMC's song, "Pause". I don't know what went down with all of them, though some members of the Black Flames are still around the New Jersey area.

Other groups/performers I came up with from that area: rappers Lakim Shabazz, Apache, Precious ("Put it in Motion"), Simple Pleasure ("Where Do We Go From Here)...Tisha Campbell, Queen Latifah, Savion Glover

Lots of talent from Jersey...

JesseDezz said:

Ahhh! Lakim Shabazz! "Your Arms Are Too Short To Box With God" - I LOVE that cut! What's he up to, do you know?

Afronomical said:

Lak is doing well - he's married with kids. Hard-working family man. Still here in New Jersey. He and his dj, C Jus, still do some shows here and there. Haven't seen them in awhile. We go back a LONNNGGG way.

About 15-16 years ago, a young kid came up to Lakim and asked him to autograph an album. It was a Lionel Richie album...The kid picked up the first thing he could find - and Lakim signed it!

I was always supposed to do some guitar stuff for him, but it never worked out, 'cause they were going through hell with their record company. It took them years to get the stuff straightened out.

Here's some footage of Lak and C Jus from last year: http://www.youtube.com/wa...sXrQdLa6tc

JesseDezz said:

Aw man! That's great to hear! Good for him. Thanks for the update bruh! Very cool stuff!