
Website: www.kingbritt.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/kingbritt
Growing up in southwest Philadelphia, house DJ/producer King
Britt was raised in a household filled with music, from James Brown to Duke Ellington.
He began
buying records at the age of seven, and gradually amassed a collection of over
10,000 singles. Britt saw the beginnings of the local rap scene evolve with Schooly
D., Three Times Dope, Steady B., DJ Cash Money, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh
Prince. His tastes also expanded to include Depeche Mode, Roxy Music, Kraftwerk,
Front 242, and the Smiths. While attending Temple University, he began producing
his own tracks and also met Ishmael Butler (aka Butterfly), who introduced Britt
to his jazz-rap group Digable Planets. Acquiring the nickname Silkworm, he toured
with the group for more than two years. Through a mutual friend, he also met
Josh Wink, and the duo soon began tooling around in their respective bedroom/MIDI
recording studios. The result was a worldwide dance hit, 1993's "Tribal
Confusion" by E-Culture. Britt and Wink formed their own label, Ovum Recordings,
and worked on production as well as remixing, for artists including Tori Amos,
Donna Lewis, Solsonics, and Mary Wilson.
King Britt first hatched the idea for a solo album while touring with Digable
Planets. A soundtrack fan without the money to make a feature film, he decided
to record the music for a fake movie, enlisting hometown talent -- dubbed the
Sylk 130 collective -- including legendary bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, drummer
Darryl Burgee, keyboardist James Poiser, vocalist Alison Crockette, poet Ursula
Rucker, rapper Tony "Capital A" Green, and guitarist Monnette Sudler.
When the Funk Hits the Fan was released on Ovum/Sony in 1998 and was followed
by The Remixes one year later. The new millennium, however, featured another
musical jaunt for King Britt's Sylk 130. Re-Members Only, issued in March 2001,
showcased classic funk/soul grooves as well as collaborations with ABC's Martin
Frye, De La Soul, and Alison Moyet of Yaz. Britt's first solo production album,
Adventures in Lo-fi, followed in 2003 on BBE, and he put together a mix album
for Chicago's Park Hyatt hotel in 2004. He remained busy as ever beyond these
releases, developing artists on his label and handling dozens of remix jobs.
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