Got word yesterday that legendary graf writer and emcees Rammellzee passed away… Not sure why or how, but for Hip Hop folks it was the second death in two weeks. People in the Bay Area are still mourning the death of pioneering B-Boy Mr Fantastic aka Melvin.. of the Royal Rockers He died of a sudden heart attack at age 41 in the arms of his oldest daughter His wake was yesterday as we got word of Rammellzee passing..
Longtime B-Boy Bas-1 sent this out about Mr Fantastik
Melvin McCullough aka Mr.Fantastik of Berkeley, CA whom was head of the crew ROYAL ROCKERS passed away Saturday June 12th.
He was a hiphop icon and pioneer here in the bay area of northern california. Partner’s with the Incredible Rubberman Damon Frost and definitely influenced the early bay area hiphop scene especially through dance (mainly poppin or wutever u wanna call the robitic dance movement that includes waving tuting and slides). Please find it in your hearts as another fellow dancer of our culture has fallen and the family needs assistance in arrangements.
please send donations via paypal to:
mrcm9@sbcglobal.net
We also lost Gary Shider aka Starchile a couple of weeks ago. He was a long time fixture in George Clinton‘s Parliament/ Funkadelic. Shider was the brother who wore the diapers who got down on the guitar. He was recently inducted into the hall of fame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27oJkTiEp34&feature=related
As for Rammellzee here’s what was written about him in wikipedia
Rammellzee (or RAMMΣLLZΣΣ, pronounced “Ram: Ell: Zee”, born 1960 in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York), was a graffiti writer, performance artist, rap/hip-hop musician and sculptor from New York. His death was announced on 29th June 2010.
Rammellzee’s graffiti and art work are based on his theory of Gothic Futurism, which describes the battle between letters and their symbolic warfare against any standardizations enforced by the rules of the alphabet; his treatise, “Iconic Panzerisms”, details an anarchic plan by which to revise the role and deployment of language in society. Rammellzee is often identified as an artist apart of the Afrofuturism canon; Afrofuturism is identified discourse concerned with revisioning racial identity through the tropes of science fiction and fantasy narrative or aesthetics.
He was also instrumental as one of the original hip hop artists from the New York area who introduced specific vocal styles which date back to the early 1980s.[citation needed] His influence can still be heard in contemporary artists such as The Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill. His song “Beat Bop” was featured in the film Style Wars.
Discovered by a larger audience through the 1982 cult movie Wild Style by Charlie Ahearn, his fame in graffiti circles was established when he painted New York subway trains with Dondi, OU3, and Ink 76, and doctor Revolt. Rammellzee was also a member of the Death Comet Crew, with Stewart Albright and Michael Diekmann. In 1988, he and his band Gettovetts recorded the album “Missionaries Moving.” In 2003, Rammellzee performed at the Knitting Factory in New York with the newly reformed Death Comet Crew; subsequently, Troubleman Unlimited re-released recordings made by DCC between 1982 and 1984; additionally, their single for “Exterior St.” was featured on the compilation, Anti-NY, with contemporaries, Ike Yard, Sexual Harassment, and Vivian Goldmann, among others. In 2004, he released his debut album Bi-Conicals of the Rammellzee, produced by Gomma Records. Rammellzee also performed at Knitting Factory with guitarist Buckethead several times.
His artistic work has been shown in art galleries throughout the US and Europe. Currently, Rammellzee’s Letter Racers, and other Noise includes artistic works by individuals mostly identified with their musical contributions.
In a recent interview, he stated that his name is derived from “RAM” plus “‘M’ for ‘Magnitude’, ‘Sigma’ (Σ) the first summation operator, first ‘L’ – ‘longitude’, second ‘L’ – ‘latitude’, ‘Z’ – ‘z-bar’, Σ, Σ – ‘summation’.” He now performs in self-designed masks and costumes of different characters, which, as he states, represent the “mathematical equation” that is Rammellzee. On the basis of his “Gothic Futurism” approach, he sometimes describes his current artistic work as the logical extension into a new phase which he calls “Ikonoklast Panzerism.”
Rammellzee makes a cameo appearance near the end of Jim Jarmusch‘s 1984 film Stranger Than Paradise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPnmyLaNvvw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz24D-UyZwE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFFMzSRhmP8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lElss5eCR2s&feature=related
Good Bye Mr Fantastik, Gary Shider and Rammellzee May you all rest in power..
May peace be onto to their families..
“…revisioning racial identity through the tropes of science fiction and fantasy narrative or aesthetics.” um tropes? Science fiction? Fantasy narrative? whew… who comes up with this stuff? I clearly am one of the unwashed and unlearned masses.
Thank you Davey D. I am Melvin’s widow and I want to say thank you for spreading the word. His death has drastically changed our lives forever. But his dream and love of the arts lives on in our hearts and it should in others with whom he so ever touched.
He loved everyone with whom he came into contact during his dancing era. He spoke of EVERYONE and how each and every person impacted him into becoming Mr. Fantastik.
I know his wish would be that each and everyone past and present entertainer in the hip hop era continue to put 110% into whatever form of dance, rap or whatever people want to call it these days and just love it to the fullest.
Had I not searched for his name, I wouldn’t have ever found your page. Again The McCullough Family as a whole say THANK YOU and keep his memory alive through hard work, determination, blood, sweat and tears and the love of the game.
Peace and blessings.
Mrs. McCullough
Mr. Fantastik, Starchile, RIP, for your contributions to culture, more specifically, the world of music. Rammellzee, your deep intellect will be missed; hadn’t known of your treatise until right now, will read and discover it’s genius.
To all hip hop: Unity = strength. Together we’re 1, divided we’re 0