Masters Of Ceremony

Emerging during the 1980s golden era, the short-lived rap outfit Masters of Ceremony exerted little influence beyond their suburban New York City surroundings, aside from introducing the microphone skills of Brand Nubian’s Grand Puba. The trio—rappers Grand Puba Maxwell and Dr. Who alongside DJ Shabazz—originated in New Rochelle, New York, and became the inaugural signing to the Strong City imprint, which Afrika Bambaataa associate DJ Jazzy Jay helped establish in 1985. Their first release, the single “Crime,” appeared that year, with the stronger 12-inch singles “Sexy” and “Cracked Out” following in 1986 under Jazzy Jay’s production. Although Grand Puba handled most of the production duties on the 1988 album Dynamite, the project met with limited commercial success even as New York hip-hop collectors of the period held it in high regard. Additional 12-inch releases, among them the title track and “Master Move,” preceded the group’s dissolution later that same year. In 2005 Jazzy Jay oversaw a remastering of Dynamite and arranged its reissue through Traffic Entertainment.