Bumpy Johnson

Photo Cred: Wikipedia

Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson(October 31, 1905 – July 7, 1968) was an American mob boss and bookmaker in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. He was the main Harlem associate of Charles “Lucky” Luciano and what later became known as the Genovese crime family, and his criminal career has inspired films and television. Johnson was born in Charleston, South Carolina on October 31, 1905. Johnson derived his nickname “Bumpy” from a bump on the back of his head. When he was 10, his older brother, Willie, was accused of killing a white man. Afraid of a possible lynch mob, his parents mortgaged their tiny home to raise money to send Willie up north to live with relatives. As Johnson grew older, his parents worried about his short temper and insolence towards whites, and in 1919 he was sent to live with his older sister Mabel in Harlem. Johnson was an associate of numbers queen Madame Stephanie St. Clair. By the summer of 1952, Johnson’s activities were being reported in the celebrity people section of Jet, an American weekly aimed at African American readers which was founded in 1951 by John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois. That same year, Johnson was indicted in New York for conspiracy to sell heroin and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Two years later, Jet reported in its crime section that Johnson began his sentence after losing an appeal. He served the majority of that sentence at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, California as inmate No. 1117, and was released in 1963. Johnson was arrested more than 40 times and served two prison terms for narcotics-related charges. In December 1965, Johnson staged a sit-down strike in a police station, refusing to leave, as a protest against their continued surveillance. He was charged with “refusal to leave a police station” but was acquitted by a judge. Johnson was under a federal indictment for drug conspiracy when he died of congestive heart failure on July 7, 1968, at the age of 62. He was at Wells Restaurant in Harlem shortly before 2 a.m., and the waitress had just served him coffee, a chicken leg, and hominy grits, when he keeled over clutching his chest. Friend Frank Lucas was there, and someone ran down the street to the Rhythm Club to get his childhood friend, Junie Byrd. When Byrd arrived, Lucas cradled Bumpy in his arms, and Johnson briefly opened his eyes and smiled, then fell into unconsciousness. He was taken, by ambulance, to Harlem Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

Douglas Davis, better known by his stage name Doug E. Fresh (born September 17, 1966), is a Barbadian-American rapper, record producer and beatboxer, also known as the “Human Beat Box”. The pioneer of 20th-century American beatboxing, Fresh is able to accurately imitate drum machines and various special effects using only his mouth, lips, gums, throat, tongue and a microphone Doug E. Fresh began his recording career as a solo artist; he was among the last artists on Enjoy Records and one of the first on Vintertainment Records (the same New York-based label owned by Vincent Davis that would later make a name of hip-hop artist Joeski Love and bring R&B singer Keith Sweatto ultimate fame). He and a new team of DJs known as the Get Fresh Crew (Barry Bee and Chill Will), along with newcomer MC Ricky D (who would later achieve fame as Slick Rick), came to fledgling New Jersey-based hip-hop label Danya/Reality Records the following year and recorded “The Show”, which borrowed the melody of the Inspector Gadgettheme by Shuki Levy. They also recorded “La Di Da Di”, a tune that was completely voiced by MC Ricky D and backed by Doug E. Fresh’s beatboxing for the entire duration of the song. The release of these two songs as a 12” single launched Doug E. Fresh (and Slick Rick) into stardom. Both songs are considered among the greatest early hip-hop classics. “The Show” peaked at #7 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1985. Doug E. Fresh was interviewed in the 1986 cult documentary Big Fun In The Big Town.Slick Rick left the group almost a year after the release of the “The Show”/”La Di Da Di” single, reappearing in 1988 as a Def Jamartist and releasing his debut album, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick. Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew continued on, now officially signed to Danya/Reality/Fantasy, by releasing Oh, My God! in 1986, which included the hit song “All The Way To Heaven”. In 1988, The World’s Greatest Entertainer was released, featuring the song “Keep Risin’ To The Top”, which was named after Keni Burke’s then-obscure 1981 hit “Rising To The Top” (which has since become Burke’s signature song). Doug E. Fresh’s “Keep Risin’ To The Top” also samples the main chorus of Heatwave’s 1976 classic “Ain’t No Half Steppin’,” which Big Daddy Kane also sampled that same year for his song of the same name. In 1992, after a four-year hiatus, Doug E. Fresh joined MC Hammer’s label Bust It Records and issued the album Doin’ What I Gotta Do, a commercial failure despite some minor acclaim for the single “Bustin’ Out (On Funk)”, which sampled Rick James’ 1979 single “Bustin’ Out”. In 1993, Doug E. Fresh found a new home at Island Records-affiliated label Gee Street. However, he only released one single containing three songs: “I-ight (Alright)” (the main track), “Bounce” and “Freaks”. Although “I-ight” (which originated the now-famous club chant “Heyyyyyy, YO!... I-iiiiight?”) was slated to become the first major hit for Doug E. Fresh in five years, it was almost immediately overshadowed by “Freaks”, a dancehall tune beatboxed entirely by Doug E. Fresh and vocalized mainly by his protégé, a Brooklyn-born Jamaican teenage newcomer named Vicious. The song received major radio and club play, followed by video play in early 1994. Vicious would soon ink a deal with Sony Music’s Epic Records for three years, although he would only release one album, Destination Brooklyn. In 1995, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh reunited for a track on an album titled Play, which received positive reviews; Bret Love wrote, “A welcome flashback to the days when guns, drugs, sex, and violence were not the genre’s primary lyrical focus.” Also on the Playalbum was “Freak It Out”, which featured Uncle Luke, was produced by platinum producer Frankie Cutlass and was appeared on the Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hoodsoundtrack. Play was certified gold by the RIAA.