DJ Kurtis Mantronik and MC Tee, a Haitian rapper

DJ Kurtis Mantronix's music style, on its first album, "defined the new sound of electro-funk." A polyrhythmic combination of electronic drums, synthesizer, vocoder and a synthesized voice hovering over a bass line, it defined electronic music in its purest form.

With release of their second album in 1986, Music Madness, MC Tee continued his trade-mark rap rhyming vocals, and Music Madness went over big with house- and electro-funk music fans. By 1987, Capitol Records signed Mantronix to a seven-figure contract, a hip-hop first. Their first album for Capitol, In Full Effect, issued in 1988, peaked at #18 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, his biggest success to date.

After In Full Effect, MC Tee left the group to join the U.S. Air Force. But his greatest success lay just ahead. With rapper Bryce "Luvah" Wilson and D.J.D. Mantronik, a cousin, they released their fourth album, This Should Move Ya in 1990. Its two singles, "Got to Have Your Love" (charting #4) and "Take Your Time" (charting #10), put the album at #61 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

The final line-up included founder DJ Kurtis Mantronik, Jade Trini and Bryce Wilson; and in 1991 they recorded their fifth album, The Incredible Sound Machine, which tanked, shunned by critics and audiences alike. He toured and promoted The Incredible Sound Machine, but soon after the group broke up, and the artist disappeared from the music industry. Presently, he works in Europe as a producer of electronic-beat music performers.

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