Kurtis Mantronik (Jamaica)
Kurtis el Khaleel was one of the key beatmakers evolving hip-hop during one of its most crucial and overlooked eras: the mid 1980s. Born in Jamaica, the future Kurtis Mantronik moved to Canada and later Manhattan, where he was living when he met up with Haiti-born rapper Touré “MC Tee” Embden while working at Times Square’s legendary Downstairs Records. Uniting under the name Mantronix, the duo took the synthetic, drum machine-based production of Run-DMC and Afrika Bambaata to the next level, creating some of the most futuristic sounding music of their day, including the classics “Bassline” and “Needle to the Groove.” Venturing into A&R work and outside production, Kurtis would also give Just Ice, a fellow Jamaican-American, his hardcore sound on the landmark 1986 LP, Back To The Old School.
Moving away from hip-hop and deeper into dance music in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Mantronik maintained his signature sound of polyrhythmic drum patterns and soulful, highly funky use of electronic instrumentation. You might even call him the father of (or at least an ancestor of) trap music; he was the first beatmaker to program a track with hi-hat triplets from an 808 drum machine, a hallmark of the Southern US-born and now globally-ubiquitous music style.