Dead Serious (album) - Background

Background

Group member William "Skoob" Hines was raised in the neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Andre "Krazy Drayz" Weston, born in Jamaica, came to the United States as a child, growing up in Union City and Teaneck, New Jersey. Both rapped during their high school years, Hines with the group's future producer Derek Lynch's brother Tony. However, Lynch was Hines' DJ first and wouldn't begin producing until later. Hines and Weston began performing together after they met at Virginia State University in 1988. Hines and Weston met their freshman year on a road trip to another college through a mutual friend. According to Weston, the two became a duo after winning a campus contest which Hines suggested they enter together. Hines and Weston began to work with Brooklyn-based producers Chris Charity and Derek Lynch, both friends of Hines' from high school, who'd formed a production team using the name Solid Scheme Music at the time. According to Hines, aside from "Klap Ya Handz" and "They Want EFX," which was produced by Weston and he, all of the other instrumental tracks on the album were produced by Charity and Lynch. Around this time the group came up with its name which Weston noted was mostly Hines' idea. The name stemmed from an acronym of the two's nicknames, Skoob and Dray, and EFX from their constantly wanting their producers to add reverb to their vocals when in the studio. "So it was Sad EFX for a minute, but that didn't really make much sense, so we changed it to Das EFX."

Hines recalled much of the group's early material as being "primitive," stating that "the production on our early stuff didn't come up to par until "Klap Ya Handz." A producer named Dexx, also from Crown Heights, produced "Klap Ya Handz" for the group. In early 1991, Hines and Weston heard that EPMD would be hosting a talent show at Club Tropicana in Richmond, Virginia and decided to enter. Hines and Weston performed their song "Klap Ya Handz," which they'd recorded as a demo with Dexx (In fact, for the album, Hines and Weston had to rhyme over the demo for "Klap Ya Handz" because they didn't have an instrumental version of the music.). The group apparently had the highest score in the contest, which would earn the winner a $100 prize. However, according to Weston, although the duo had the highest score Parrish Smith, one half of the group EPMD, told the club announcer to give the second best group the prize. While the winning group went up to claim their prize, Smith came to Hines and Weston and said, "yo, what would you guys rather have: a record deal or a hundred dollars? Meet me in the back of the club in five minutes." Smith and Erick Sermon, the other member of EPMD, met with Hines and Weston in the back of the club and asked the two to play them the "Klap Ya Handz" track again. Sermon and Smith were so impressed by the song that they asked Hines and Weston for the tape, with Smith telling them, "if you can get us nine more songs like the one you just performed, we can get you a deal." Hines and Weston kept in touch with EPMD during their junior year in college, finishing out the school year in May.

In 1991, the group was signed to EPMD's GMC Productions production and management company and became a part of their Hit Squad collective of protégés. The material for their first album was recorded at Firehouse Studios in Brooklyn and EPMD's production home base, Charlie Marotta's North Shore Soundworks studio in Long Island. The duo would send EPMD, who were touring the country at the time, the material they were recording for guidance. The group, who were also courted by Jive Records at the time, were finally signed in late 1991 to the Atlantic Records subsidiary East West Records.