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Kashif

Songwriter, manufacturer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist Kashif was area of the post-disco vanguard that revolutionized R&B with synthesizers and drum devices. With regards to commercial yet intensifying pop-oriented R&B, he’s the hyperlink from Patrick Adams, Leroy Burgess, and Leon Sylvers III to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and for that reason section of a lineage that reaches famous brands “super companies” such as for example Teddy Riley and Timbaland. Energetic from the middle-’70s until his 2016 loss of life, he was a significant creative force in most from the ’80s, ten years where he advanced his genre using a rhythmically advanced and melodically advanced sound that raised the professions of Evelyn “Champagne” Ruler, Melba Moore, and Whitney Houston, amongst others. Although his contemporaneous single work didn’t provide any silver or platinum accreditations, it made a significant impact with critical R&B listeners and was recognized with many Grammy nominations. Created Michael Jones in NY City’s Harlem community in 1956, Kashif was orphaned young, was raised in foster homes, and survived physical and mental misuse throughout child years. Music provided a getaway. Ahead of completing junior high, he became proficient with keyboards, brass, and woodwind tools. As an adolescent, he became a member of B.T. Express like a keyboardist and performed synthesizer bass utilizing the Minimoog, his first encounter with synthesized instrumentation. After three albums using the music group — Energy to Burn off, Function in the Junction, and Shout! (Shout It Out), the very first two which presented his first songwriting credits — Kashif remaining to execute with Stephanie Mills. Influenced by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell’s Mighty Three Music, Kashif consequently created Mighty M Productions with fellow songwriters and makers Paul Lawrence and Morrie Dark brown. They infused early-’80s R&B with a captivating synth-based audio that revitalized founded performers and propelled beginners. As a group, Kashif, Lawrence, and Dark brown broke out with Evelyn King’s “I’m in Like.” Written, organized, and co-produced by Kashif, who was simply also acknowledged with playing a range of keyboards, the music debuted on Billboard’s R&B graph in June 1981 and finally visited number 1. Through 1982, Kashif drove five extra Best 20 R&B strikes for Melba Moore, Howard Johnson, and Ruler, whose “Like DROP” also topped the graph. Emerging technology allowed Kashif to pioneer uses for sampling, such as for example replacing drum noises, lead and history vocal placements, and duplicating vocal passages. While he was in-demand like a maker and songwriter, Kashif was authorized to Arista and released five albums for the label with the ’80s. The singles “I SIMPLY Gotta PERHAPS YOU HAVE (Lover Change Me On)” (1983), “Baby Don’t Break Your Baby’s Center” (1984), along with a duet with Meli’sa Morgan on the cover of Mother’s Finest’s “Like Adjustments” (1987), put into his stack of Best 20 R&B strikes. Album slashes “The Mood,” “Contact Me Tonight,” and “Film Melody” each received Grammy nominations within the category of Greatest Instrumental R&B Functionality, as well as the Al Jarreau cooperation “Edgartown Groove” was nominated for Greatest R&B Performance by way of a Duo or Group with Vocals. Even while, Kashif was behind the moments with work with prominent artists such as for example George Benson, Kenny G, and Dionne Warwick. Many significantly, he created Whitney Houston’s debut single single, “You Provide Good Appreciate,” lots two R&B strike. He also co-wrote and created another melody in the singer’s gemstone platinum self-titled record, “CONSIDERING You.” Much less active in studios following the ’80s, Kashif continued to be energetic on a great many other music-related fronts. In 1994, he received an invitation in the UCLA Extension plan and made a course known as Contemporary Record Creation with Kashif. A calendar year afterwards, Kashif authored the key music sector tome Everything You’d Better FIND OUT ABOUT the Record Sector, as CEO of his Los Angeles-based Brooklyn Boy Books, Entertainment, and Details. Who Loves You?, released over the U.K.-structured Expansion label in 1998, and Music from My Mind, self-released in 2003, were his last single releases. Kashif passed away in LA in Sept 2016 at age 59. At that time, he was energetic being a performer and focusing on a ten-part documentary, THE ANNALS of R&B Music.

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