L*A*W : THE MAN, THE MUSIC AND THAT DAMN CONTROVERSIAL TITLE !!!!
By Mark Wilson
Since debuting strong April of 2006 on My Space, multi-talented artist L*A*W has been causing quite a musical riot making his presence known in not 1, but 5 different genres of music on the mp3 unsigned charts. While on the popular website, he had over 10 songs in either top 5, top 10 or top 20 with versatility ranging from banging Hip-Hop tracks to heavy Funk-Soul and to sincere Country-Pop. But no success comes too easy. L*A*W's self-proclaimed "The Most Talented Kid in the Music Biz" title has caused quite a stir leaving a few folks to assume that he has an extreme ego and quite arrogant. L*A*W states his case, "At the end of the day, it's just a persona I made to fit my identity. Right now, there is nobody out there like me on the market. All the greats from James Brown to Michael Jackson have all self-proclaimed their titles and for good reason because they knew what they had to offer. To me, saying "i'm the best" or "i'm the king of whatever" is corny to me. I came up with something that represents me and until they can find someone who can sing, rap, produce, write songs, dance and play 7 instruments, it is what is and i make no apologies for it !!! mom's advice: if you don't determine your worth, others will do it for you". he also says that the My Space world and Mp3 Unsigned.com has proven that his songs were that good when he recorded. "Some of the ones you hear are damn 2 years old and some companies told me that they weren't strong enough to be hits - well 14,000 and counting can't be wrong which means I must be doing something right !!". With L*A*W's growing track record, that negative theory and judgement has been destroyed thanks to the fans and peers alike.
To understand L*A*W's diversity is to understand his upbringing in the rough streets of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, a badge of honor that he wears proudly. "I have nothing but fond memories growing up raw in the hood", says L*A*W. "It gave me my swagger, my street credibility and i did it all without becoming a victim to the negative pitfalls". The main part of L*A*W's resistance to these pitfalls was the fact that he comes from one of the heaviest family legacies in music history.
For the sake of this article, we will focus on the main 4 : Gospel legend Professor Charles Taylor (uncle), 13 time Apollo Theatre winner Bobby Taylor (uncle)(his mom Sandra Taylor is also a veteran of the New York club scene and 1st place Apollo winner as well) and last but not certainly not least, his granddad is Sam "Bluzman" Taylor - Blues hall of fame inductee, prolific songwriter with a massive roster of clients and original member of Joey Dee & The Starlighters. Ironically, "My family was my school for music because everybody had a niche which is how i came to discover different kinds of styles and sounds", says L*A*W. "my cousin Showbiz introduced me to the world of hip-hop, mom made sure that Sly & The Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Prince & Chaka Khan stayed in my ear and granddad gave me the basic foundation: Blues and early Rock n Roll with everyone from Albert King to Chuck Berry. But it was Bobby who took time out of his growing stardom to teach L*A*W the fundamentals of the stage and how to command it with aggressive. "Bobby taught me almost everything about delivery and performing to how to hold a mic". Bobby's teaching helped L*A*W to win the school talent show performing New Edition's "Lost In Love" at 9 years-old. By age 10, L*A*W was already doing shows performing James Brown, Michael Jackson and Prince songs in NYC parks. At home, he had an extreme appetite for music. For hours, he studied harmonies and the dance moves of groups like Jackson 5, The Temptations, Morris Day & The Time and his favorite of the bunch, New Edition. In addition, he practiced several instruments including drums, guitar and piano and later bass to every record ranging from Rick James, Stevie Wonder & the artist who influenced him the most, Prince. L*A*W was dubbed the "walking music encyclopedia" because of his vast knowledge of every artist, song, style of nearly every genre of music. "His ability to hear a song and all its parts is uncanny. He would know all the harmony parts, lines and structure as well as play em. He knows more about my history than me sometimes" , laughs Sam Taylor.
The one relative that would elevate L*A*W's teenage musical development was Uncle Tony "T-Funk" Alston, who was one of the most talked-about and sought after drummers in NYC and was known for his brief stints with Kool & The Gang and James Brown. His wife, Delores Tate-Alston is also a veteran vocalist who worked with legendary Funk-R&b group Brass Construction and had two number 1 records with Funk Deluxe. "When they got married, they stayed with us for awhile", L*A*W recalls." Tony had these three crates of records ranging from Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire to The Commmodores and K.C and the Sunshine Band. The funk bug bit me real hard and i haven't been the same since".
By age 12, L*A*W was in Tuscon, Arizona playing and singing with his granddad and uncle Bobby as a professional. By the 1990's, L*A*W was seriously honing his skills as a rapper, singer, musician and getting even deeper into other forms of music such as The Beatles, The Who, Cream and mostly, The P-Funk dynasty (Parliament-Funkadelic) whose visionary leader George Clinton along with Beatles producer George Martin inspired him to become immersed in production and concept writing. "After hearing the "Mothership Connection" album, I was officially hooked and locked in on the mothership. George showed me that i needed to be different from everyone else because he was which is what makes him an icon", says L*A*W. Thus, the Planet 12 concept was born. He said that he wanted expand the hip-hop forum by adding Funk, Rock & even Country elements the same way P-Funk did to the R&B landscape. "Everyone else in rap was into Jazz sampling at the time which wasn't a bad thing at all. But I wanted to be different by bringing band dynamics and raw funk musicianship. The outer space thing was my love for science-fiction novels and t.v. That was used to get your attention". In 1994, L*A*W and high school friends formed The Bionic Iddiotz (title was named after a George Clinton phrase). Although it was short-lived, they did manage to rip a few shows and L*A*W fully developed his mission and sound predating groups like the Fugees, The Roots & Outkast. "When those guys came out, we were in heaven because up until then, we felt we were the only ones bold enough to take music to that next level. it just made our thing even more acceptable".
Unfortunately, L*A*W also discovered the shadiness and the sometimes cold-hearted nature of the business which prevented him from becoming a vicitm but also leading to delayed success. "fake people selling dreams. some a&r's who don't know about music but wants to change you and managers who give up on you when some labels don't see the vision. I added all these things up and got smarter. That scared executives at meetings because they realized they couldn't play me", said L*A*W. Although the group fell apart, L*A*W and his DJ Kalethal Weapon continued to record and shop for a deal although they were often met with a brickwall of "bulls---- excuses".
The great part was that L*A*W's reputation as a live performer made him a local celebrity. As a rapper/singer & choreographer, He played with his uncle Tony's band Eturnity on weekends doing weddings or tearing down clubs like Lola's and Le Bar Bat. "Great money and women wanting to go home with you and you don't even have a record out: that's star power!!" recalls L*A*W. "We created a blueprint that other bands followed especially when it came to the musical dynamics created by my uncle & the choreography that me, and my boys Errol Hibbert & Mike Green created.....WE THOUGHT WE WERE NEW EDITION" laughs L*A*W.
He even racked up additional achievements by being the first urban act and to perform three times at the Songwriters Hall Of Fame showcase.The last performance earned L*A*W a publishing deal with SESAC. But it was L*A*W's moonlighting at clubs to see and sometimes hang if not perform for or with icons like Rick James, Morris Day, Larry Graham, Freddie Jackson, Harry Connick Jr, and Chaka Khan that would lead him to a golden opportunity. L*A*W became the lead singer of Enemy Squad which was an offshoot P-Funk group. When the group was on hiatus, he went to Atlanta to work on some music and ended playing with his hero George Clinton. "I was already in my glory just doing that", says L*A*W. A mutual friend of both artists played George L*A*W's demo on the way back to his hotel. The next morning, George summoned L*A*W to come to Florida and work in his studio on some tracks for him and his granddaughter Sativa giving L*A*W his first major production job. Things really took off from there.
In 2002, George and his people granted even more favor when L*A*W became the lead singer of The 420 Funkmob alongisde P-Funk luminaries Michael Hampton, Garry Shider, Billy "Bass" Nelson, Lige Curry & Michael "Clip" Payne which is a position he still holds. In late 2006, An Impromptu fill-in gig with key members of NYC's The Dap-Kings led him to be called to do background vocals for a new female britsh artist that they were going to be playing behind. Before you can say "NO NO NO", Millions saw him on David Letterman in his kangol glory singing behind british sensation Amy Winehouse as well as open for her sold-out shows in New York City with his own red-hot 7-piece band, The Funk Auxillary Unit. Then after hearing L*A*W's highly anitcipated album through word of mouth of her husband and management, Amy asked him to join her on the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. This move led to L*A*W to expand his diveristy into films and television with his song "GET DOWN" which was recently featured in the season premiere episode of the Oxygen network hit reality show "The Bad Girls Club", Showtime series "The L Word" and co-wrote & produced the song "I'M A LADY" by Karmela which is now being featured on MTV's "Making The Band 4". And as if that wasn't enough, his hot anthem "GET HOLLYWOOD ON EM" is featured in the season premiere of MTV's "The Real World: Hollywood" only to be eclipsed by his participation on the upcoming Prince tribute album in which he was handpicked personally by The Revolution's legendary keyboardist Dr Fink for his red-hot version of the Prince classic "America"
L*A*W has also recorded songs will be featured on a Jazz project with legendary Jazz basisst John Patitucci serving as one of the producer/writers for a 15 year-old trumpet prodigy named Liam which will be released before the year is out. L*A*W also co-wrote those three tracks as well at the same time beginning to make his mark as a solid in-producer/arranger/songwriter for hot new acts like Karmela, Renee Marino, Jafunk, Carlton J. Smith, Maxi B of The Mary Jane Girls
With L*A*W having his plate full going in the coming months, it won't be long until the rest of the industry recognizes possibly the next musical meteor to hit the scene hard and change things in the process. "I have nothing but faith and talent working for me and I plan to succeed at any cost. There is a rainbow at the end of the tunnel and it has a 12 on it", laughs L*A*W.
Mark Wilson