C-Block Mini Biography
>> Saturday, April 4, 2009
C-Block was a German hip-hop project produced by J. Wagner DJ, U. Buchmann and F. Miller. Initially, the act consisted of mainly two African-American rappers Mr. P (James White) and Red Dogg (Anthony Joseph). It was for Red Dogg that Mr. P had the chance to get introduced to C-Block's producers. Besides these two most visible faces, the act also had the singer Theresa Baltimore "Misty", MC/Singer: Preston Holloway "Goldie" and Raquel Gomez, who was only featured on the chorus of the smash-hit single So Strung Out and Everything's Good (a track from their debut album).
C-Block's first single, Shake Dat Azz, featured rapper A.K. Swift. It was released in early 1996 and got a lot of airplay from clubs and hip-hop charts, and was later officially released as their fourth single from the General Population album. The real breakthrough, however, came in late 1996 when they released their single called So Strung Out, which peaked at #4 in Germany's Media Control single chart, earning them gold certification. It was a huge hit in Switzerland and Austria, as well. The next track that was released as a single - Time Is Tickin' Away - was also a big hit in GSA region. The act's existence at the time was as succuessful as Germany's biggest hip-hopper named Nana; both were occupying high chart positions.
The album General Population hit the stores, being one of the greatest German hip-hop albums ever. The album, besides their 3 hit singles So Strung Out, Time Is Tickin' Away and Summertime, contained 9 other tracks, including Everything's Good, Being Raised and My Life.
Shortly after Summertime was released in 1997, Mr.P began considering a solo career, meantime disagreeing a lot with Red Dogg on both personal and musical decisions, which drove Mr.P eventually leaving the act. Despite his departure, C-Block (which was now left with only Red Dogg, Misty and Goldie Gold) released a new single in late 1997 called Eternal Grace, which entered the top 10 in Media Control. In May of 1998, the act released the album Keepin' It Real, which, in a way, had more ghetto influence but yet kept the CBK style.[citation needed] The album didn't find a similar success in GSA region as the previous album, but it was well received in some eastern European countries, like Poland for example.] The next single was "Broken Wings", which was a Mr. Mister cover.
In 1999, C-Block made a surprising comeback with Mr.P being back in the project with a new female singer Jeanine Love and Red Dogg, Goldie and Misty out of the picture. The new single was called Keep Movin'. Although the track had the same CBK sound, it never had the success that previous singles did.
Almost a year later, in 2000, C-Block released the single called The Future Is So Bright with the same Mr.P and Jeanine Love producing all vocal part of the work, but the success again wasn't there at all. On the inlay of the single they were announcing a new album called Changes, which was to be dropped within the next few months, but it never came out. The act took a break and things went quiet afterwards.
Shortly after Red Dogg announced his plans of his solo career, on the 15th of September 2001 he was involved in a shooting incident, being almost killed. He lost a part of his memory and is now paralysed from the waist down. However, latest news from his family in California indicates that he has re-married his ex-wife and now they live together with their daughter and grand daughter.
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