Video Onyx & DMX – Shut’ Em Down – onyx, dmx, shut, down – Dailymotion Share Your Videos
Onyx. The hip-hop act who named themselves after a black stone. Clever, but just who are the bald-heads with knives?
In 1989, Onyx formed out of Queens, NY; consisting of Fredro Starr, Sonee Seeza (then known only as Suave), and Big DS. They released their first single under Profile records, “Ah, and We Do It Like This” to not much success. Two years later is when fate struck.
Onyx was going to demo off some tracks for Run DMC front man, Jam Master Jay, but there was a small problem. Big DS and Sonee Seeza were in CT at the time. Fredro Starr called up his cousin Sticky Fingaz who then worked at a barber shop but was always rhyming. Sticky Fingaz hooked up Fredro and did a demo to present to Jam Master Jay and he instantly loved the Madface sound. When presenting the tape to Def Jam, and Onyx returned to them, the first question was “Where’s the guy with the deep, raspy voice?”. Of course they were referring to the cross-eyed slightly insane member, Sticky Fingaz. The rest was history.
Wow… this is a throwback. You know when I think about todays rap artist, I wonder if they can get to a point where they had such raw energy like that. Some live up to it, others (as in most) do not. I think whats funny is that rappers like (and you might find this funny putting these 2 names together) Biz Markie and Onyx are considered one hit wonders even though from where I lived (NYC) they had at least 3 hits each (Onyx probably had 4 or 5).
Anyway, I picked this not only for its back in the day value, but for its shot of cars in the video and the fact that this is a straight banga for your car system while your driving down the street. Straight banga… I was wondering when I would use that phrase.
Leave a reply