Milli Vanilli, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Young MC, and C+C Music Factory

Born on 22 January 1965 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Townes adopted the stage name DJ Jazzy Jeff, and gained an underground following for working as DJ at local parties and schools. He teamed up with Will Smith to become the duo known as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Together the group received a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1989 for their single, “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” They garnered a second Grammy Award for their single “Summertime,” which also peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 1986 DJ Jazzy Jeff won the world DJ competition, New Music Seminar DJ Battle.

As a solo artist, DJ Jazzy Jeff recorded his first album with Sony Music in 1998, but it was necer released. It wasn’t until 2002 when he released and album entitled “The Magnificent,” andfour albums later, he followed up in 2007 with “The Return of The Magnificent.” The album featured numerous collaborations with many different artists including CL Smooth, Big Daddy Kane, Pos from De La Soul, Method Man, Rhymefest, and Raheem DeVaughn. From 2009 to 2012 he released a number of mix tape albums.

In 1990 when Smith started to branch out with his acting career for the television show, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Jazzy Jeff played a recurring character named Jazz. After the duo broke up, DJ Jazzy Jeff went on to become a prominent R&B, soul, and neo soul record producer. He establised the A Touch of Jazz production company in his native Philadelphia, and helped develop artists such as Jill Scott and Musiq Soul Child, Eminem, The Roots, Jewel, Darius Rucker, Talib Kweli, Floetry, and Rhymefest. In 2013 he released a web series documenting his hundreds of shows from around the world entitled “Vinyl Destination.”

The band were originally made up of producers Robert Clivillés and David Cole, who came together in the house acts 2 Puerto Ricans, a Blackman, and a Dominican and The 28th Street Crew. The duo had chemistry, and in 1990, they got together to make the single “Get Dumb! (Free Your Body)” with frequent collaborator Freedom Williams, a rapper from their shared home town of New York City. The single resulted in a lawsuit for the producers, but they had such a good time making it that they decided to continue working together, enlisting the vocalists Selma Davis and Martha Walsh, along with Williams, to form what they would call the C+C Music Factory. By mid-1990, the band had finished their first album “Gonna Make You Sweat”, but no-one could have predicted just how successful the band would become.

“Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” was released in October of that year, and was an absolutely mind-boggling hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1991, when it had already become one of the most recognisable pop songs of its time. The single would eventually go on to be certified Platinum five times over, and achieved similar success in Canada and the United Kingdom. Understandably, this was as good as it was ever going to get for the band, as their second and third albums sank without a trace after their releases in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Tragically, Cole died in January 1995 and after the last singles for the band's self-titled final album were released in 1996, the band quietly split up. However, in 2010 Clivillés tapped Eric Kupper to form a new incarnation of C+C, and have been starting parties all around the globe ever since. For being the most fun you can have with your clothes on, C+C Music Factory come highly recommended.