Unsigned Entertainment

Biography For Music Group

BLACK LAND

 

Written By David Spencer

Owner/CEO/President of

NEXT LEVEL ENTERPRISES

Manager/Producer/Engineer/

Videographer/Executive Producer

(203) 918-0699

 

Represented By The Giarniero Law Firm

972 East Broadway Stratford, CT 06615

Phone: (203)-375-3994

Fax: (203)-386-0401

 

 The Birth Of The Nightcrawlers Music Group

In 1993, three local rappers out of Norwalk Connecticut named Jupiter Robinson (J.U.P.), Jermain Martin (Ish), and Carl Lewis (Terror) had a rap group named the Night Crawlers.  That same year, Saul Liles (Killa Napp), Mike Thomlin (Mike Dangerous), and John Griggs (John G), who were all childhood friends,joined their group.  The Night Crawlers got together and recorded mixtapes for a local DJ named DJ K Swift. DJ K Swift mixtapes were known to be distributed throughout the Norwalk and New York.  The group members used to smoke weed, argue, and focused on making music.  The music recording used to take place in Killa Napp's living room at his house on Snowden Avenue, right off of the slums of Lexington Avenue.  They continued recording their music and putting out mixtapes with the hopes of making it big in the music industry. 

 

Street Clique Named CT

Between 1995 and 1996 at age 14, a young Mark Williams, who would later come to be known as (Flip Da Script), along with the younger kids from Lexington Avenue were apart of a neighborhood street clique named "CT".  At that time, he wasn't rapping yet, he was just a knucklhead, who drank 40's, smoked blunts, and got in trouble with the neighbors and law enforcement authorities.  He was a disturbed youth, who demonstrated his troubled life through his reckless behavior.  Whenever the older kids were in the living room rapping, he used to just walk into rhyme sessions with them and the rappers would tell him to leave.  Eventually Flip, Napp's younger brother D Double, and a rapper named Tootie, got together and started their own rap group.  They recorded a mixtape named CT Nigg*#.  Napp help the young emcees record the tracks.  Later that same year, Flip was incarcerated and sent down south for a year.  He returned the summer of 1997 and wanted to reform the group CT Nigg@# but the other group members weren't interested in rapping.  Flip started his solo mixtape named Blood Rain at age 16.  A week after putting out Blood Rain, Flip was incarcerated in Connecticut for a year on assault charges.

ILL Mafia stayed together until 1998, when all of the group members went their separate ways.  Some of the members continued making music, and others didn't.

 

The Birth Of The Music Group Named Black Land

When ILL Mafia disbanded, Killa Napp, Johnny G, and Mike Dangerous got together to form the hip hop group named Black Land.  Black Land were neighborhood friends who grew up together.  Killa Napp, Johnny G, Mike Dangerous, Flip Da Script, D double, CK, Wax, West,  Around the time that Black Land formed as a group, Kev Brown, who who later become the manager and money man for Black Land, became interested in the group and wanted to help them.  He bought a bunch of recording equipment and helped the group record some of their songs.  One of the first songs that was recorded for a demo was a song that Killa Napp developed called, Sono.  The second song that was recorded for the demo was written by Johnny G, and was named, "Dreamless Sleep".  The third song that was recorded for the demo, was written by Killa Napp featuring Mike Dangerous and was called Taking Over The World.  Kev helped the group for approximately two years, until he was arrested and sent to jail.  While Kev was in jail, a promoter named Dellex arranged for the group to perform at the Globe Theatre.  The group opened up for the groups Mad Skillz and Real Live who were artists that were already in the industry.  Dellex was a promoter and the youngest V P in the industry.  His label at the time was Island Black Music.  Things were going good for Dellex and Black Land until Dellex found himself no longer being in the empowered situaiton that he was.  From that point on, Black Land was on their own without a connection and direction, but that didn't stop them from recording at Napp's studio. 

 When he came back in the year 2000, he was released and started working on his solo album named “Tales from the Script”.  He put out other mixtapes with kids from the neighborhood and in 2001 he was sent to jail again, this time the charge was attempted murder. In this same year In 2005, Flip was released from prison and eventually met up with Dave Spence who was a local artist and music producer who produced many of the local talent.  The first project that Flip and Dave worked on  was appropriately named, "Home".  This mixtape was Flip’s marking of his local music territory.  At the same time that “Home” was completed and was circulating throughout the neighboring towns, Flip was in the process of starting his own rap click, which was named after his Lexington Avenue street gang, named Hooolaginz a.k.a. Hooolagang.  The two separate units, the music group that composed of longtime childhood friends and the street gang would eventually form to become known as Black Land. 

In 1996, the group the Nightcrawlers expanded their musical network to form the group ILL Mafia.  The group composed of approximately thirty people.  They had group members spread throughout Norwalk, Danbury, Bridgeport, and other neighboring parts of Connecticut.  The group members got together to record in Killa Napp's living room. 

 

The group continued making music on their own until 2005 when they met a local artist and producer, named David Spencer a.k.a. Dave Spence. 

 

NEXT LEVEL ENTERPRISES

Dave Spence, who was a multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and music engineer,

 

NEXT LEVEL Videography

As a videographer, Dave Spence has filmed and edited high quality music videos and video clips for the more talented artists across Connecticut.  He has even filmed and edited video for on of Will Smith's ghost writers, named Kel Spencer.  More recently, he has filmed and edited video for 50 Cent's Team G-Unit Stunnas motorcycle trick crew with Wink 1100 (famous for being the motorcycle trick expert in DMX's video "Ruff Ryders Anthem").  Wink was recruited by G-Unit and is now the leader of their bike clique.  The video was shot at Eisenhower Park in Long Island,

New York on 07/07/07. 

 

NEXT LEVEL Studio

He owned his own recording studio and he had the most sophisticated equipment around.  He was well known throughout his community for recording music and playing the guitar.  Most of the emcees in the city of Norwalk and the surrounding Fairfield County area, knew about Dave Spence's NEXT LEVEL STUDIO and his label NEXT LEVEL ENTERPRISES.  Dave was the producer for 35 different artists who would come to his studio to record their music.  This is originally how Killa Napp would eventually come to meet him.  During the time when Dave Spence was producing mixtape tracks for the music group, Corporation, the artist Clips, (abbreviation for eclipse), and whose real name is Donyeah Murphy, invited Killa Napps to the studio and introducing him to Dave.  The first song that Killa Napps and Clips recorded at Dave's studio was entitled, "Ohhh".  The first song that Napps recorded by hisself at the studio was named, "Loose It".  From that point forward, Killa Napps would frequent the studio to record his solo material.  At that time, Flip and Johnny G weren't around, Johnny was living in D.C. and Flip was locked up in a Connecticut correctional facility.  Napp would go on to record three other songs at the studio as a solo artist.  In 2006, when Flip got out of jail, he learned about the studio and began working on his first mixtape since getting out of jail.  He appropriately named the mixtape, "Home", because it was his debut, out of jail record.  Flip's first mixtape successfully created a buzz in the streets and, now that people recognized him as a skilled m.c., it fueled his street credibility, respect, and drive to pursue putting out hot tracks and eventually getting a record deal.  The streets were definitely buzzing from the fresh, new rapper's style, emphasis, and cadence.  Dave Spence saw the potential in Flip Da Script as a very talented and gifted emcee, who was known for his raw, brazen, uncensored lyrical content and approached him to find out how serious he was about taking a shot at working his way into the music industry and getting signed by a major label.  Flip made it clear to Dave that he wanted to pursue a career in the music industry with a passion.  Dave Spence saw that he and Flip had a common goal and quickly told Flip that he wanted to sign him to his independent record label and Audio/Video production company named, NEXT LEVEL ENTERPRISES.  The idea behind NEXT LEVEL ENTERPRISES was to create a label that would be so diverse in the field of audio/video music production, that it would tap into all of the facets of not only music, but of entertainment as well.  Dave's catch phrase was, "Taking It To The Next Level".  Days after Dave spoke to Flip about signing a record contract, Flip brought in one of Dave's former high school mates Johnny Griggs a.k.a. Johnny G to the studio along with Killa Napps.  Johhny G had just returned from serving 5 years in a D.C. prison.  Unknown to Dave Spence, Flip was already a part of a hip-hop group named Black Land. 

 

Black Land’s First Single From NEXT LEVEL ENTERPRISES

The group came together to the studio for the first time and they were getting ready to pick an instrumental to begin working on.  Johnny G happened to be on the phone with his cousin, who was a singer and writer.  Johnny happened to let Dave Spence hear his cousin sing a part of a hook to one of her songs, over the phone, and as soon as Dave heard the hook, he immediately formulated an instrumental that custom catered to the hook perfectly.  The name of the song was, "Tongue Tied Twist", but it is better known as, "Tongue Too Sweet".  The next couple of days later, Dave Spence and Black Land recorded a couple landmark songs such as, "Next Level Sh*#", "Make a Move", and "That Official Sh*#".  With the sights of a local block party closely approaching, Dave Spence quickly signed the group to his music label.  The Black Land block party performance was a proclamation that NEXT LEVEL ENTERPRISES and Black Land were aiming to make historic music and finally achieve what no other hip hop group in connecticut was able to achieve prior, which was to get signed to a major label.  From that point on, NEXT LEVEL and Black Land have been keeping the streets buzzing and tearing the Connecticut music scene up.  Dave Spence predicted that with the right direction and guidance, Black Land would later amount to become the rawest and livest gangsta rap group on the east coast.  With this vision, Dave Spence dubbed the group, "The East Coast N.W.A.", due to their similarities in explicitly raw and uncensored lyrics, street credibility, and cohesive group strength as a music unit.  Black Land would end up being considered the seminal hip hop music group that would put the Constitution State of Connecticut on the atlas. 

 

Venues Where Black Land Has Performed At:

Club Alibie in Manhattan, New York City

Pyramid Club in Manhattan, New York City

The East Side Cafe in Waterbury, Connecticut

Emerald Lounge in West Haven, Connecticut

Acoustic Café in Bridgeport, Connecticut

One of the most notable live performances that Black Land has appeared at is the show that they put on at a club named Gasoline located in Norwalk, Connecticut.  This performance was undoubtedly their livest and most energetic performance to date.  They performed two songs that night.  The first song was, "NEXT LEVEL SH*#" and the second song was, entitled "Gansta Gansta". 

 

Click here to leave a Comment