Das EFX

    Das EFX is an American hip-hop group. Das EFX was formed by Drayz (Born Andre Weston, 9 September 1970, New Jersey, USA) and Skoob (Born Willie Hines, 27 November 1970, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA; Skoob is "books" spelled backwards), two easy-natured rappers whose success story was of the genuine rags to riches variety. they met each other at Virginia State University in 1988 and began performing together. They named themselves "Das" standing for "Drayz and Skoob" and "EFX" meaning "effects".

    As college friends who had met during English classes, they entered a rap contest at a small Richmond, Virginia nightcluBorn Luckily for them Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith of EPMD were in attendance, and, despite not winning, they walked off with an instant record contract.

    Signing to the East West label, Das EFX began work on their debut album, commuting between Virginia and New York and mailing tapes to EPMD (then touring the country) for guidance. Upon its release in 1992, Dead Serious caused an immediate sensation, and is still considered something of a landmark in hip-hop circles. Dead Serious went platinum and its lead single, "They Want EFX," (which contains samples from James Brown's "Blind Man Can See It" and Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals") reached the top ten on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart, the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. Soon they were touring together, despite the fact that neither Drayz nor Skoob were old enough to legally enter the premises on some of the dates. As rap aficionados began to look once more to the old school and its freestyle vocals, Das EFX were the perfect modern proponents, with their jagged, cutting rhymes and sweet wordplay. They developed a wonderful habit of making words up if they could not find something appropriate in the dictionary to shore up their rhymes: "We're not too worried about really putting heavy messages in our records - we just try and make sure all the lyrics are super dope". It was a style that was to be, in typical hip-hop fashion, quickly adopted and mimicked by a hundred other artists, and by the time of their follow-up some of its impact had been lost.

     

    From the time of their debut in 1992 to 1993, several elements of their style were adopted by other hip-hop artists, including the Lords of the Underground, The Fu-Schnickens, Kris Kross, Common and even, to a lesser extent, Public Enemy. Jay-Z's early style is described by Vibe as "a distinctly Das EFX-type, stiggety style" on his 12" single "Can't Get With That".

    Their debut self-production, "Freak It', followed in 1993, and was the first release to see them drop their familiar tongue-flipping style, which detractors accused them of copying from UK rappers like the Demon Boyz. The duo slowed down their lyrical flow and downplayed the surrealistic side of their interplay on the follow-up album, 1993's Straight Up Sewaside, which went gold. Around the time of 1995's disappointing Hold It Down, Das EFX found themselves caught in the middle of EPMD's ugly breakup; it led to a three-year absence from recording.

    They returned in 1998 with the album Generation EFX and followed up in 2003 with the album How We Do; both were panned by critics. In 2007, the duo appeared on the remix of Nas' "Where are They Now" and continued to tour the globe on a regular basis. They toured again in 2010, and are working on a new album.

Discography:

• Dead Serious (1992)
• Straight Up Sewaside (1993)
• Hold It Down (1995)
• Generation EFX (1998)
• How We Do (2003)