MISTA LAWNGE (Brooklyn, NY) – 17 Hours In Bed (Official Music Video) /// UndergroundHipHopBLOG.com
17 Hours In Bed is the title track, written and performed by Mista Lawnge, for a short film written and directed by Ivo Raza, which has recently been on the film festival circuit across the USA. The film has been screened at various film festivals (Tacoma FF, Manhattan FF, New York Indepenednt FF, Louisville Int’l FF, Atlanta Shorts FF). It was nominated for 2 awards at the Long Island Film Expo).
William McLean A.K.A. Mr. Long is known as “Mista Lawnge” of the legendary Hip-Hop group, Black Sheep. His is most recognized for hit songs in the early 1990’s such as: “The Choice is yours”, “Flavor of the Month”, “Strobe Light Honey” and more. He has a strong ability to manipulate technology and the understanding of quality and classic music. In early 1989 and fresh out of High School, 18 year old Long only had a half a crate of old records, some DJ skills, empty pockets and a dream of being a Hip Hop producer.
Later in 1989 after choosing a partner, a group name, and getting signed to a Major Label, his style and sound had to be molded. Long learned how to record music by being in the studio with The Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Long began to sample records and put each sample onto different tracks, with no sequence. He created sequences with mute buttons on the mixing board, manually! Basically, this is how it started for Long. It may seem crazy, but it worked. Long’s style of producing was similar to the “Native Tongues”, but he used a lot of Rock samples and very little Jazz. Other groups were using Disco, Jazz, Funk and Soul samples. In order to make the Black Sheep sound different from the
rest of the Natives, Long fused the sound of the Natives with a Rock under tone. He created a Hardcore Hip Hop mix.
His music was East Coast style, but the lyrical content was West Coast style. The lyrics were mostly explicit and humorous also to include skits that the audience soon loved. That’s what made Black Sheep truly a part of the Native Tongue Family. Black Sheep became the first hip-hop act to appear and perform on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno after the departure of Johnny Carson. They were also featured on numerous other shows such as Arsenio Hall, In Living Color and the ABC afterschool special. Black Sheep released “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” album that charted three times on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1992 with “Strobelite Honey” (#1) and “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)” (#9) which have been licensed by many well-known brands to include KIA and JCPenney.
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