A Rebel Productions Flashback Demo - Circa 1987-88 - Rebel Productions' Hip Hop empire was in it's building stages. One of Rebel's 1st artist was rapper Mike C. aka the "Eternally Talented Almighty Mike C. [E.T.A.M.C. for short, lol]  A "ladies man" of course, definitely would have been Rebel Productions' "teen heartthrob factor" Ben & Mike were hooked up b4 I came on the scene, [it was through this connection I came into the scene] and this song here was already floating around in one form or another. I believe Mike has even performed this song in another version. This is the final studio mastered version [I think] and even though L.L. Cool J is credited as being the first to release the "Hip Hop Ballad" to a commercial success, this song was already in the can months before that release. Please Say Yes was a well respected demo in our circles and spawned that famous Mike C line " I may not have a car, but then again, I don't wanna drive you crazy, lol" Ah...the Golden Age....
© Mike Harper, Ben Rebel 1987-2013

"Please Say Yes..."

A Rebel Productions Flashback Demo - Circa 1987-88 - with Mike C's smooth image established, up next was "the lyricist", you know, the cat with the skills and street cred, raw and rugged and the flow to back it up. Enter MC Jamaal - "straight off the streets of Newark" Mr. Muthaf**ka in the building! lol. The building?... Tatiana Studios in Newark w/ Mr. David Benus and that big azz Fairlight Sampling computer, quite the sight back in '87, turned out a lot of well made tunes in there. "The Overlord" is one of many from MC Jamaal that contained raw streetwise commentary without sacrificing deep lyrical content, something rappers today seem to have a hard time doing.
©Jamaal Mobley, Ben Rebel 1987-2013

The Overlord

A Rebel Productions Flashback Demo - Circa 1987-88 - Now, let's move on to the 1st [IMHO] couple of Hip Hop, lol! MC Scottie B. and MC D. Desire both came into Rebel as solo artists and both had solo projects, but soon after they met...it was a whole other thing going on, lol! [You need to see them 'bout that...] I'm just here to speak on the music. To this day I do not think there has ever been an official female/male rap "duo" if there was, let me know. So if this had made it out there it would have been history in the making. Working along the lines of the hip hop ballad, these two came together and composed a deeply sentimental lyrical ode to young relationships, originally titled "Fire & Ice" take a peek to the deeply emotional fire that is "young love"...
© Scott Bamberg, Ben Rebel, D.Desire 1987-2013

"The Way I Feel..."

Now, 1st a little background-during the late 80s to mid 90s when I was deep in the music mix w/ Ben Rebel, Next Rebellion and the crew, I used to create tracks for my answering machine at home, (no such thing as voicemail back then) I'd sample make a track and add vocals. They started out as just loops and got more complex by the mid 90s.  On Instagram I threatened to start loading these up on SoundCloud, lol! So here's the 1st - this isn't the one the Instagram clip is from, it's actally the 1 from the year before, where my daughter originally did the vocal sample, [yeah, I sample my own ish, lmao!] This is 20 yrs ago and Daddy's lil girl is all grown up! But that don't change nothing, lol!  and like I said, b4 u studio masters speak on the production value, understand, I was doing this with a Digitech 7.6 triggered manually and 2 tape decks to bounce down the sample tracks as I created them, so unless you got skills like that, keep it moving, lol I loved doing these, I always included my beeper # and other info in the rap vocals, it was crazy. My old head friends remember these, lol

David "QD Earl" McClain

"This Is The Q" [1994's answering machine msg]

A Rebel Productions/ Next Rebellion Flashback Demo circa 1990 - 91. Working out of Campsite Studios in Newark, home of legendary AceBeat records, Rebel was beginning to get swamped with projects, and of course I was squirming my way into the mix, this is one of the few times I was able to get  any demo this close to completion. The track was created by me with Ben Rebel, the subject matter is based on a real situation and even though I was heated back then, that's all behind me now and peace was made with it some time ago, but I still love this track. The hook was all Ben's idea and really worked well for the song IMO.©1990 - David E. McClain/Ben Rebel

I Wonder

Ok, I'm feeling a lil nostalgic so I've decided I'd throw up a few demos from back in the day when I was heavy into my music production and rapping. By today's standards these may be corny, but when we did them we went all in, lol! late 80's early 90's "runnin' with Rebel" that's Rebel Productions and Ben Rebel, lol. Rebel is now running Music Ninja Recording Studios in E.O. N.J. - look'em up if you need some primo studio time! Anyway, it wouldn't be right if I didn't start it off with our latenite interview @ NJ's famous radio station WNJR in 1988!-all about that Rebel Tour that just wasn't meant to be.....Ahhhh, what could have been. lol! (check out the image, the actual flyer I did for the 1st show)

The infamous WNJR interview w/Rebel Productions....

Here another, on the fly [why, on the fly? 'cause by the time I'd have time to get in the studio, I'd either forgot want I wanted to do, or talked myself out of doing it, lol] UMM edit, this time a simple mash up, Cannonball Adderly & Bobby Womack..."Ah...What a pair we make...." enjoy!

Scorpio... If U Don't Want My Luv? [U.M.M. mash up]

A Rebel Productions Flashback Demo - Circa 1992, Lost Children had recently released their 1st single on Tribal/I.R.S. records[Love & Contradiction} and now we were putting the album together, this was our most completed demo, as it was slated to be our next single written by lead singer Faith [a.k.a LaWanda McCombs] rap written [and performed] by moi, this was a real deep look at relationships gone bad, set to a dance floor beat....
© LaWanda McCombs-David McClain-Ben Thomas 1992-2013

Freedom

A Rebel Productions Flashback Demo - Circa 1989 - Rebel Productions' Hip Hop empire was in full swing - We Had E.T.A.M.C [EternallyTalented Almighty Mike C] - the Big Dawg, MC Jamaal - the lyricist, The 1st couple of Rap - MC Scottie B and Lady D. Desire, the new kids - MD Love & K-1 and super DJ Bordentown. Ben Rebel handling production, w/me learning the ropes, time for Rebel to branch out to the singers, one of his 1st recruits, a young lady, Kheim Garrett, phenomenal singer, went on to do some great stuff, but back then, just a little girl with a big voice, so this was one of the 1st demos she cut [she'll deny it tho, says she doesn't remember, lol] And I'd been paying my dues and being around all that lyrical talent, I felt it was time to step in front of the mic and show what I'd learned. Going for the pop crossover audience this composition was done in the 80's freestyle/bubblegum style talking about that subject that never gets old...young love. Enjoy.
© David McClain-Ben Thomas 1989-2013

Let's Not Get Serious

The 1st of 5 children born to the late Gloria Ann McClain, a strong woman who gave all for her children and never discouraged them from pursuing their creative talents. David, a Newark NJ native, developed his artistic and musical interest at a very early age, beginning with reading the sunday comics  or singing along with songs on the radio at age three. the love for music and art manifested itself in all aspects of David's young life from organizing neighborhood pre-teen parties and "borrowing" his parent's and other friends 45's and LPs to DeeJay the parties to forming a singing group to perform at the parties, to creating the flyer art about the party. Creativity was in the blood. At age 10 he purchased his 1st 45 with his own allowance and never stopped, comics and records, drawing and "making tapes" is what kept him busy. David's musical tastes include a wide variety of genres, including Soul, Jazz, Pop, Disco, Soft Rock and House.  A graduate of Arts High School in Newark NJ, and then attending S.V.A. in New York, he always preferred to surround himself with people who have that same creative energy and attitude. His 1st professional work in comics was for Blackthorne Publ. in 1987 that included logos and character designs for their line of color books, around that same time he joined up with Ben "Rebel" Thomas who formed  the "Rebel Productions Group" and then "Next Rebellion Productions" where he honed his skills as a rapper, writer and producer and graphic artist, providing logos, flyer designs and album cover art for a number of projects. A member of the recording group "Lost Children"  who's single "Love & Contradiction" was featured in the Cynthia Rothrock movie "Rage & Honor II" the future looked promising. With an album and production deal with I.R.S./Tribal America records Next Rebellion was busy, but after working on the Raveman Logic ep. Beyond Gray Matter and remixes for the Pato Banton single Beams of Light it was time to move on. Concentrating more on his artistic abilities David began pursuing work with the Independent Comics industry, becoming a penciler/inker for comic companies like ScriptGraphics, Beatnik, Third Eye and Landmark.
Also working in the large format graphics field as a pre-production graphic artist/designer. In 2000, along with longtime friends and DeeJays Raheem Classick and T.Maurice, formed the mobile DJ unit "Unlimited Music Merchants"  providing the musical tone for numerous events and parties over the years. Even though David's musical interests are varied his concentration has always been stronger in 2  genres in particular..."Disco" and "SlowJams"  a never ending pursuit of musical masterpieces in these recording categories has resulted in a massive collection or rarely or never before heard songs and artists from the 70's and 80's an age of music that will never be duplicated again. And that brings us to the present. In this age of the high speed internet and global community it is his duty to spread these sounds to the uniformed, the message of love,tolerance and FUN from this age in music is sorely needed for the generation of today and he's ready to do his part.

Q.D. Earl