Olaf Jeglitza
| O-Jay | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Olaf Jeglitza |
| Born | 15 February 1965 |
| Origin | Berlin |
| Genres | Pop, Club |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Associated acts | Real McCoy |
Olaf Jeglitza (born 15 February 1965), also known by his stage name O-Jay, is a German rapper, songwriter, and music producer of Polish descent. He is best known as the lead rapper for the Eurodance group Real McCoy.
O-Jay was born in Berlin in 1965. After finishing the regular school system, he studied at the Lette Foundation, a technical college for photography in Berlin. At age 18 he started working as an independent photographer. After two years he was hired by an advertising agency as an assistant photographer and became their head of the photo department a year later.
Since the age of 15, O-Jay was involved in the upcoming Hip hop Movement in Germany. Besides being an active break-dancer (The Mighty Crash), he later became the co-founder of the Imperial Nation Berlin. In cooperation with Frank "Quickmix" Hassas he published the first German Hip Hop fanzine Freshbeat Magazin and produced the monthly Freshline Radio Show. 1988 he co-founded, also with Quickmix, the label Freshline Records.
In 1983 he started collaborating with the German producer/musician Jens Kuphal on his first video project: "Jazzy times". A first attempt to record and produce a commercial record with one of his friends and Kuphal, failed to get a release. A year later, O-Jay started working with the Berlin-based DJ Quickmix (Frank Hassan Hassas) and eventually gave themselves the name "2 make music". Later, they started collaborating with the German producer / musician Micky Wolf. During that time, O-Jay met the rapper The A (Aram Mouchegh) and they changed their name into "Masterplan".
In 1987, Masterplan (Quickmix, O-Jay, The A) released their first record "We wanna be stars", on the Select Record Label. The record failed commercially but it formed O-Jay's entry into the music business. In collaboration with Quickmix, he started to produce the monthly Freshline Radio Show and published the first German Hip Hop Magazine, called Fresh Beat Magazine. Neither product lasted for long, because the two turned their focus on running their own label.
In 1988, they founded the Hip Hop Electro Group, The Alliance (Quickmix, O-Jay, Careem the Dream). Their first release "Action!" was released on their own label, Freshline Records and sold approximately 20,000 units with the help of their distribution partner 99 Records. This first 12" was followed by a couple of more releases, leading them to a first label deal with Rough Trade Records. While "Action!" (The Alliance) and the second release "Come into my life – Rap Version" (The Admirers) ended up being re-released by ZYX Records, the first album of The Alliance (It’s time …) and a couple of other products were released by Rough Trade.
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