Raymond Ebanks
| Raymond Ebanks | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | B.O. Dubb, B.O.W. |
| Born |
2 January 1970 London, England |
| Genres | Electronica, hip hop |
| Years active | 1997-2006;2011 |
| Associated acts | Bomfunk Mc's, Soup De loop, Beats And Styles, Kollabo Brothers |
Raymond Anthony Ebanks, aka B.O. Dubb (formerly known as B.O.W.), (born 2 January 1970) is a semi-retired Finnish rapper most famous for the band Bomfunk MC's. He was born in London and has lived in Kontula, Helsinki since he was about one year old (1971). Raymond has a Jamaican-English father and a Finnish mother.
He began recording music as a teenager in the early 90s as part of the hip hop group "The Master Brothers", who often performed over DJ sets at clubs. Whilst no recordings were made, some of their performances were recorded, and have emerged online. Around this time, Raymond performed guest raps on the song Cryin' Out by Rama (1994),
In 1995, Raymond teamed up with longtime producer Jaakko "JS16" Salovaara and singer Mari Vesala to form the pop group Soup De Loop, and signed to the now defunct Blue Bubble Records. Their music was a combination of female sung house and G-Funk hip hop music, with Mari singing and Raymond providing raps. The group released an album, "Brainspotting" in 1997, as well as several singles including "Keep On Doing", which was a hit in Finland and appeared on several dance compilations around the time. Despite this, the group didn't have any success outside Finland. Mari left the group some time after the album was released, and they broke up rather than look for another singer.
After the breakup of Soup De Loop, Ebanks and Salovaara teamed up with DJ Ismo "DJ Gismo" Lappalainen to form Bomfunk MCs. The band were signed to Sony Music Finland due to Blue Bubble Records going under. The band quickly became known for the breakdancing in their videos and the graffiti in their album cover designs, both things which contributed to their popularity. Despite the associations with breakdancing, the band did perform slower paced hip hop songs as well and some more trancey material later on. The group released two albums with DJ Gismo - In Stereo and Burnin' Sneakers, and released a number of successful singles, the most notable of which being Uprocking Beats and Freestyler. Freestyler in particular became the band's signature song, which they are still remembered for to this day.
The band remained popular in Finland and Europe, but lost popularity elsewhere and their last release in the UK was "Super Electric", whose parent album, Burnin' Sneakers was never released in the UK due to poor sales of the single. However, the band contributed the official World Cup 2002 song for Sweden "(Crack It) Something Goin' On", as well as contributed "Put Your Hands Up" and "We R Atomic" to the PlayStation game Firebugs, in which they appeared as playable characters. These appearances revived the band's popularity in the UK, but it wasn't enough for the album to be released there. DJ Gismo left Bomfunk MCs in 2002 in order to join the group Stonedeep. He was replaced by Skillsters duo, which consists of Riku Pentti (DJ) and Okke Komulainen (keyboards).
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