Jonzun Crew was a seminal electro and early funk hip hop group from Boston, Massachusetts.
Florida-born brothers Michael, Soni, and Larry Johnson (better known as Maurice Starr) formed Jonzun Crew in Boston, Massachusetts in 1981, with Gordy Worthy and Steve Thorpe filling out the lineup for different stretches of the group’s existence. Starr and Michael would gain further notoriety for helping to bring New Edition and New Kids on the Block to the world; Michael (who continued using Jonzun as his last name) also went solo for a brief period on A&M, in addition to working on several other artists’ releases.
Jonzun Crew’s most famous tracks, “Pack Jam”, “Space is the Place” and “Space Cowboy” are from the group’s debut album Lost In Space (1983). Other notable tracks include “We Are The Jonzun Crew” and “Ground Control.” The Jonzun Crew sound was particularly unique due to the fact that all the synthesizer parts were played live as opposed to sequence, and despite using drum machine hits in their tracks, most of their songs used a live drummer as the main drum track, giving their songs a unique groove and swing compared to most electro music of the era. Their last album was Cosmic Love in 1990. |
