|
It probably all began with the old R & B dusties of his mother, Tyree Cooper was impassionedly listening to.|Growing up on the streets of Chicago’s South Side Tyree Cooper discovered his love for the soul music of the 60ies. A first step was to join his Grammar school band at the age of 13 - playing the flute! His other passion at that time was playing basketball.|Both passions followed him to the high school where he met Mike Dunn and learned how to DJ. Listening to Farley “Jackmaster Funk”, “ The Hot Mix 5“, Ronny Hardy and the electrifying energies of Frankie Knuckles, Tyree was well schooled at an early age.|Eventually Tyree’s basketball skills awarded him at scholarship to the University of Wisconsin -Stout where the bourgeoning mixing skills were fine tuned.|Two years after college Tyree was already one of the most popular and highly sought-after DJs in Chicago. Then Vince Lawrence, of the garage funk band “Jesse Gang“ (founded by Jesse Saunders) persuaded Tyree to put together a demo tape of his music to start a career as a recording artist.|From now on it was only a question of time before signing the first record deal with the Chicago-based underground label D.J. International - that was in 1986. The first 12” – “I Fear The Night“ (with female vocalist ‘Chic’) - promptly became an underground classic in Chicago. Other hits followed: “Acid Over“(1988), “Turn Up The Bass“ (1988/89),“’Let’s Get Hyped“ (feat. Kool Rock Steady, 1989), “Let the Music Take Control“(1989) and “Hardcore Hip House“ (1989). That was the time when Tyree Cooper created a crossover version of house music together with his friend and fellow DJ ‘Fast Eddie’ Smith and which was known as hip house. It then caused a furor on the hip hop scene, while today rap vocals are a common feature of the commercial house scene.|Tyree Cooper is now regarded as one of the most influential artists in the international house scene. Already looking back to a respectable discography Cooper founded his own label in 2002: Supa Dupa Recordings. Later one of the most important hip house tunes was released on Epic with the original and some new remix versions: “Turn Up The Bass“, which is surely one of the most important hip house tracks of all times.|Other remixing highlights and hits were undoubtedly Fast Edde “Yo! Yo! Get Funky“, “It`s Alright” from the Pet Shop Boys and the Mixmasters “In the Mix“ which was featured in Madonna’s Truth or Dare. True to the scene Tyree still lives in Chicago spreading his roots also in Europe’s exciting capitol Berlin - doing what he does best… spinning and traveling to Europe for gigs and producing new tracks on his own record label Supa Dupa Records and of course together with shik stylkö for realbasic recordings. |
