Co- motivator of the 90’s Timberland boots and army fatigues movement, Evil Dee sealed his fate in hip hop history beginning with one of the most noted classic hip hop albums, Black Moon’s Enta Da Stage.
Thirty one years prior to today’s success Brooklyn, New York native Ewart Dewgarde initially started exploring music through the influence of his mother, who was a pianist. After perfecting the piano, he realized he had a hunger for music. He went on to study the violin, guitar, bass, organ and the drums. At the age of seven he moved on to the turntables. What began as a fight for some of the attention Mr. Walt, his teenaged brother received as the neighborhood DJ, would soon solidified into a craft and major career of his own.
While in high school, Evil Dee made a name for himself as a DJ by way of college radio. Student jocks would invite him for guest performances, however, he earned the title of co-host on each show, sneaking onto college grounds weekly.
Although he was maturing in his craft he stayed on his brother’s coattails, who had graduated from spinning to producing. Evil naturally gravitated into production as well. He would creep into his brother’s record collection to make beats using two tape decks. “It is inevitable. If you are a DJ, you are automatically a producer. When you scratch and slow down music you are making your own beat,” admits Evil Dee.
By the end of the 80’s Evil Dee was working off of a full plate. From being booked for parties, playing for college radio and Tokyo Radio’s BAYFM, to promoting himself as a producer he had definitely come into his own name. It was at the end of the decade that Evil found himself turning down work, once he became one of the founding members of the legendary group, Black Moon. Largely focused on the achievement of the group he passed on a radio show to ink a deal with rhyming partners 5ft and Buckshot to Nervous Records by 1992. Determined to bring more to the table than the obvious, Evil Dee laid the foundation for most of the group’s songs by producing their albums with his brother, turned business partner for Da Beatminerz Inc.
The production for Enta Da Stage, the group’s mainstream album, catapulted his career beyond what he figured it could ever take him. He went on to produce another classic album for hip hop peers; Smif & Wessun’s Dah Shining. A wave of hits for other artists fol- lowed, ranging from Busta Rhymes to Eminem.
By the end of the 90’s the members of Black Moon started making individual career moves, which led to Evil Dee’s return back to radio. After he was invited by WQHT’s program director Steve Smith to perform at the first Hot 97 Summer Jam in 1994, he was immediately hired by Smith for the Monday Night Flava Mix. Always thinking out of the box, he became a producer for an online station 88HipHop.com in time, starting Beatminerz Radio, which was an on and offline show.
By 2000, Evil Dee was playing for two different stations on Canadian Radio, and was a featured DJ on WWPR’s Future Flavas with Marley Marl. While dominating the field of broadcasting, Da Beatminerz signed with Rawkus Records in 2000, releasing Brace 4 Impak and later they recorded independent albums Fully Loaded w/ Static in 2004 and Unmarked Music Vol. 1 the following year.
Today, Evil Dee remains a model of consistency. He tours globally with Black Moon and as a Beatminerz DJ, his production work remains in high demand and Beatminerz Radio can be found online as the home page for their social networking site created a year ago.
