Growing up in a musical family - his father played trombone, his mother taught him the piano - the five-year-old Ayers was given a set of vibe mallets by Lionel Hampton, but didn't start on the instrument until he was 17. "I don't mind what they call me, that's what people do in this industry."
"I'm having fun laughing with it," he has said. His own reaction to being canonized by the hip-hop crowd as the "Icon Man" is tempered with the detachment of a survivor in a rough business. Yet Ayers' own playing has always been rooted in hard bop: crisp, lyrical, rhythmically resilient. A tune like 1972's "Move to Groove" by the Roy Ayers Ubiquity has a crackling backbeat that serves as the prototype for the shuffling hip-hop groove that became, shall we say, ubiquitous on acid jazz records and his relaxed 1976 song "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" has been frequently sampled.
One of the most visible and winning jazz vibraphonists of the 1960s, then an R&B bandleader in the 1970s and '80s, Roy Ayers' reputation s now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz, a man decades ahead of his time. Many of Ayers’ songs including “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,”, “Searchin”, “Running Away” have been frequently sampled and remixed by DJ’s worldwide. Blige, Erykah Badu, 50 Cent, A Tribe Called Quest, Tupac, and Ice Cube.Īyers recently recorded with hip-hop artist Talib Kweli (produced by Kanye West) and jazz/R&B singer Will Downing. Today, the dynamic music man is an iconic figure still in great demand and whose music has been sampled by music industry heavyweights, including Mary J. In the ’60s he was an award-winning jazz vibraphonist, and transformed into a popular R&B bandleader in the ’70s/’80s. Now in his fourth decade in the music business, Ayers, known as the Godfather of Neo-soul, continues to bridge the gap between generations of music lovers. Vibraphonist/vocalist Roy Ayers is among the best-known, most-loved and respected jazz/R&B artists on the music-scene today. In August of 1994, HWA released their third album\EP "I Ain't No Lady" which also became another critical and commercial failure for the trio.Īfter that, HWA broke up.
The album was a critical and commercial failure.Įven though the single "All That (Just a Little Action)" didn't chart, the music video received heavy airplay and Eazy-E appeared in the video himself.įor the second album, Diva was replaced with "Go-Di" and when one of the girls became pregnant, Baby Girl's cousin, Ty James (the daughter of the late Rick James) replaced her. In 1994, HWA released their sophomore album\EP "Az Much Ass Azz U Want" which charted at #33 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart and #71 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart. Soon after, HWA were signed to the late Eazy-E's record label, Ruthless Records and made a cameo appearance in Eazy-E's song, "Real Muthaphukkin' G's."
In 1990, HWA released their debut album, "Livin' in a Hoe House" which peaked at #38 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart.ĭue to the album's sexually explicit lyrics, it gained something of a cult classic and became their most successful album, even though no singles charted on the Billboard charts. They came together in 1989 for an independent record label, Drive-By Records to record their debut album. HWA (or Hoes With Attitude) were an all-female hip-hop trio that consisted of members Tayna "Jazz" Kenner, Dion "Diva" Devoux and Kim "Baby Girl" Kenner.
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