Newcleus' Robert Crafton III, Bassist and Rapper, Dies at 47

via the New York Times

Robert Crafton III, a bassist, songwriter and rapper whose rhythms and rhymes helped the 1980s hip-hop group Newcleus redefine the sound of electro-pop, died on Feb. 23 in Brooklyn. He was 47.

The cause was a stroke, said Ben Cenac, who founded Newcleus with Mr. Crafton and two others. Mr. Cenac said that Mr. Crafton had been treated for diabetes and kidney problems for some time.

Starting in 1976 as a Bedford-Stuyvesant D.J. crew called Jam-On Productions, Newcleus developed a futuristic sound that combined funk, hip-hop and electronica. Computerized drums, old-school raps and cartoonish speeded-up vocals propelled the group’s signature hit, “Jam on It” (Sunnyview), to No. 56 on the Billboard pop-singles chart in 1984.

Newcleus “put out something way before its time,” said Red Alert, the influential D.J. who helped bring hip-hop from the streets to the radio. “They produced not only a hip-hop sound but also a dance-slash-pop sound that you can still hear in pop music to this day.”

Newcleus was a family group (Mr. Cenac, known as Cozmo D; his wife, Yvette Cook, or Lady E; his cousin Monique Angevin, or Nique D; and her future husband, Mr. Crafton, known as Chilly B), that emerged in the post-“Rapper’s Delight” era, when recorded hip-hop was still in its infancy.

Afrika Bambaataa charted a path into the future in 1982 with “Planet Rock,” which interpolated the synthesizer-driven groove of the German band Kraftwerk’s Euro-pop hit “Trans-Europe Express.” The worldwide success of “Planet Rock” spawned a subgenre known as electro-rap, epitomized by groups like the Jonzun Crew from Boston (“Pack Jam”) and Newcleus, whose debut single, “Jam-On Revenge (The Wikki Wikki Song),” was released in 1983 on the small May Hew label.

Like Afrika Bambaataa and Kraftwerk, Newcleus made music that anticipated a high-tech future. Decades before Wikipedia became a household name, Newcleus introduced “Wikki wikki wikki” to the pop lexicon by using it as onomatopoeia to denote a D.J.’s scratching a needle back and forth on a record.

“We were into the electronic sound,” Mr. Cenac said, “but in our stuff you’ll always hear a funky bass line.” The bass was Chilly B’s specialty.

“Chilly was the musician in the group,” said Mr. Cenac, a keyboardist, who grew up on the same block as Mr. Crafton and first jammed with him in a neighborhood band called Thunderfunk. “We were both self-taught, but he had a more seasoned musicianship in his playing. When he played bass, you knew it was him.”

In 1984 the group took part in Fresh Fest, a nationwide concert tour that proved hip-hop acts could sell out the same arenas as rock stars. Newcleus shared the bill with Run-DMC, Whodini, the Fat Boys and Kurtis Blow.

Mr. Crafton’s last performance with Newcleus was in June at a multi-artist Madison Square Garden show called Freestyle Extravaganza.