Cokni O'Dire aka Jah CoknI, King CoknI, OTO and Uncle O Williams (born 1967) is a British

ragga Raggamuffin music (or simply ragga) is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music with heavy use of sampling. Wayne Smith's " Under Mi Sleng Teng", produced by King Jammy in 1985 on a ...

MC, DJ and

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

artist best known for being a member of the original Scheme Team featured on the Rhyme Syndicate/

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

release of

Divine Styler Mikal Safeyullah (born Mark Richardson; 1968), better known by his stage name Divine Styler, is an alternative hip hop artist. History He first emerged as part of Ice-T's Rhyme Syndicate. His first LP, '' Word Power'', was hailed by critics an ...

's '' Word Power''.

Biography

Cokni was born in

Wembley, London Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

but was raised in various parts of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. The first crew he joined was El Producto in

Cambria Heights, Queens Cambria Heights is a residential neighborhood in the southeastern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Springfield Boulevard and Francis Lewis Boulevard to the west, the Elmont, Nassau County border on the east, ...

, where he was the Human B-Box for

LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip ho ...

, during the time when rhymed with the Albino Twins in the early 1980s. He battled many who wielded the art of oral percussion, one of which was

Rahzel Rozell Manely Brown (born October 6, 1964) is an American beatboxer and rapper, formerly a member of the Roots. Rahzel is known for an ability to sing or rap while simultaneously beatboxing, as evidenced in his performances of "Iron Man" and h ...

, in a competition judged by

Biz Markie Marcel Theo Hall (April 8, 1964 – July 16, 2021), known professionally as Biz Markie, was an American rapper, singer, songwriter, DJ, and record producer who gained prominence during hip hop's golden age. He was particularly recognized for ...

. Initially known for having a thick ragga inspired vocal style, he coined the phrase 'Shock Out' in the Los Angeles hip hop dance circle during the years of 1989 and 1990. Cokni later joined

In the Original Scheme Team, when Divine got signed to

, and was featured on Divine's debut album, ''Wordpower''. After the Scheme Team had broken up, Cokni went on to pursue a successful career as a

turntablist Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA syste ...

and a music promoter promoting

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for Dance, dancing, but usually refers to a specific type of twentieth-century venue, with dance clubs (nightclubs) becoming more popular towards the end of the century. The palais de danse was a term ap ...

and hip hop for Delicious Vinyl Records. After contributing to various

drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...

and various hip hop tracks, he later had a short reunite with former Scheme Team member, Divine Styler, to contribute vocals to

House of Pain House of Pain was an American hip hop trio that released three albums in the 1990s. The group consisted of DJ Lethal, Danny Boy, and Everlast. They are best known for their 1992 hit single " Jump Around", which reached number 3 in their nati ...

's last album, '' Truth Crushed To Earth Shall Rise Again'' and Divine Styler's ''Wordpower 2''.

Recent projects

He had a radio program called ''The OTO Hour'' on

KXLU KXLU (88.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting out of Loyola Marymount University in southwest Los Angeles, California. It was first on the air in 1957, and in 2007, celebrated its 50th anniversary. It is a non-commercial college radio statio ...

Los Angeles. In the club scene he has become a staple as a resident DJ/ MC of Chocolate Bar, KPL, Umoja Hi Fi and Positive Rhythm events. Currently he is featured on the French release of an Italian production called Allegro - Someone Else featuring L.V. and Fresh Game. He currently resides in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, broadcasting an online radio show ''Decent Something'' which was formerly on Beatminerz Radio and De La Soul's Dugout with DJ Maseo. Now he broadcasts independently from his home or wherever in the world there is WiFi. He been married since 1995 to the mother of his children, with whom they have two daughters and a son.

References

External links

Cokni's BlogCokni's Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odire, Cokni Black British male rappers English male rappers Living people People from Wembley 1967 births Date of birth missing (living people) Musicians from New York (state)