UTFO (an abbreviation for Untouchable Force Organization) was an American

old-school hip hop Old-school hip hop (also spelled old skool) is the earliest commercially recorded hip hop music and original style of the genre. It typically refers to the music created around 1979 to 1983, as well as any hip hop that does not adhere to contem ...

group from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The group consisted of

Kangol Kid Shaun Shiller Fequiere (August 10, 1966 – December 18, 2021), known by his stage name Kangol Kid, was an American hip hop producer, songwriter, break dancer, and emcee. Kangol is best known as a member of the old school hip hop group UTFO ...

(born Shaun Shiller Fequiere; August 10, 1966 – December 18, 2021), Educated Rapper (born Jeffrey Campbell; July 4, 1963 – June 3, 2017), Doctor Ice (born Fred Reeves on March 2, 1966), and Mix Master Ice (born Maurice Bailey on April 22, 1965). The group's best-known single is " Roxanne, Roxanne," a widely acclaimed hip hop classic, which created a sensation on the hip hop scene soon after it was released and inspired a record-high of 25 answer records in a single year (

Roxanne Wars The Roxanne Wars is a well-known series of hip hop rivalries during the mid-1980s, yielding perhaps the most answer records in history. The dispute arose over a failed appearance at a radio promotional show. There were two Roxannes in question, ...

), with estimates ultimately spawning over 100. The most notable remake was done by

Marley Marl Marlon Williams (born September 30, 1962), better known by his stage name Marley Marl, is an American DJ, record producer, rapper and record label founder, primarily operating in hip hop music. Marlon grew up in Queensbridge housing projects ...

's protégée

Roxanne Shanté Lolita Shante Gooden (born March 8, 1970), better known by her stage name Roxanne Shante, is an American rapper. Born and raised in the Queensbridge Projects of Queens, New York City, Shante first gained attention through the Roxanne Wars and w ...

, which led to hip hop's first rap beef. "Roxanne, Roxanne" was originally the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

of the lesser-known single "Hangin' Out". Due to personal issues, Educated Rapper was absent for its second effort, ''

Skeezer Pleezer ''Skeezer Pleezer'' is the second album by UTFO, released in 1986 on Select Records. The most notable song was "Split Personality," a paean to dissociative identity disorder Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple persona ...

'' (1986), which produced one notable track with the song "Split Personality". EMD was, however, on one album track, "Pick Up the Pace", also featured in the movie ''

Krush Groove ''Krush Groove'' is a 1985 American musical comedy-drama film distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures that was written by Ralph Farquhar and directed by Michael Schultz (who also produced the movie, along with George Jackson and Doug McHenry). This ...

''. In 2008, "Roxanne, Roxanne" was ranked number 84 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.

History

The group formed in the early 1980s and were originally known as UFO. However, the name was taken by a rock group so they were forced to change it to UTFO. Kangol Kid and Doctor Ice were originally known as The Keystone Dancers and were a dance duet, before going on to be back-up dancers for

Whodini Whodini is an American hip hop group that was formed in 1982. The Brooklyn, New York-based trio consisted of vocalist and main lyricist Jalil Hutchins; co-vocalist John Fletcher, a.k.a. Ecstasy (who wore a Zorro-style hat as his trademark; Ju ...

. Eventually, they went on to form UTFO in their hometown of

, New York. In 1984, the group signed with Fred Munao's Select Records, and, in the same year, it released its hit single, "Roxanne Roxanne". The group's debut album was produced by R&B group

Full Force Full Force is an American music group of hip hop and R&B singers and producers from Brooklyn, New York. Members *B-Fine (Brian George) - drums and drum programming, backing vocals *Shy Shy (Hugh Junior Clark) - bass guitar, backing vocals ...

. Full Force brought in New York's sound and sampling wizard, Gary Pozner, to help create the sounds and the beats. This was one of the first instances of the new sampling machine, the

E-mu Emulator The Emulator is a series of digital sampling synthesizers using floppy disk storage, manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 2002. Though not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was among the first to find wide use among ordinary m ...

, used on a commercially released record. The members of UTFO were the first

breakdancer Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...

s to appear on ''

The Phil Donahue Show ''The Phil Donahue Show'', also known as ''Donahue'', is an American television talk show hosted by Phil Donahue that ran for 26 years on national television. Its run was preceded by three years of local broadcast on WLWD in Dayton, Ohio, and i ...

''. On June 3, 2017, Educated Rapper died following a battle with cancer. On December 18, 2021, Kangol Kid died of colon cancer, at age 55.

Discography

Studio albums

As lead artist

Compilation albums

* ''The Best of U.T.F.O.'' (Select, 1996) * ''

''/''

Lethal Lethality (also called deadliness or perniciousness) is how capable something is of causing death. Most often it is used when referring to diseases, chemical weapons, biological weapons, or their toxic chemical components. The use of this ter ...

'' (BCM, 2000)

References

External links

Mix Master Ice's official Web Site

Doctor Ice official Web Site

Discography
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

{{Authority control 1984 establishments in New York City 1992 disestablishments in New York (state) African-American musical groups American hip hop groups Hip hop groups from New York City Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups disestablished in 1992 Musical groups from Brooklyn Musical quartets Jive Records artists Select Records artists