- Charlie Dee Diaz
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Carlos "Charlie Dee" Diaz began his music career as a DJ in the Bronx, playing at the Shorehaven Beach Club Roller Rink. His parents were of latin descent. His father Puerto Rican, and his mother Cuban and Mexican. During that time, he made several treks to the Bronx River Projects to watch Afrika Bambaataa in action with the Zulu Nation, Met Grandmaster Flash, DJ Breakout and Baron with the Funky 4+ 1 more and eventually produced a hip hop track with Jazzy Jeff as the rapper on Jive Arista Records.
Life
He got his first break when he met D.N.A (David Nelson Askew). A promoter from Harlem who paid Charlie in subway tokens to put up posters for Jive/Arista artists: Whodini, Jazzy Jeff, and Dynasty and Mimi.
Things moved very quickly after that. Charlie met with then program director for N.Y. radio station WPLJ Power 95 Lisa Tonacci and was asked to do the Powermixes for the station. #1 Hip Hop Mogul Mr Majic and DJ Marley Marl went back to WBLS full time and the offered their slot known as “The Mr. Magic Rap Attack” on WNWK to Charlie. Charlie convinced Jive president Barry Weiss that it would be an awesome promotion tool to have a radio station playing music mostly from the Jive catalogue and Jive sponsored the Diamod 2 Show known as Jive 105.9.
The original Diamond 2 was Charlie “Dee” Diaz and Jose “Chep” Nunez.[1] The radio show allowed Charlie and Chep to show off their mixing and editing skills to a large audience and to showcase new artists such as LL Cool J, Dougie Fresh, Biz Markie, The Beastie Boys and Public Enemy.
At that time Tommy Boy Records released an album entitled “Masters of the Beat” and sponsored a nationwide D.J. contest to coincide with the release of the album. Charlie Dee entered the contest and won. At the radio station he met Platinum Vibe Executive Producer Cherrie Shepherd and she offered to let him do his editing/mixing on her company’s records. His first Edit/Remix was on Capitol recording artist Sly Fox and the song was a freestyle hit-”Como Tu Te Llama”. Their biggest song “Lets go all the way” was also edited by Charlie Dee. Having worked on a dance hit, and a pop hit, he was ready for his first love – Hip Hop. The Boogie Boys came next, Produced by the George Clinton mastermind Ted Currier. Ted enlisted Charlie Dee’s help with drum programming/editing/and remixing the 3 Boogie Boy albums on Capitol. The biggest hit was “A Fly Girl” Altogether, he worked on four #1 records. More than many can say. Never let you go by Sweet Sensation was #1 dance, Lovey Dovey by Tony Terry #1 R&B, If wishes came true by Sweet Sensation #1 pop and With You by Tony Terry also #1 pop. Much of his work can be viewde at http://www.discogs.com/artist/Charlie+Dee+Diaz. Charlie Dee was also the first editor to have his versions named after himself. Sadly it was around this time Chep Nunez died in a fire. It took Charlie several years to recover from the loss of his good friend For the hit “Hooked on you” by Sweet Sensation, Charlie resurrected the Diamond 2 name with the help of Omar Santana, a master editor in his own right. There was also several top ten dance songs like Joyce Sims All and All, Hooked on you by Sweet Sensation, and Hungry for your love by Hanson and Davis. Click here for more projects. He also was signed to Capitol Records to produce the group “Crowd Control” for the Black Havana album project. In 2003 he formed The Breakout Media Group and One Dragon Music publishing to help produce new artists and get them heard using the internet as the platform for their music. Since then he has been busy doing music for T.V. and films, much of his music has been used on MTV and various other shows. “Forget the Girl” by Tony Terry was featured in the movie TAP starring Gregory Hines. To this day he is still involved in T.V. and the dance music scene, working with new artists and producing new music as Digital Meltdown.
References
External links
Categories:- Living people
- American DJs
- American rappers
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