Victor Ray Wilson (February 20, 1959 – April 30, 1996), better known as Beatmaster V, was an American musician and drummer of
metal
A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...
band
Body Count
A body count is the total number of people killed in a particular event. In combat, a body count is often based on the number of confirmed kills, but occasionally only an estimate. Often used in reference to military combat, the term can also r ...
.
Early life
Wilson grew up in
South Central, Los Angeles, and attended
Crenshaw High School
Crenshaw High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located on 11th Avenue in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
The school first opened in 1968 and currently enrolls arou ...
with
Ice-T
Tracy Lauren Marrow (born February 16, 1958), known professionally as Ice-T (or Ice T), is an American rapper and actor. He is active in both hip hop music, hip hop and heavy metal music, heavy metal. Ice-T began his career as an underground r ...
and
Ernie C
Ernie Cunnigan (born June 10, 1959), better known by his stage name Ernie C, is an American musician and record producer, best known as the guitarist of rap metal band Body Count.
Early life
Cunnigan grew up in Compton, California and attended ...
.
As a musician he participated in music wherever he could, including church music with his local church.
In his community and church, as a youth, Beatmaster V practiced drums and other instruments. He excelled in his musical ability at an early age. By the time he was 11 years old he played with the blues musician
Lou Rawls
Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American baritone singer. He released 61 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably the song " You'll Never Find Another Love like Min ...
, as a drummer. He continued on and took drum classes, and built more musical skill playing with various musicians like Ernie C.
Music career
Along with guitarist Ernie C, vocalist Ice-T, bassist Mooseman and rhythm guitarist D-Roc, Wilson formed the heavy metal band Body Count during the recording of Ice-T's fourth 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- ...
album, '' O.G. Original Gangster''.[ Musically, later, after their many days of rehearsing and performing, Beatmaster V and Ernie C. ended up in the same L.A. band, Body Count. The band was founded by Ice T. & the other bandmates. After initially presenting the Body Count band sounds in L.A. clubs and venues Body Count went on to perform in the original ]Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...
), & many other events and places across America & around the world.
Death
Wilson died of leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
in 1996.
References
1959 births
1996 deaths
Drummers from Los Angeles
African-American drummers
African-American rock musicians
Place of death missing
Place of birth missing
American heavy metal drummers
Body Count (band) members
American rock drummers
20th-century American drummers
American male drummers
Deaths from leukemia in the United States
Crenshaw High School alumni
20th-century American male musicians
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