Dana McCleese (born September 6, 1965), better known by his stage name Dana Dane, is an American rapper known for performance of humorous lyrics and for his fashion sense.

Early life

Dana was born in the

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

housing project in

Fort Greene Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the w ...

, Brooklyn, New York City,

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 * ...

Career

Recording artist

Dana Dane's career began as part of the Kangol Crew with fellow rapper

Slick Rick Richard Martin Lloyd Walters (born January 14, 1965), better known as Slick Rick, is an English-American rapper and record producer. He rose to prominence as part of Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew in the mid-1980s. His songs " The Show" and ...

, to whom he sounded markedly similar, although Slick Rick's English lilt was actually genuine, while Dana Dane's was an affectation. Dana Dane appeared in the video for Slick Rick's 1988 single " Teenage Love". After graduating from high school, he signed with

Profile Records Profile Records was one of the earliest hip hop labels. As well as hip-hop they released disco, dance, and electro records. History In 1980, Cory Robbins, who was 23 at the time and had worked briefly for MCA, wanted to start a record label ...

in 1985. Dana Dane's debut album, '' Dana Dane with Fame'', peaked at #46 on the ''Billboard'' album chart and was certified

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. His debut single was "Nightmares". His biggest hit in the United States was "Cinderfella Dana Dane", which peaked at #11 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine's R&B charts in 1987. Cheryl Green from Queens, NY sang backup. He was among Profile Records's core artists, then recorded briefly for Rap-A-Lot Records but did not release anything on that label. He released his last album, '' Rollin' Wit Dana Dane'', in 1995 on

Maverick Records Maverick was an American entertainment company founded in 1992 by Warner Music Group and run by recording artist Madonna, as well as Frederick DeMann and Veronica "Ronnie" Dashev. It included a record label ( Maverick Records), a film producti ...

Other activities

Dane operated a clothing boutique in New York City in the late 1980s and early 1990s. For six years, he was an on-air host for Sirius/XM Satellite Radio on its

classic hip-hop Classic hip hop is a music radio format focusing primarily on hip hop music from the 1980s, 1990s, and the early to mid-2000s. Although stations with such a format date back as far as 2004, the format was first popularized in October 2014, after ...

channel

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 ...

's Rock the Bells radio (formerly BackSpin). He makes a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film ''

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''. In 2009, he released his first novel, ''Numbers'' (One World/Ballantine/

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

References

External links

Official Web Site
-> * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dane, Dana Living people 1965 births Rappers from Brooklyn Maverick Records artists Profile Records artists Rap-A-Lot Records artists 21st-century American rappers People from Fort Greene, Brooklyn East Coast hip-hop musicians