Donald Lamont, professionally known by his stage name Donald-D, is an American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

and

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

from

the Bronx, New York The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County to its north; to its south and west, the New York City bo ...

. He is a member of the

Universal Zulu Nation The Universal Zulu Nation is an international hip hop culture, hip hop awareness group formed by electro (music), electro/hip hop artist Afrika Bambaataa. According to the website of the UZN, the Zulu Nation stands for "knowledge, wisdom, und ...

, a member of the B-Boys, and is best known as a member of

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 ...

's Rhyme Syndicate.

Career

Late 1970s–1987: Universal Zulu Nation and the B-Boys

Donald D began his career in 1978 in the Bronx, New York, when he became a member of the

joining forces with Afrika Islam, DJ Jazzy Jay, Kid Vicious and others as the group the Funk Machine. He was featured on Afrika Islam's radio show the Zulu Beats on WHBI in 1982. Lamont and DJ Chuck Chillout formed a group named the B-Boys. From 1983 to 1985, the group has released several 12" singles via Vincent Davis' Vintertainment and Morgan Khan's Streetwave labels, including a 12-inch

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

''Cuttin' Herbie'', which peaked at #90 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. When the group disbanded, Donald D released a single "Dope Jam / Outlaw" with DJ Chilly-D via Rockin' Hard Records in 1987.

1988–1992: Rhyme Syndicate

In 1985, Lamont met West Coast rapper Tracy 'Ice-T' Marrow and later went to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

to join the Rhyme Syndicate. His first appearances were in 1988 on the track "The Syndicate" with Hen Gee from Ice-T's album '' Power'', and on the track "Name of the Game" from Rhyme Syndicate compilation album ''Comin' Through''. Donald-D was featured on the posse-cut single " What Ya Wanna Do" and released his debut studio album titled '' Notorious'' in 1989. Reaching a peak position of number 78 on the ''

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 ...

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

, the album remained on the US chart for a total of 18 weeks, spawning a single "F.B.I. (Free Base Institute)", which also peaked at number 8 on the ''

Hot Rap Songs Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by '' Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stat ...

. A year after, he made his guest appearance on his bandmate

Everlast Erik Francis Schrody (born August 18, 1969), known by his stage names Everlast and Whitey Ford, is an American Rapping, rapper, Singing, singer, and songwriter who was the Lead vocalist, frontman for Hip hop music, hip hop group House of Pain. ...

's debut album '' Forever Everlasting'' on the track "The Rhythm" with N'Dea Davenport and Ice-T. Lamont also appeared on two tracks from '' O.G. Original Gangster'' and provided audio production on ''Home Invasion''. In 1992, Donald D released his sophomore studio effort titled ''Let the Horns Blow'' on Sire/

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

. The song "I'm Gonna Smoke Him" off the album was featured in '' Trespass (soundtrack)''.

1993–present

In 1995, Donald D,

Kurtis Blow Kurtis Walker (born August 9, 1959), known professionally by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapping , rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Walker is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major rec ...

and Prince Whipper Whip were featured on the track "Old School Jam" from DJ Honda's self-titled album. In 2003, he released a single "Hip Hop / The Return of the Culture", that was later included in his debut solo extended play ''B.R.O.N.X. (Beats Rhymes of New Xperience)'', released in 2006 under Dondee alias. In the same year (2003), he's featured duetting with

Marco Masini Marco Masini (born 18 September 1964) is an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and pianist. As of 2021, he has released 26 albums. His best-known songs include " Disperato" (1990) and " L'uomo volante" (2004). Early years Marco Masini was bo ...

in the song ''Generation'', in which he sings in English the final rap part (personally significant is the line «as a boy growing up / in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

»). He has started a new group with another

Rhyme Syndicate member, DJ MC Dynamax, called the Bronx Syndicate.

Discography

Solo albums

Extended plays

* 2006 — ''B.R.O.N.X. (Beats Rhymes of New Xperience)''

Singles

Guest appearances

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donald D Living people American rappers Sire Records artists Epic Records artists 21st-century American rappers Year of birth missing (living people)