Derek Boland (15 January 1965 – 15 November 2009), better known by his stage name Derek B, was a British

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 ...

. His most commercially successful releases were "Goodgroove" and "Bad Young Brother" in 1988.

Biography

Born in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

, London, to

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

ian nurse Jenny Boland, he was raised in Woodford. He attended Churchfields Junior School. When he was fifteen years old, he began

DJing A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

in a mobile unit around London, before joining local

pirate radio Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

stations such as Kiss FM and LWR and finally starting his own station, WBLS (not to be confused with the

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

of the same name in New York City). He joined

Simon Harris Simon Harris (born 17 October 1986) is an Irish Fine Gael politician serving as Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Minister for Defence since January 2025, having previously served as Taoiseach from 2024 to 2025. He has ...

' Music of Life

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

, as the closest thing they had to an A&R man. When a planned

compilation Compilation may refer to: *In computer programming, the translation of source code into object code by a compiler **Compilation error **Compilation unit *Product bundling, a marketing strategy used to sell multiple products, such as video game co ...

of US

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- ...

called ''Def Beats 1'' (Music of Life, 1986) ran short of tracks, Boland stepped in to record a track called "Rock the Beat". He co- produced the track with Harris, rapped on it under the pseudonym EZQ, and also did his own deejaying under the name "Derek B". "Rock the Beat" (Music of Life, 1987) was released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, and was followed by three more - the most successful of which were "Goodgroove" (Music of Life, 1988), and "Bad Young Brother", both of which reached No. 16 in the UK Singles Chart. Derek B's third and final UK chart entry was "We've Got the Juice", which peaked at No. 56. Derek B was the first UK rapper to achieve pop success, appearing on

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

's ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

'' at a time when the only other rappers who had appeared were

Break Machine Break Machine was an American rap act, fronted by Keith Rodgers and produced by Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, the team behind the Village People. Career Keith Rodgers was a musician and presenter of a rap radio show on the New York stati ...

and Doug E. Fresh. He received criticism for rapping under an assumed American accent, something which was popular in the early days of British hip-hop, but later abandoned by some artists. Following his

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

success, Derek B was signed up to Rush Artist Management and released singles and the

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, ''

Bullet from a Gun ''Bullet from a Gun'' is the only album by British rapper and producer Derek B, released in 1988 on Tuff City Records. It reached number nine on the UK Albums Chart. American rap mogul Russell Simmons signed Derek to Rush Artist Management and t ...

'' (Tuff Audio, 1988). Derek B was also successful as a

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 ...

and

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

er, working with the

Cookie Crew Cookie Crew were an English rap music duo formed in Clapham, South London in 1983. Career Their career took off after winning a national rap championship and recording two sessions for the John Peel BBC Radio 1 show. They gained a recording ...

, Thrashpack, and

Eric B and Rakim Eric B. & Rakim were an American hip hop duo formed on Long Island, New York, in 1986, composed of DJ Eric B. and rapper Rakim. They first received acclaim for their 1987 debut album '' Paid in Full'', which featured versions of the popular sin ...

. In 1988, he also helped to write the

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

anthem, " Anfield Rap". He died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

in London on 15 November 2009, aged 44.

Discography

Albums

*''

'' (1988, Tuff Audio) - UK No. 11

Singles

*"Rock the Beat" (1987) *"Get Down" (1987) R&B #82, UK #87 *"Good Groove" (February 1988) R&B #61, UK #16 *"Bad Young Brother" (April 1988) UK #16 *"We've Got the Juice" (June 1988) UK #56 *"You've Got to Look Up" (1990)

References

External links

Derek B Myspace

''Guardian'' obituary

The Derek B Tribute
{{DEFAULTSORT:B, Derek 1965 births 2009 deaths Black British male rappers British male rappers English people of Trinidad and Tobago descent English record producers Rappers from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Rappers from the London Borough of Redbridge Profile Records artists People from Hammersmith 20th-century British male musicians 20th-century British musicians People from Woodford, London