The Maximum Definitive was a

Canadian hip hop The Canadian hip hop scene was established in the 1980s. Through a variety of factors, it developed much slower than Canada's popular rock music scene, and apart from a short-lived burst of mainstream popularity from 1989 to 1991, it remained lar ...

trio, active in the early 1990s. They are noted for their single "Jungle Man", which was a

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

nominee for Best Rap Recording in

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

. Originally from

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, the group was formed in high school in the late 1980s, when Justin "Darp Malone" Ryan saw David "Click" Cox win a dance battle. Darp had been performing and (dance) battling with Jerome Lewis; Click joined them and they added two more dancers, a DJ and a female vocalist. The name was chosen from a thesaurus, mainly because "TMD" is an effective acronym. The band was then joined by Roger "Mystic" Mooking, however Mooking and Lewis did not get along and Lewis left the band. The group began performing in Edmonton and touring

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

as an opening act for

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 Will "Fresh Prince" Smith; the band dwindled to the three members. After performing at an Edmonton fashion show, the trio was approached by filmmaker Jordan Kryzanowski to film videos for some of their songs. "Jungle Man" attracted the attention of

MuchMusic Much is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. It is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in what was o ...

Master T Tony Young (born 1961), professionally known as Master T, is a Canadian television and radio personality and urban music promoter. He was born in Leeds, England, and moved to Canada with his Jamaican family in 1974. Early life and education He ...

. The video, inspired by the

X Clan X Clan (formerly stylized as XCLAN and often incorrectly spelled X-Clan) is a hip hop group from Brooklyn, New York, originally consisting of Brother J, Professor X, Paradise and Sugar Shaft. The current incarnation of the group features Brother ...

and

Brand Nubian Brand Nubian is an American hip hop group from New Rochelle, New York, composed of three emcees ( Grand Puba, Sadat X and Lord Jamar), and formerly three DJs ( DJ Alamo, DJ Sincere, and DJ Stud Doogie). Their debut studio album, '' One for Al ...

, has a tribal theme and was filmed at Edmonton's

Muttart Conservatory The Muttart Conservatory () is a botanical garden in the North Saskatchewan River valley, across from the downtown core in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. One of the best-known landmarks of Edmonton, the conservatory consists of three city-operated ...

. Jerome's Lewis' baby daughter, Quanteisha, who became a Juno award winning vocalist, was featured in the video. After making it into rotation on MuchMusic, the song earned the band their Juno Award nomination, as well as the

MuchMusic Video Award The iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards were an annual awards show broadcast annually on Much (TV channel), Much from 1990 to 2018, and Fuse (TV channel), Fuse from 2010 to 2013 that honoured the year's best music videos. Originally debuting in ...

for

Best Rap Video The MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video was first given out in 1989, and it was one of the four original genre categories added at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. This award was last given out in 2006, as MTV did not bring it back in 2008 lik ...

in 1993. Mooking and Ryan were under 20; Cox was still in high school. The band was planning to record their debut album when Mooking, now living in Toronto, co-founded the band Bass Is Base. Cox and Ryan discovered this only when they saw Mooking on the cover on the latter's debut album ''First Impressions for the Bottom Jigglers''. Production on the TMD album ceased and the band dissolved. Cox went on to work in A&R (

artists and repertoire Artists and repertoire (or A&R for short) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for scouting, financing, and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists and songwriters. It also acts as a l ...

) for

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was formed in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its st ...

and

Universal Music Canada Universal Music Group (UMG) owns, or has a joint share in, many of the record labels listed here. According to the UMG official website, the main labels are Abbey Road Studios, Capitol Music Group, Decca Records, Def Jam Recordings, Deutsche Gra ...

; he also founded the Stylus Awards, which recognizes DJs, hip hop artists, producers and Canadian club culture. With the rapper E-Dot (Errol Henry), Ryan recorded the 2008 album ''E-Dot & Darpmalone Are... Hero''. Mooking became a restaurateur and celebrity chef.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maximum Definitive, The Canadian hip-hop groups Musical groups from Edmonton