Wanda Dee (born April 12, 1963 as Lawanda McFarland) is an American

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- ...

artist.

Career

Early life

Lawanda McFarland grew up in

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, New York. While still a teenager, she became the first female hip hop DJ as the protégée of hip hop

DJ Kool Herc Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who is credited with being the founder of hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in 1973. Nicknamed the Father of Hip-Hop, Campbe ...

, who gave her the stage name "Wanda Dee". She was eventually introduced to

Afrika Bambaataa Lance Taylor (born April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is a retired American DJ, rapper, and record producer. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of ...

, who inducted her into his

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 ...

. Alongside of her boyfriend/business partner, rapper Richard Sisco ("Sisco Kid"), she appeared in ''

Beat Street ''Beat Street'' is a 1984 American dance drama film featuring New York City hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Set in the South Bronx, the film follows the lives of a pair of brothers and their group of friends, all of whom are devoted to vari ...

'', a 1984 film about the hip hop sub-culture produced by

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte ( ; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte ...

. Dee and Sisco's relative success - she received many offers to go on tour while he did not - contributed to the pair breaking up. At the time, Dee had already met Eric Floyd, her future husband and manager. Floyd encouraged her to switch from the turntables to the microphone and in 1986, she released her first single, "Blue Eyes", produced by British hit factory

Stock Aitken Waterman Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW and also known as the Hit Factory) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s throug ...

. In 1989, she achieved commercial success with "The Goddess"/"To the Bone". The publication of a full album was hampered by disagreements with

Tuff City Records Tuff City Records is a New York–based record label founded by journalist Aaron Fuchs in 1981.Verna, Paul (1994)Tuff City Records Moves Forward and Looks Back" ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'', July 16, 1994, retrieved 2010-08-29 Initially con ...

, Dee's distributor at the time.

Dispute and association with the KLF

In 1990 and 1991, respectively, British music duo

The KLF The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band who originated in Liverpool and London in the late 1980s. Scottish people, Scottish musician Bill Drummond (alias Ki ...

Bill Drummond William Ernest Drummond (born 29 April 1953) is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with wh ...

and

Jimmy Cauty James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo the KLF, co-founder of the Orb and as the man who K Foundation Burn a Million Quid, burnt £1 million ...

- used unauthorized samples from "To the Bone" in the "stadium house version" of their tracks "

What Time Is Love? "What Time Is Love?" is a song released, in different mixes, as a series of singles by the British electronic music band the KLF. It featured prominently and repeatedly in their output from 1988 to 1992 and, under the moniker of 2K, in 1997. In ...

" and "

Last Train To Trancentral "Last Train to Trancentral" is a song released, in different mixes, as a series of singles by British electronic band the KLF, including "Last Train to Trancentral (Live from the Lost Continent)". A commercially successful single of April 1991, ...

". When manager Eric Floyd by chance heard the former track at a disco, he sued Drummond and Cauty for copyright infringement. A 1993 article in Beat magazine quotes Floyd: The KLF agreed to a settlement: Dee received a payment, a share in royalties and co-writing credits on the U.S. release of the album '' The White Room''. Under the agreement, Dee also appeared in the "Stadium House" video to "

". Drummond and Cauty also agreed to produce a track for Dee's upcoming solo album, but this collaboration never materialised. Dee claimed, "I wasn't INVITED into The KLF, I was IGNITED!" After The KLF retired (and deleted their back catalogue) in early 1992, Dee took off on a two-year concert tour that spanned 150 cities in 90 countries. The show, dubbed "The KLF Experience featuring Wanda Dee" or "The Voice of KLF, Wanda Dee", combined the KLF's pre-recorded music with her own live vocals and lavish costumes. Drummond and Cauty, who were displeased by Dee's use of the KLF moniker, requested that their U.S. distribution company,

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

, issue a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...

order, but the company refused, estimating that an international tour would only boost their sale of KLF material. Dee's repeated claim that she had been an integral or even the decisive part in the KLF's success raised controversy among observers. Ben Butler, in an interview for '' The Big Issue Australia'', asked Jimmy Cauty for his thoughts on "the act that was doing the rounds several years ago that called itself the KLF, but didn't feature either Bill Drummond or yourself auty. Cauty responded

Beyond the KLF

In the early 1990s, Dee signed a multi-album record deal with her previous producers Stock & Waterman. A debut album was produced but the release came to a halt when Stock & Waterman's partnership disbanded in 1993. In 1994, still riding on the KLF success, Dee published the single "I Wanna See You Sweat" with German record company

ZYX The Zygii (, ''Zygoí'') or Zygians were described by Strabo as a nation to the north of Colchis. He wrote: ''And on the sea lies the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, or the Syndic territory. After this latter, one comes to the Achaei and the Zyg ...

. In 2003, Dee formed her own record label, ''Goddess Empire'', and finally published her debut album, ''The Goddess Is Here''. The same year, she also participated in the Zulu Nation's 30th anniversary performance.

Discography

;Singles *"Blue Eyes" (1986, Lisson Records/Critique) *"The Goddess"/"To The Bone" (1989, Tuff City) *"I Wanna See You Sweat" (1994, ZYX) *"I Like It Hard" (1997, Festival Records, Pride Music) *"Love Like Mine" (2003, Goddess Empire Record Label) ;Album *The Goddess Is Here! (2003, Goddess Empire Record Label)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dee, Wanda Living people The KLF 1963 births American women rappers Musicians from the Bronx Singer-songwriters from New York (state)