Didn't you wish for nights like this: DJ Clark Kent, RIP
DJ Clark Kent didn’t produce a ton of records, but did do plenty of remixes and was known as a tastemaker in 1990s hip hop. Frankly he’d be a legend in my estimation if only for producing a couple tracks on Junior M.A.F.I.A.’s Conspiracy, helping introduce the world to Lil’ Kim, and then doing the same with Jay-Z’s debut Reasonable Doubt. I mean, “Players’ Anthem”? “I Need You Tonight”? “Cashmere Thoughts”? The epic Jay and BIG collab “Brooklyn’s Finest”? C’mon — right there he practically defined hip hop in the mid-’90s. But he did other things too, like tracks on Rakim’s ‘96 comeback album The 18th Letter, and Mariah Carey’s Cameo-jacking Glitter single “Loverboy.” He was a legendary DJ. When I went to NYC for the CMJ conference in 1995, I listened to as much Hot 97, then the east coast hip hop station, as I could (on an FM-equipped walkman), and let me tell you: that station sounded like Clark Kent.
His first ever credit was for the remix of Troop’s 1989 classic “Spread My Wings.” He remixed Hi-Five’s teen dream “She’s Playing Hard to Get” in ‘92 and featured a then-unknown Jay-Z on it. The same year, he did the same — including an uncredited Jay — for Rude Boys’ “My Kinda Girl.”
My favorite record touched by Kent may be his remix of Intro’s “Funny How Time Flies” featuring Lil’ Kim. There’s probably not a song I played more on my college radio show “Back Seat of my Jeep,” an R&B/hip hop show I did from 1994-1996. The way that Kent flipped Patrice Rushen’s deep cut “Where There Is Love” will forever blow me away, and the verse he got out of Kim for it, well:
Kent’s cousin was Foxy Brown, so she was on a few of his remixes, including this tight one for never-was R&B singer Horace Brown’s “One for the Money,” which was another classic on my college radio show at the time.
Clark Kent died of cancer late in October, because cancer is a motherfucker. May he rest in power; I know he’s rocking the turntables in the afterlife. Here’s a short playlist of some of his (streaming) career highlights.