Kurtis Mantronik

Kurtis el Khaleel (born Graham Curtis el Khaleel, September 4, 1965), known by the stage name Kurtis Mantronik, is a Jamaican-born hip hop and electronic-music artist, DJ, remixer, and producer. He was the leader, DJ, and keyboardist of the influential 1980s hip hop and electro-funk group Mantronix. He currently lives in South Africa where he has produced and remixed house and techno music tracks by artists such as India, Junior Senior, Kylie Minogue, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Michael Gray, Victoria Beckham, Liberty X, S Club, and Mim.^[1] Mantronik was influential in the development of hip hop music: notably, he laid the foundations for Southern hip hop genres such as Miami bass and trap music, and helped popularize the Amen break.

Mantronik was born in Jamaica to a Syrian father and a Jamaican mother.^[2] He emigrated to Sherwood Park, Alberta Canada with his family at the age of 7, before eventually settling in New York City.^[2] It was around this time that his interest in electro music began when he heard "Riot in Lagos" (1980) by Yellow Magic Orchestra's Ryuichi Sakamoto on the radio, inspiring him to experiment with electro music a few years later.^[1]

The 1988 Mantronik track "King of the Beats" was one of the first songs to sample the Amen break. The track made extensive use of the break "in a fresh way" according to The Economist, stating "segments from the loop were chopped up, layered and processed so that the drums became central to the track rather than simply a rhythmic bedding." The track played a key role in popularizing the Amen break.^[3]

"King of the Beats" itself became one of the most sampled songs in music history. It has been sampled more than 200 times, rivaling that of "Amen, Brother" itself.^[4]