b. Derek Boland, 1966, Bow, London, England. d. 14/11/2009 In 1966, Derek grew up a fan of the Who as well as Aretha Franklin, Al Green and Bob Marley. He started out as a DJ when he was 15 as part of a mobile unit touring London clubs. He then moved into radio working for pirate stations including KISS FM and LWR before beginning his own WBLS station. In 1987 he got bored with being a DJ and took a job at Simon Harris' Music Of Life label as the nearest thing to an A&R man. The label originally started producing compilations of US Hip Hop, but due to a lack of material and finances to acquire more licenses for the first record 'Def Beats 1' in 1986, the company's A&R man Derek Boland saved the day and pretending to be both MC and his own DJ recorded a track 'Rock the Beat'. Derek B (and DJ EZQ!) was born and Music of Life had started putting out UK Hip Hop. Derek B followed up this record with two more 12"s on Music of life which charted: 'We Got the Juice' & 'Good Groove' reaching #16. Subsequently he was to appear on Top of the Pops at a time that the only Rap groups that had been on were Break Machine and Doug E Fresh. Being the first UK rapper to accomplish pop hits he was quickly snapped up by Rush Artist Management and apparently was behind Tuff Audio, Phonogram's new Hip Hop imprint where he continued to release 12"s such as 'Bad Young Brother' and specials like 'Def B-Boy'. While in New York (visiting his family who had relocated there), Derek met radio DJ Mr Magic who played his record to the Profile label which secured him a licensing deal in the USA.
Derek died of a heart attack in November 2009 aged 44