Today is the birthday of Basehead vocalist Michael Ivey,

who was born in 1968 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Basehead fell in with the

"alternative rap crowd," blending rock, hip-hop, record scratching and Ivey's

ironic vocals. Ivey grew up as a middle-class black in Pittsburgh, where he met

drummer Brian Hendrix. Playing in high school bands, they got tired of

keyboard-dominated R&B covers and began throwing sampled guitars into the mix.

Ivey attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., studying film and

working on the first Basehead album, Play with Toys. Hendrix and

Basehead scratcher DJ Unique didn't work much on this first album, which was

released in 1991. Although the record company only released 3,000 copies, ,

Play with Toys received considerable airplay on college radio and rave

reviews from critics. In typical Basehead style, Ivey opened the album with a

spoof band called "Jethro and the Graham Crackers," who played a hillbilly

version of James Brown's "Sex Machine.

In 1992 Basehead expanded to

include not only Hendrix and Unique, but Keith Lofton on guitar and Clarence

Greenwood on bass. They recorded Not in Kansas Anymore and toured with

other rap acts like Me Phi Me, the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Divine

Styler.

Other birthdays: Corey Wells (Three Dog Night), Sven Johannson

(Tangerine Dream), Chuck Winfield (Blood, Sweat and Tears), Al Kooper (Blood,

Sweat and Tears), Nigel Olsson, Bobby Brown, Chris Barron (Spin Doctors) and

Christopher Guest (This Is Spinal Tap). -- Beth Winegarner