Yeah, so a lot of y'all know me from old school Reviewz and shit and other people are new to this shit, but I figure I may as well do this ill bio page. So for those that don't know, sit back and listen and hear a piece of the life of D. Ellis. Growing up in suburban New Jersey I learned to stop being a herb like I was in grade school and become the fuckin' boy like I am right now. It was the 7th grade once I really started understanding the deal, that's when I fell in love with hip hop music. Ironically my love for hip hop came from listening to Hot 97, since back then in like '95 and '96 they played hot shit. Now they suck. Anyway, listening to Funkmaster Flex, DJ Red Alert, and Future Flavaz with Pete Rock and Marley Marl quickly put me on to what real hardcore rap was supposed to sound like. It was cool because back then 97 would play Smif-n-Wessun, Biggie, and Wu-Tang all during the mix shows, not to mention classic shit from Eric B & Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, and Pete Rock & CL Smooth. Prior to then my music tastes were so shitty and I listened to MTV rap (Coolio was a favorite of mine during that whole "Gangstas Paradise" phase) and top 40 rock (Offspring's Smash and Green Day's Dookie were the soundtrack to my fifth grade). Hip hop was a much better musical choice, which I realized around 7th grade. It was new to me so I had to do my research, so I bought The Source and Vibe and read up. Soon after I signed on AOL and searched Yahoo for hip hop pages. That's where it all began.

The internet hip hop sites back when I first got started were cool because most of it wasn't all ads and no good material like it is now. Instead of concentrating on Shockwave and Flash intros to bad sites, people kept it pretty basic. I remember my favorite sites were Hiphop.Simplenet.com (what was that, The Elements or something -- page was bangin'), this site called Da Cypher (it had MAD Real Audio exclusives, and like 20 porn banners at the bottom of the main page), Hippatodahoppa.com (a now defunct page that was mad good -- put me on to a lot of cats like Eminem and Co Flow when they weren't known by most people), and of course HipHopSite (who gets the lifetime achievement award). Eventually I got sick of reading all the pages and wanted to write my own, so I decided to start my own website. I figured I would review albums, since I'd grown a lot as a rap fan (I remember the first album I bought was Naughty By Nature's Poverty's Paradise -- I should have made a better choice...). Soon after starting the page I figured I'd also include news and "exclusive" Real Audio, which was mainly shit I dubbed from Hot 97 mix shows and b-sides and remixes to CD singles. I was in 8th grade when I started Hip Hop Reviewz on Geocities. The writing sucked and I thought I knew a lot about hip hop when in reality I didn't know very much. But my page soon got pretty tight and a good following. Mainly because I updated often. I had lots of reviews. They were poorly written as hell, so most people checked out the site for the Real Audio.

Reviewz hit it's prime in like 1999 when it was on Simplenet at Reviewz.simplenet.com. Yeah, my site kicked ass if you asked me, most places weren't fuckin' with me. And back then they had a lot of good sites on the internet too, like Undergroundhiphop.com and I think Tha-Real.com was starting up then too. I got invited to the SOHH.com Online Hip Hop Awards. I didn't win but saw a free concert with the Arsonists, Canibus and some other motherfuckers. Shit was cool. Eventually Simplenet booted me because they said the RIAA was bitching about my Real Audio (that was at the beginning of the whole MP3 thing, so mad sites were getting shut down for posting audio 'cause of bitchassbootleggers). So then I registered the domain for the site at ReviewzXL.com (cuz Reviewz.com was taken) and kept that shit poppin' for like another two years. The site was cool, my writing had improved and Sum Shit I Wrote quickly became the most popular part of the site (it least as far as the e-mails I was getting said). People liked hearing me bitch and posting their own complaints. Prolly because right around that time commercial rap started reaching new lows, which it seems to have never stopped doing since like 2000.

Well, now Reviewz is back on the net after like a 9 month hiatus. Got my domain ReviewzXL.com jacked by some asshole cyber-squatting company. It was cool though, the site was getting awful. During the site's prime I used to update everyday right after school (afterwards I used to go chill with Head, Paul, and Asad to play basketball). By 2000 updates got less and less frequent because I started working at Acme (aka Tha Ac) and the same kids I used to play basketball with I was now smoking and drinking with instead. Yeah, so what if weed killed my ambition for the page, I'm back now and that's because I don't see a lot of cool motherfuckin' hip hop sites on the net these days. Oh yeah, this is a biography about me, not the site. Hold on, check the next paragraph.

Yeah yo, so I lived in Jersey during the time when I became cool. Jersey's tight, a lot of people in NJ don't appreciate it, but it's hot. I'm currently out of state though, as I'm now a freshmen at the University of Maryland, right outside of Washington, DC. I plan to next week take the Metro into the Chocolate City and fight any go-go rappers I see. Oh yeah, by the way, any students at UMD holla at me, I need to meet some kids that are into hip hop, that real shit not that fakeness. When I'm not listening to the ill hip hop sounds I'm probably watching wrestling, listening to other music, or getting drunk. I worked at Tha Ac (aka Acme Markets) for like 3 years doing the cash register, so anyone wanna fuck with Princeton Junction Acme and we'll have problems (and that goes for you, Wegmans crew!!). Wrestling used to be a huge hobbie of mine, still is, but shit hasn't been the same since ECW went out of business. That used to be the most fun shit I would do, going to the ECW Arena and wylin' the fuck out. That was more fun than any hip hop event I've been to, and I've been to some tight-ass shows. Commercial hip hop starting dropping the ball hard as hell, so I kinda said fuck them, and as a result started listening to a lot of other genres of music. It turned out okay because the more music you hear helps you as a hip hop fan, since production in rap is based so much on sampling. Favorites include Parliament Funkadelic, Prince, James Brown, Pink Floyd, Tool, and Nine Inch Nails. There's a lot of dope shit out from all genres, so don't hate on shit just because you don't know it.

Currently I'm trying to get a degree in business at University of Maryland and hold it down for hip hop around these parts. Unfortunatly I appear to be failing miserably at both of these goals, as I got rejected from the business school (so now I'm "undecided" -- that's not true, I got rejected) and have not yet found out the deal with the Washington, DC local scene. So just in case I never really get involved and get to know some true heads I figured I'd restart the website so I can still have an outlet to complain about how shitty rap gets all the attention while the good shit isn't even sold in most stores. I guess that's a shitty bio, but this is Sum Shit I Wrote so it's not like I gotta follow any fuckin' normal instructions.

 

Interview with D. Ellis

A lot of things need to be touched upon. Check it:

What I represent
Jersey, Grovers Ill, real hip hop, Tha Ac, Reviewz, and my fuckin' self.

Favorite emcees
Common (still my favorite emcee, straight up, even though I didn't really like the last album), Black Thought (Roots are the best group out there, straight up), KRS-One (fuck LL, he's the G.O.A.T.), Mos Def (Black On Both Sides is still one of the best hip hop albums in recent memory), Ice Cube (just peep the first two albums), and Redman.

Favorite producers
DJ Premier is the best producer hip hop has ever seen. Marley Marl, RZA, Dr. Dre, Muggs (Cypress Hill), and the Bomb Squad (Public Enemy) all did great things for hip hop. Now days Alchemist, Madlib, RJD2, El-P, Celph Titled, J-Zone, and Evidence seem to be holding it down.

Albums I can't live without
I don't have a favorite rap album, it's like a tie between a lot of my favorite LP's. The Roots Do You Want More, Ice Cube Death Certificate, Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique, Wu-Tang Clan Enter The Wu-Tang, Biggie Ready To Die, Public Enemy It Takes A Nation Of Millions, and Common Resurrection. I'm almost sure I forgot something really important though... On the non-rap tip, Prince 1999, Pink Floyd I Wish You Were Here, and Nine Inch Nails Fragile get a lot of love from my Aiwa disc changer.

Favorite comic book character
I used to sweat comics hard as hell back in the day. Spawn was my shit. A lot of Marvel heroes got gay, Spawn was always on that other level.

Favorite movie
Transformers: The Movie. It shaped my life as a child. Seriously.

Best cartoons ever
Obviously "Transformers." "Ren & Stimpy" and "Beavis & Butt-Head" held it down too while I was growing older though. BTW, I don't consider "Simpsons" a cartoon show, it's more like a sit-com. And "Married With Children" is the best sit-com ever.

Hottest Bitches
Halle. I used to be all about Tyra but then I realized that Halle Berry's pretty much on that other level. No one's seeing her. As for WWP, Kovak, Jenna Menella, and Dana Ceruzzi are holdin' it down.

Best radio shows
Future Flavaz with Marley and Pete Rock basically made me a fan of the real shit. I learned so much from that show, they played the real shit like no one else did. I also used to dig Radio-Active with Cosmic Kev out of Philly. They were raw as hell back in like '98. Never heard enough Wake Up Show or Stretch & Bob to fully appreciate it.

Record store of choice
Princeton Record Exchange. In fact, anyone in Mercer county should hit up Prex.com and hit that piece up, it's raw as hell.

Favorite porn mag, porn star, and strip joint
Cheri magazine holds it down for the porn magazines, those fold out posters are the shit. I got mad pages from Cheri on my wall right now. Kobe Tai's my bitch right now, I'm feeling the Asianess. As for strip clubs, Frank's Chicken House in Manville, NJ is the place to be. Holla at Lana for me if you go.

Wrestling shit
I still got tapes of old ECW shit and I just watch it after you see too many poor episodes of Smackdown. I know sometimes it's hard to sit throught the WWE produce these days but just wait for the RVD matches, the Eddy Guerrero matches, and Benoit, the Jericho shit. Because you can't front on those kids skills. Oh, but buy those old ECW tapes, those shits are real.

Beer of choice
I like Miller, so MGD's the shit. But since I'm cheap we're usually rockin' Milwaukee's Best. Beast is the way to go, but mad props to Busch Light and Keystone Light for keeping their price-tags low. Poppov vodka, Everclear, and T-Town shwag often times are parts of my life due to my extreme cheapness.

Best grocery store in the world
Tha Ac, tha-tha-tha Ac. Hell yeah it's Acme. Why? Cuz I worked there, biatch!

Hatred (fuck you's)
West Windsor Police Department for arresting all of my boys, Plainsboro Police Department for arresting me, Hot 97, bitches who won't fuck me, and Olga Bzhoze.

Love (shout-outs)
The whole Grovers Ill crew (Bootleg Zani, Lil' Head, Paul, Frankie Knux), Kauffer, Yunger, Big R, Travalognie (hold down hip hop at South), Cevera, X-Man (I'ma hit you up in B-More), Vinrock, Jang, Pat Gerrity, Hardcore Ian, Steve-O and Vigrid, Bothem, my bro Steve Ellis reppin' hard at UNC, Jon Inzero, Raju (fuck the police!), Will Shu, Dan Sapir (both of y'all are real fuckin' friends), Rose (one of the few females I don't hate!), Evil Monster Kain, anybody who sold me good weed, Infamous S Irfan Shariff, Janet Yu (you're cool, stay that way), Fryer, Maiya, Lana from Frank's Chicken House (Russian style!), Nick Menella (you're gonna get arrested), Dave Weisberg aka Subliminal (you are a real-ass motherfucker), Chip, Jada and other University of Maryland drinking buddies, and Bam and Nino from TRS.

 

 

 

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