The Proov: A Biography

 

How it all started...

It all started way back when MC CeeMajor (Cor Giesing, 1975) was introduced to that good ol' vinyl around the age of 12. Hiphop became his main thing when groups like Eric B. & Rakim, EPMD and Public Enemy came out around '87/'88. At High School in Leeuwarden (a small town in the north of Holland) he met DJ Leroy (Leroy Rey, 1974) and his cousin Omar Rey (1974). These treacherous three became close friends and laid down the foundation for The Proov.

Leroy spinned his first records of Earth Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder as a youngster of seven years old and also Omar was engulfed by reggae and soul records at an early age. Because many funk and soul records from the seventies were gettin' used in Hiphop music in the form of samples, they developed a huge interest for Hiphop. After Leroy bought some serious sampling equipment and Cee and Omar perfected their MC skills, there was only one thing missin'... a demo tape. This cassette finally saw the light in the late spring of '97. Named 'Speakerroom', it featured nine dope tracks, mostly inspired by the Native Tongues (Jungle Brothers/DeLaSoul/A Tribe Called Quest/Black Sheep) & The Pharcyde. Leroy was assisted on that cassette by his lil' bro Jeranim, his lil' cousin Brotherick (Omar's younger bro), Ron 'The Don' and Ron's lil'bro Mak-Ill, a production-team which also became known as the Blue Monks. Cee wrote most of the lyrics and Omar oversaw the whole project.

Things start moving...

The then very popular Dutch radio show Dutch Masters played a couple of songs of the demo, including 'What I'm Not'. The remix of this track caught the attention of Brian R. Busby and René Phillips from CMC Records and appeared on their second Double Dutch project (along with the original version, released July 1998) and featured Skate The Great (Next Chapter/Dutch Masters). By then, things really started movin'… Between 1997-'99 The Proov was the opening-act for Organized Konfusion and The Alkaholiks, played on festivals like Double Talk (with Black Star and Company Flow) and Back To Planet Rock (with Afrika Bambataa and Extince) and rocked the house allover the country. Their DJ at the time was DJ TLM, who now forms a dynamic duo with Brainpower. CMC gave the Proov the opportunity to record an EP (released on vinyl only) called 'Traditions'. Recorded in 1999 and released in January 2000, it features eight diverse tracks, mostly produced by Ron 'The Don'. CeeMajor wrote most of the tracks and Omar Rey was involved as MC and co-producer. Besides this, Couzin Steve, Murth The Man-O-Script (Bassline/Top Notch), Shockwave (Zombi Squad), Krewcial (Gentse funk baby!), Brainpower, Skate The Great and Master Lee all appeared on the record as well.

2000 became the Magic year for The Proov, though. MC Gumshoe (Sven Willemsen, 1977) and DJ S-Dub joined the ranks to give more energy to the live shows because Omar, Leroy and Ron all disappeared from stage. The single 'Feel the Heat' (feat. Colombo) came out in May, accompanied by the most expensive video in Dutch music history so far. The CD 'Traditions' was released in November and had seven more tracks than the EP, produced by Leroy, Ron 'The Don' and other Blue Monks. ‘Traditions’ was well received by the Dutch media (OOR, Volkskrant, and many others) and gained the title ‘Pop disque de la semaine’ by VPRO-radio twice. The year Two Thousand also meant the formation of The Proov as a full LIVE band: drums, bass, keys, rhodes, guitar, percussion, DJ and two MC's. They hit the road to promote the CD and played at nearly every major Dutch festival, including Lowlands (2000 and 2001), Noorderslag, Drum-Rhythm and North Sea Jazz. Media attention was still running high and they were nominated for the Heineken Crossover Award. On television they could be seen at VPRO’s De Jong in Uitvoering and NPS’ Paradiso Live, the latter along with Soul legend Leon Ware (producer/co-writer of Marvin Gaye’s ‘I want you’ LP), Carleen Anderson (Young Disciples) and Michael Franti (Spearhead). Other artists wanted a piece of The Proov vibe as well: CeeMajor was featured on the debut-album of french house-dj Charles Shillings and the Jagga Bite Soundsystem together with Gumshoe, who appeared also on Loes Lee’s single ‘Semiotics’. The whole period of touring was quite intens though and Omar Rey as well as Leroy left the group by the end of 2001. A 1-year period of silence followed...

The Proov returns...

But things weren't to stay this way... When Omar Rey and Perquisite started to work on their North West Metropolis project in the summer of 2002 they soon asked CeeMajor to join the project. During these sessions, The Proov, consisting of MC's CeeMajor and Gumshoe and DJ S-Dub, decided to release their new single on Unexpected. The result is the Nebula 12", a banging maxi-single which features three fresh tracks and their instrumentals.

The 12" opens with 'Nebula (Don't Let It Fool Ya)', a pumping, though very jazzy track, (produced by Perquisite) which is about the Femme Fatale as we all know her. Gumshoe: "Nebula tells us about the tricky business for men meeting well educated, highly sophisticated and emancipated ladies nowadays. They're so demanding..... Then what is this reality like? And am I really holding on (as man) in that reality or am I continually creating a delusional buffer for coping with that reality?" CeeMajor: "When I first heard this particular beat by Perquisite, I immediately thought about the summer...and beautiful women. So as usual I wrote a rhyme about a girl, who's almost untouchable and unreachable, not at all impressed by a man's intentions and who's very strong mentally....for example some of the women you see on paintings by Gustav Klimt. Don't let it fool ya know, they can heat men up and cool 'em down whenever they want....." Next is 'Process the Matter' (produced by Colt) which is about the process of writing rhymes. Gumshoe: "It's a search for the right ingredients...The artistic underlying question was, is it really necessary to say something to mean something?" CeeMajor: "The concept behind the track comes from Gumshoe's intricate mind frame...let's see if y'all can follow it. And don't front on the beat from Colt too." The last track, 'Elastics' is taking you to the B-B-O-Y by PROOVed manners. A nice battle-track with a beat provided by former Proov-producer Leroy. CeeMajor: "Straight up b-boy braggadocio over a breakbeat kinda track from Leroy...there's always a great response from the crowd when we perform this live." Gumshoe: "Jet-lagging the time that is!!!"

After recent performances in Praha, Czechia and the Melkweg, Amsterdam, the Proov will start touring around on march 13th when their new 12" will be officialy launched at the Ekko (Utrecht, Neth.).

 

Discography:

CMC/Soul Relat. CMC/Soul Relat.  CMC/Soul Relat.  Soul Relat./Edel  Unexpected
1998                    2000                    2000                    2000                   2003



(Members of) The Proov also appeared on:



CMC/Soul Relat. CMC/Soul Relat.   Harlem Jungle      Wagram              Mad Drum              Unexpected
1999                    2000                     2001                     2002                  2003                     2003