The Medicine Men

The Medicine Men
Also known as	Beats By The Pound
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana
Years active	1995 - present
Labels	No Limit/Priority/EMI Records Tommy Boy/Warner Bros. Records Overdose Entertainment
Associated acts	Master P, Soulja Slim, Mystikal, Snoop Dogg, 6 Shot, Montell Jordan, Mia X
Website	myspace
Members
KLC Mo B. Dick Craig B
Past members
Odell Carlos "C-Los" Stephens

The Medicine Men, formerly known as Beats by the Pound, is a four-man hip hop and R&B platinum-selling remix and production team.^[1]

The group is composed of the former In-house production team (KLC, Mo B. Dick, Craig B, Odell) for Master P's No Limit Records, as well as some new artists, and was responsible for the production of the majority of the releases from No Limit Records during the days it was distributed by Priority Records,^[2] which includes the production of songs by Master P, Mystikal, Snoop Dogg, and 6 Shot.^[2][3] The group is headed by the producer KLC and is based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Since leaving No Limit Records, the group operates under the company Overdose Entertainment. Beats by the Pound transformed No Limit Records from a little-heard underground West Coast label into a Southern powerhouse that sold over 50 million units and was nominated Producers of the Year by the The Source magazine awards in 1999, and ranked #1 in The Source magazine Power 30 producers the same year. The group signed an artist–album deal with Tommy Boy Records in the late 1999. Two years later, the group released its first album, The Actual Meaning—performed by "6 Shot" and released by Street Level and, in 2006, two mixtapes called Overdose Entertainment & The Medicine Men present Live From The Infirmary Vol.1 and Calicoe the Champ, "Ground Hog Day. Because of Voodoo & Blacklisting from Master P, The Medicine Men aka Beats By The Pound never got recognize real well after leaving No Limit Records back in 1999!.^{[citation needed]}

Biography

KLC (The Drum Major)

KLC was born Craig Stephen Lawson in New Orleans, LA, and is the lead producer of The Medicine Men. He grew up in the Melpomene Projects, and then moved to a house off of the Parkway in Uptown New Orleans. Craig's father was a saxophonist, which fueled his musical interest from childhood. He was nicknamed The Drum Major even before he joined the band at Green Middle School. He became attached to the cadences of a marching band's snare—the sound that would later influence his beats. He has stated that his one-year-old daughter Crashan was playing with his sound equipment one day and inadvertently helped him to develop the beat for one of his songs, which was "Bout It, Bout It." He made his rapping debut on Mia X's "Mama's Family," from the album Unladylike. His most notable tracks productions include "Bout It, Bout It", "No Limit Soldiers", "Make 'Em Say Uhh!", and "Down 4 My Niggaz." He is credited for producing songs for Mystikal, Fiend, C-Murder, Snoop Dogg, Bun B, Soulja Slim, T.I., David Banner, Ludacris, and Paul Wall. He currently produces music and also rhymes. He also owns a record label called Overdose Entertainment with artists Calicoe the Champ, Byou2ful, and protégé producer Elvin Presley.

Mo B. Dick

Also known as Raymond E. Poole, he was born in Morgan City, Louisiana. He recently changed his name to Ruhi Anubis Yazid. He is known by his fans and colleagues as the beatsmith and hooksmith for No Limit Records and is co-founder of Beats by the Pound. He is also the cousin of the hip hop mogul and former No Limit CEO Master P. The former No Limit producer comes with the solo joints, preferring down-tempo R&B over gruff, Dirty South Gangsta jams. Tracks are slow and smooth, reveling in moody keyboard soliloquies and high-pitched crooning . He released his very first solo track was on the CC Waterbound Critical Condition album called "All This Dick". His second single was off No Limit Records' I'm Bout It soundtrack, with a song called "That Thing is on". He sings the chorus on songs such as "Goodbye to my Homeys", "Mr. Ice Cream Man", "Gangstafied" and "pop goes my 9". His third solo song was on Mean Green Presents and is called "Tell Me When" & his fourth was on 6 Shot album "Actual Meaning" called " Xxxtra Skin". His first solo CD, "Gangsta Harmony", was released in 1999 on Priority Records. This CD was the second No Limit CD that was strictly R&B next to Sons of Funk in 1998. Present day today still produces, & sings on chorus for artists like "King Kun", "Kazmere Johnson", "Janelle Nadine", "Cash Crop"," Dubbs" from "2 R Tina" & "Wonder" from "The Purple Pimpalishus Orchestra".

Craig B

Born Craig Damian Bazile, of New Orleans, Louisiana, Craig B was a member of No Limit's producing team Beats By The Pound . He has been producing music since the early nineties. The most famous songs that include his work are "The Party Don't Stop" (Mia X feat. Master P & Foxy Brown), "Woof" (Snoop Dogg feat. Mystikal & Fiend) and "It Ain't My Fault" (Silkk The Shocker & Mystikal).

Odell

Born Odell Vickers Jr. is a Louisiana-based musician who was an in-house musician for Cash Money Records before moving over to No Limit Records. One of the most notable contributions by Odell was his keyboard work on the Manny Fresh-produced "Drag ’Em n da River" by UNLV, a Mystikal diss song at the time. Odell produced a lot of harsh theme dramatic tracks that played on various No Limit movies, including C-Murder first & second albums intro's & outro's. He sang on many Beats by the Pound-produced albums for artists such as C-murder, Master P,Mystikal, Mr.Serv on and Mia X. Odell also has a song and video from foolish soundtrack called "Nothing Stays the Same" featuring Porsha. Present day today Odell has his own record label called Dellsong Music, which he produces & sings on a couple of songs. Also has an artist named "Khali" which he is feature singing on some tracks off his album "Tragedy and Hope".

References

1. ^ "Rap Coalition update 2000". http://www.rapcoalition.org/update_june_2000.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-09. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Vh1 Magester P Biography". http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/master_p/bio.jhtml. Retrieved 2006-09-09. 
3. ^ "Allmusic Guide for Beats by the Pound". http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p355353. Retrieved 2006-09-09.