- published: 26 May 2008
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Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is an English DJ, musician, music producer, artist and co-founder of Allido Records. He currently works with his band under the music alias of Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.
While his debut album Here Comes the Fuzz failed to make an impact on the charts, his second album, Version included three top ten hits and won Ronson a Brit Award for Best British Male Artist in 2008. His third studio album, Record Collection, was released on 27 September 2010.
Ronson was born at the Wellington Hospital, St John's Wood, to writer/socialite Ann Dexter-Jones and one-time band manager and real estate entrepreneur Laurence Ronson. His parents are of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, with ancestors from Austria, Russia, and Lithuania, and Ronson was brought up in Conservative Judaism. Ronson's family name was originally Aaronson, but his grandfather Henry Ronson changed it to Ronson. Ronson is the nephew of property tycoon Gerald Ronson. Ronson is related to British Conservative politicians Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Leon Brittan, as well as Odeon Cinemas founder Oscar Deutsch. Ronson has twin sisters who are two years younger than him, Charlotte Ronson, a fashion designer, and Samantha Ronson, a singer and DJ. Ronson also has five younger half-siblings. Alexander and Annabelle, through his mother's remarriage to Mick Jones as well as Henrietta, David and Joshua, through his father's remarriage to model Michele First. After his parents broke up, his mother married Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones, which contributed to a childhood surrounded by music.
Domenica "Nikka" Costa (born June 4, 1972) is an American singer whose music combines elements of funk, soul, and blues. She also had a career as a child singer starting in the early 1980s. She is the daughter of notable music producer Don Costa and is married to Australian producer/songwriter Justin Stanley.
Nikka Costa was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her father Don Costa was a notable producer and a musician with many connections in the music business. During her childhood Costa was surrounded by famous musicians and traveled around the world with her father.
At age 5 Costa recorded a single with Hawaiian singer Don Ho. Italian producers Danny B. Besquet and Tony Renis were working with her father on the album Don Costa Plays the Beatles when they had a brainstorm to produce an album with Nikka singing while her father played acoustic guitar. The album was well-received in Europe and Costa became known as a child star. At age 9 Costa sang with Frank Sinatra in an appearance on the lawn of the White House.
Matt Ford, better known as DJ Format (a near-inversion of his birth name), is a hip hop DJ born in Southampton, England who lives in Brighton. He collaborates frequently with Abdominal on the album Music For the Mature B-Boy and with Abdominal and fellow Canadian rapper D-Sisive on the second full album If You Can't Join 'Em… Beat 'Em, as well as with Akil and Chali 2na from Jurassic 5.
As a youth, Ford's first hip hop influences included A Tribe Called Quest and Main Source. He established a relationship with Jurassic 5 and initially traveled with them as their bus driver. He came to national attention in 2002 when he opened on tour for DJ Shadow. In 2005, If You Can't Join 'Em… Beat 'Em reached the top 10 of the UK indie albums chart.
The Sun named his album If You Can't Join 'Em… Beat 'Em one of the top 100 of 2005, and in 2008 called him "one of the leading lights in the UK scene".
DJ Format's debut album “Music For The Mature B-Boy” was one of the slowburn success stories of 2003. Received with quiet acclaim in the press it quickly became a word of mouth triumph, going on to establish itself as one of the most successful debut artist albums from the UK alternative/urban scene.[citation needed] The campaign was successful for a number of reasons not least its three music videos directed by the then unknown Ruben Fleischer. The most famous of these[citation needed] was the rap and breakdancing costumed animals of ‘We Know Something You Don’t Know’ featuring the vocals of Chali 2na and Akil of Jurassic 5 - played out by a shark and tiger respectively. “Music For The...” also led to Format supporting (alongside regular collaborator MC Abdominal) Jurassic 5 on their European tour, and through subsequent touring in 2003 establishing Format as one of the hottest live hip hop tickets in town[citation needed] culminating in triumphant appearances at Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds festivals and worldwide touring taking in the whole of Europe, North America and Australia.