Monk One

The Greenwood Rhythm Coaltion / Wax Poetics

Andrew Mason, better known as DJ Monk-One, has been a fixture on New York City’s music scene for over 15 years. After playing bass and guitar in several Punk/Funk outfits, he began DJ-ing seriously in the early ‘90s, playing a series of legendary loft parties in Brooklyn and selling mixtapes through New York’s then ubiquitous street vendors. In the mid-90’s a neighbourhood friend opened a tiny hip hop record store and encouraged Monk to create special mixes for the shop. The store was Fat Beats, and it was these tapes that first bore the name “Monk-One,” after the musical innovator Thelonious Monk, a major inspiration.

By this time Monk was DJ-ing at a wide variety of NYC clubs and lounges, including such landmark venues as SOB’s, Nell’s and Twilo.
In 1998 Monk joined the legendary Underground Railroad Radio Show, New York City’s longest running hip hop radio show. The Underground Railroad, founded in 1991 on WBAI 99.5FM, has featured a string of top quality resident DJs, including DJ Spinna, who immediately preceeded Monk. The casually devastating sets Monk dropped on the show, combining rare original break beats and cutting edge hip hop, became legendary. The archived recordings of these sets at hiphopmusic.com are popular destinations for web-surfers the world over.

Monk was not content to simply remain a beloved NYC underground DJ. In 2001, dissatisfied by the publications they saw out there, he and friend Andre Torres began talking about starting a music magazine. In early 2002 they released the debut issue of Wax Poetics, which has since gone on to become the world’s most respected read for discriminating diggers and intelligent hip hop heads. Monk is a Contributing Editor and the unofficial ambassador for Wax Poetics, DJ-ing magazine events and authoring several mix CDs co-sponsored by Wax Poetics and companies like Adidas and Converse.
Monk’s Dream, an official mix CD that showcased some of Monk’s precious musical gems, was released by Turntable Lab in 2002 and created worldwide demand. Since then Fat City Recordings have released a follow up mix, “Still Dreaming”, as well as featuring Monk’s production skills on “Come To the Water” from Martin “J-Walk” Brew’s LP "No Room In The City".

In February of 2005 Japan’s Ten12 Records released the first single from the Together Brothers, a collaboration between Monk and lyricist Emskee. And also released the E.P. “Phonolog”, a collection of Monks beats and productions.
More recently, in collaboration with Esse, Monk has released an EP under the moniker of The Greenwood Rhythm Coalition which has received praise far and wide. Link: http://www.myspace.com/waxpoeticsmagazine

Albums

Still Dreaming

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