Ming & FS are the lords of the junkyard.
Influenced by punk and hardcore sounds at an early age, Ming started playing guitar in punk bands at age 15. In high school, Ming´s tastes moved into the progressive breakbeat sounds of Mickey Finn, Prodigy and Meat Beat Manifesto, and led him to discover early forms of Jungle, while attending Miami University for Audio Engineering. At this time, Ming grew addicted to the turntable, and began to DJ sets that would be an early taste of future sets with FS.
To this day, hip–hop is the essence of everything FS does. DJing in Connecticut in 1983 at the tender age of 10, FS began flipping beats on a home built mixer he made out of an Atari and some components from Radio Shack. His early influences include New York City Breakers (his first record he ever bought), Big Daddy Kane, Juice Crew and Just Ice. Studying jazz piano at Brooklyn Conservatory, FS began to listen to jazz like Herbie Hancock, Winton Kelly, McCoy Turner and started producing hip–hop and R&B for Coolio, Brandy, Channel Live and Carl Thomas.
The legendary story of Ming and FS as a team begins in 1996, when the two collided at a party in Manhattan. Together under the moniker Lead Foot, they put out several breakbeat tracks, and eventually opened their own production studio/label Madhattan Studios in 1997. Introduced to San Francisco´s Om Records, and signed to the label in 1998, they garnered more attention from the underground music community producing tracks for the likes of Omzone, Terra Deva and DJ Spooky, as well as tracks for Jungle Sky and Ubiquity Recordings. On the Madhattan Studios label, they also released the rare and highly collected breaks 12" inch series "Bar Mitzvah Breaks" which DJ Craze used to win two DMC championships (1999 and 2000). That record also found its way into the hands of Mix Master Mike and Z Trip, both of which incorporated it into their sets.
Their debut full–length album Hell´s Kitchen, released on Om Records in August of 1999, achieved huge critical acclaim. Gaining features in URB (Next 100), Mixer, BPM Culture, XLR8R and Spin, Ming and FS´ reputation as premier up and coming producers enticed other established artists to seek the duo for remix work and has led to collaboration and remixes with Puff Daddy, Aphrodite, Craig David, Glenn Lewis, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Suzanne Vega.
Beyond their production prowess, the Ming and FS live show has earned them their biggest following. Their four turntable spectacular is the performance that DJ´s from around the world come to see. DMA Magazine´s Willy Vega explains "If I started practicing today, I´d still die of old age before I could do that!!!" Performing before masses from 1,000 to 40,000, Ming and FS have shared the stage with the likes of Sting, Moby, Run DMC, Armand Van Heldon, Mark Farina, Paul Oakenfold, The Roots, Mix Master Mike and Kruder and Dorfmeister. Remixing tracks live, creating original works of music using turntables and accapellas strictly, has created such "live only" classics as Black Sabbath, Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliot, Ludacris and Michael Jackson remixes heard only at Ming and FS shows. Fans know that when Ming and FS come to town, it´s going to go off!
In the fall of 2001, the world got a taste of the sophomore effort, The Human Condition, a gritty experimentation into the sides of house and breaks. Gaining strong support from lifestyle and music magazines such as Billboard, Paper, VIBE and URB, the Human Condition established Ming and FS as a national touring act. New York´s Agency Group head Peter Schwartz signed the duo for all national booking, placing them with other artists in his repertoire including George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, The X–ecutioners and Creed.
Returning to the studio to record their strongest musical achievement to date "Subway Series", Ming and FS come home to the hip–hop staple and heartbeat that is Hell´s Kitchen NYC! Closer to their world–renowned live show than anything they have ever recorded, this new album stands as a hard progressive hip–hop and drum and bass banger.
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