Tone Loc is an amazing story.
He wasn't a rapper and had no musical background - but a member of The Dust Brothers (producers who did backing music not just for him, but for Young MC, the Beastie Boys, Beck, Korn, Hanson and Santana) liked the sound of his raspy voice, so they wrote lyrics for him to say and composed the music for his albums.
Tone Loc was basically invented by two white guys in a studio.
Chubby Checker was a janitor hired by Dick Clark when Hank Ballard’s “The Twist” started moving up the charts. Dick found a sound alike singer with a smiling face and without the “dirty song” history of Hank Ballad (who had songs like “Sexy Ways”, “Work With Me Annie”, “Annie Had A Baby” et al). As Jesse Jackson would say, “cut his *#@$ off!”.
Sounds a lot like the background of "Hurricane Smith" ... not a very good singing voice, but it sort of grew on you if you let it ... (like mold) ... biggest "hits" were "Who was it" and "Oh, babe, what would you say?".
"English recording engineer and producer who worked with the Beatles; as a musician, used pseudonym "Hurricane" Smith on his self-titled album."
