As a member of the group UTFO, he was heard on one of the most influential and widely imitated songs of commercial hip-hop’s early years.
Kangol Kid, who as a rapper in the group UTFO was a key contributor to the 1984 single “Roxanne, Roxanne,” one of the most influential and widely imitated songs of commercial hip-hop’s early years, died on Saturday morning at a hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 55.
The cause was complications of colon cancer, said Lion Lindwedel, his publicist.
“Roxanne, Roxanne,” released on Select Records, was the 1984 equivalent of a viral hit. It sold a few hundred thousand copies and went to No. 10 on the Billboard R&B singles chart and No. 77 on the Hot 100, but its influence was far vaster than statistics could capture.
The song was written from the perspective of three men getting shut down by the same woman, the elusive (and imaginary) Roxanne. Kangol Kid opened the song memorably:
She wouldn’t give a guy like me no rap
She was walking down the street so I said “Hello
I’m Kangol from UTFO.” And she said “So?”
And I said “So? Baby don’t you know?
I can sing, rap and dance in just one show
’Cause I’m Kangol, Mr. Sophisticator
As far as I’m concerned, ain’t nobody greater.”
“Roxanne, Roxanne” was produced by the group Full Force and based on a sample of “The Big Beat” by the rocker Billy Squier, which the producer Howie Tee had brought to the group. It spawned more than two dozen answer tracks and retorts, many by female rappers, most notably “The Real Roxanne” by the Real Roxanne (also produced by Full Force) and Roxanne Shante’s “Roxanne’s Revenge.”. At the height of the Roxanne song wars, UTFO and the Real Roxanne would share concert bills.
It was a cultural zeitgeist song that reached across the country. When Dr. Dre began working with Ice Cube, he urged him to perform a version of the song at clubs to help generate crowd excitement. Ice Cube’s take was called “Diane, Diane.”
Kangol Kid — sometimes called the Kangol Kid — was born Shaun Shiller Fequiere in Brooklyn on Aug. 10, 1966, and grew up in the East Flatbush neighborhood. His father, Andre, was a taxi driver; his mother, Jean, was a housekeeper at a hospital.
Kangol Kid started off as a B-boy, or breakdancer; he and a neighborhood friend, Doctor Ice, were known as the Keystone Dancers, and they toured with the early-1980s rap group Whodini, including on the New York City Fresh Fest tour, and with Full Force. They appeared on Phil Donahue’s talk show and were invited to dance at a birthday party for Dustin Hoffman’s daughter.
He received his nickname before he achieved fame because he was known for wearing Kangol hats, and he ended up being sponsored by the company — one of hip-hop’s earliest brand partnerships. (The arrangement spanned his entire life; long after his initial success, the company provided him gratis product.)
Formed in Brooklyn, UTFO (sometimes rendered as U.T.F.O., it stands for Untouchable Force Organization) was a foursome: Kangol Kid, Doctor Ice, the Educated Rapper and the D.J. Mix Master Ice. The group occasionally referred to itself as the “Village People of rap” because of its members’ distinct visual identities.
In David Toop’s essential early-rap history book, “The Rap Attack” (1985), Kangol Kid explained one of his lyrical innovations: “Another new thing is Z-rap. It’d be like a code language. I would talk to him and his name’s Doctor Ice. I would say, ‘Dizoctor Izice. Yizo hizo bizoy wizon’t youza kizoy mesover herezere?’ — that’s just saying, ‘Yo, homeboy, why don’t you come over here?’ and what I did is make a rap out of that language.” It was a style he deployed on “Roxanne, Roxanne,” and it anticipated the later linguistic zigzagging of E-40, Snoop Dogg and others.
In 1985 UTFO released its debut album, called simply “UTFO,” which continued the Roxanne saga with “Calling Her a Crab.” In a 1985 concert review, Jon Pareles of The New York Times praised the group for its “syncopated, overlapping patter” and “spitfire delivery.”
UTFO would go on to release four more albums, and became popular enough for their own slot on the Fresh Fest tour, a road show that was then an index of hip-hop’s growing popularity. In 1985, UTFO performed at the Apollo Theater, believed to be a first for a rap group. In 1987, they collaborated with the heavy metal band Anthrax.
After UTFO’s run in the spotlight, Kangol Kid wrote and produced for other artists, including the group Whistle and the baseball star Darryl Strawberry, who recorded a novelty rap song, “Chocolate Strawberry.” He did voice-over work and wrote a music-industry advice column, first for Black Beat magazine and then for AllHiphop.com.
In the last decade, Kangol Kid was actively involved with cancer charities. In 2012 he was honored by the American Cancer Society for his fund-raising efforts as co-founder of the Mama Luke Foundation. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in February.
He is survived by his parents; three brothers, Joel, Andy and Alix (all memorably name-checked on UTFO’s “Lisa Lips”); three sons, T.Shaun, Andre and Giovanni; a daughter, Amancia; and seven grandchildren.
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