The End Of the Dogs: Learn Along With Werner, part 5

I've explained the history of The Dogs on this blog before; but it's really pertinent for this post, so let me give a quick refresher. In the beginning, The Dogs were just Disco Rick's dancers.  He released a trio of albums on JR Records, one as Disco Rick and The Dogs, one as The Dogs featuring Disco Rick and one as simply The Dogs. All three, however, were essentially solo albums, where he did all the beats and rhymes. But then, when he left the label over financial issues, the label decided to make his dancers rappers and continue the group without him. While Disco Rick moved on to make Back From Hell for Luke Records, The dancers, Ant D and Peanut, released the album K-9 Bass. Ant D then recorded a solo album in 1993, featuring the Miami bass child act, The Puppies, and then their career ended pretty definitively when Ant D was sentenced to death row for a brutal double homicide.

At least, as someone with a pretty strong interest in the crew (reading this blog, you may've noticed heh), I thought that was the end. But recently I stumbled upon an online listing for a Dogs title I'd never heard of before. It's not on discogs or anything, and it was new to me, but it was sitting right there on Amazon: "Do da Dogs." Just one third party seller copy. Now, The Dogs is a pretty generic name for a crew, so my first instinct was that this was just another group, probably a midwest punk band or something, that had the same name. Except, while the listing was bereft of comments or info, it did specify a label: JR Records.

Well, obviously, I had to order that shit, and now I've got it. I thought it might be a cheap, cash-in "greatest hits" kinda tape; but no, it's new material. From 1994, making it the last recording The Dogs ever released. It's a single, presumably from a scrapped follow-up to K-9 Bass. Oh, and Amazon got it wrong. It's not "Do da Dogs," it's "Doo da Dog."

Like most everything on JR Records (especially after Disco Rick left), it's produced by the duo of Calvin Mills II and Carlton Mills. And... I'm actually not sure any of The Dogs are actually featured on here?  The liner notes credit two writers: Terrence Edwards Sr and Calvin Mills II. Now, it wouldn't exactly be shocking that Ant and Peanut didn't write their own song... or get writers credit even if they did; but they were repeatedly and plainly credited on their past outings with JR Records  as having written all their previous stuff. And not only do Labrant Dennis and Keith Bell (the Dogs' real names) not appear here, but there's a "featuring" credit, which names Terrance Edwards Sr (who I will assume is the same guy who got the writing credit, despite the alternate spelling of his name) and Kevin Williams. Are they perhaps the real performers on this song? It's tough to call, since they never had the most distinctive voices... at least one of them definitely sounds different. I think. There are two rappers here, that much is certain. And one guy refers to himself as KD (or "KayDee," whatever), and despite the suggestive cover and title, they don't actually curse at all on this song, which isn't the real Dogs' m.o. So, despite the fact that they gleefully, repeatedly refer to themselves as The Dogs... I'm pretty sure it's not actually them.

But it's not actually a bad song. The Mills brothers are reliable producers, and this is a catchy dance song, that doesn't devolve into verseless shout & calls, or all that other junk that plagued Miami bass hip-hop. If you liked K-9 Bass, you'll like this, imposters or no. It's a simple song about a dance (see the cover; that's the whole idea), but while the lyrics aren't saying anything of note, the MCs flow well over the track and manage not to say anything awkward or embarrassing, which is more than a LOT of rappers can say. And, production-wise, this would be even one of the stronger, moving songs on that album.

You've got four versions on here: Radio, Club, The Mutt Mix and The Bone Mix. The Radio version is naturally just a shorter version of the Club version. The Mutt version is a slightly funkier mix, which uses mostly the same track and vocals, but adds a few samples and makes minor improvements. And the Bone Mix is just an instrumental. So the Mutt Mix is the one; but really, the song works well enough that I find myself just listening to the whole tape through every time. A song's gotta be working pretty well for that to be the case. I just wonder who made it.

Ant "D" Revisited: Part 2 - The Murders

[Another two-parter. Click here to read Part 1 first.]

Ant "D" is currently on death row for the April 13, 1996 murders of University of Miami football player Marlin Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins, also know as Lil Bit, who was Ant's former girlfriend and mother of his child (Ant thanks her in the Top Dog liner notes, as well as on previous Dogs' albums, and gives a creepy laugh after shouting out her name on "Ant 'D' Saying Whats Up"). Ant had been seeing Timwanika on and off for over five years ...along with University of Miami basketball player Jennifer Jordan; Watisha Wallace, mother of another one of his children, and Katina Lynn, a nude dancer who toured with the Dogs. At the time, Ant was living alternately with Watisha and Timwanika (when he was arrested two weeks after the murders, he was in bed with Watisha), and a week before the 13th, Timwanika walked out on him. Apparently, there had been several incidents of violence before with Timwanika over his jealousy.

In 1994, he threatened Timwanika and another man with a 9mm outside their home, and in 1995 went to her aunt's house with the same gun, looking for her. He threatened her as well as a man she was with, and hit him with the gun. In another scary '95 incident, Ant "D" was spotted hiding outside of Timwanika's house behind a tree, in a black outfit he wore for his stageshows. He later knocked on the door and threatened to "blow [the] brains out" of a man she was about to go out with. After a series of harrassing cell phone calls that same night, Timwanika wound up going out with Marlin instead of her intended date. Timwanika's high school friend Dekeisha Williams reported several incidents, from frightening phone calls to black eyes and "welts on her neck that looked like handprints."*

Katina had similar incidents with Ant "D" in the past. She testified about times when he grabbed her by the neck and banged her head against the wall, telling her "not to play with his feelings or he would hurt her." Another time, after running into her old high school teacher at the gym, Ant put a gun to her head and told her, "he had better not find out she was messing with someone else or he would kill her, put her body in a bag and throw her somewhere." And again, when she tried to leave him, he put a gun to her head and said she could never leave him and "if she tried, she would 'leave the world.' Then he told her to call him in the morning and don’t play with him.'

On Easter of '96, Ant "D" went to his friend Joseph Stewart's place looking to borrow a gun. Joseph had a broken shotgun he'd found in the trunk of an abandoned car a year earlier that he was keeping under his mattress at his mother's house, which he let him borrow. Katina then went with Ant to go buy bullets.

On April 12th, Timwanika went to a party for a charity basketball game with several girlfriends. Marlin was also there with friends, but they wound up leaving together. When they got outside, they discovered Timwanika's tires had been slashed.

On April 13th, Marlin's roommate and childhood friend, Earl Little, came home to his apartment to discover their door unlocked. When he tried to open the door, he found it was blocked and forced it partway to see a "floor full of blood" and his roommate Marlin lying on the floor, breathing hard. Earl called his name twice, and the second time Marlin turned his head just enough that Earl could see his face. In a 2005 interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Earl said, "He was still alive. I opened the door enough to stick my head in there and I said, 'Marlin.' He was trying to respond. It came out in the trial that the guy hit him 27 times with the butt end of a shotgun. His face was all messed up. It was best he passed away. When I found him, no surgery would have put him back to the way he was."

To quote the court documents exactly, "Marlin Barnes had suffered multiple lacerations all over his face and forehead, on both cheeks and on his lower lip, and had bruising on both cheeks and around his eyes. Barnes’ sinus and nasal bones were broken. His hard palate, or roof of his mouth, was broken, while several of his teeth were broken and missing. Barnes had some abrasions on the back of his head that were consistent with Barnes having been beaten while the back of his head was against carpet. There was also a laceration on the back of his head that was different than the ones on the front, which could have been caused by his falling to the floor and hitting his head, or by being hit on the front of his head as he lay on the hard surface of the floor. There was a "thin" fracture of the occipital bone underthis laceration.Barnes had defensive wounds on both his hands, corresponding in shape to parts of the shotgun... Barnes’ sinus and nasal bones were broken. His hard palate, or roof of his mouth, was broken, while several of his teeth were broken and missing."

Apparently, Ant assaulted and beat Marlin down as soon as he opened the door; then continued to beat him with the shotgun while he was on the floor. He then left Marlin and went to look for Timwanika. It's believed that some of Marlin's face wounds caused bleeding and hemorrhaging in and around his eyes; which left him blind as he attempted to walk around the apartment, ultimately collapsing against the door.

Tamwanika was also still alive when police found her, "lying face down next to the bed. She was 'gurgling' as if she were trying to breathe but her lungs were full of fluid. She had suffered obvious trauma to the back of her head; [Coral Gables police officer Dan] Oppert observed a great deal of blood and what appeared to be exposed brain matter." According to the physical evidence, Tamwanika was hiding under the bed and dragged out. She had defensive wounds on her arms and hands, including broken fingers and fingernails. Blood was even found sprayed on the ceiling. Tamwanika was airlifted to a nearby hospital where she soon died.

After the murder, Joseph found his shotgun returned but destroyed in the same duffel bag he'd lent to Ant "D" behind some bushes alongside his mother's driveway. Inside there was also a knife and Ant's black outfit. After talking to Ant the next day, Joseph disposed of the gun, knife and clothes, but "saved the duffel bag because he didn’t notice any blood on it, and planned on using it again." Police didn't find out about Joseph’s involvement until his girlfriend, Zemoria Wilson, told her bus driver about the incident on a return trip from Chicago.

Ant later saw Katina, told her conflicting stories about his whereabouts during the murder and told her, "That was good for her ass. The bitch shouldn’t have been cheating on me." He was finally arrested for the murders after a phone tip to the police on April 30, 1996. He was 24 at the time; Timwanika and Marlin were both 22.

There. I don't think another post on this blog will ever be as grim as that. This has to be the most brutal case in hip-hop (to date). To be fair to all parties, however, I should point out that Ant "D" did plead not guilty to the charges and I believe still maintains his innocence (the most recent information I could find was a denied appeal in 2002). Anyway, I promise the next post I make will be much more upbeat.

* By the way, pretty much all of the information and quotes in this half of the piece are coming from The Supreme Court of Florida's published statements (91 pages) of the case.

Tags: Ant D

Ant "D" Revisited: Part 1 - The Music

I got a couple questions after posting my last 2-part blog entry on Disco Rick (click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2), mainly about The Dogs' member Ant "D." It's been a almost ten years since I wrote the article, and I kind of breezed over Ant D's album, and of course his horrible crime... Ant "D" was mainly just a tangent in a piece focused on Disco Rick. But it's damned interesting tangent (in a very morbid kind of way), so I thought I'd go back now and take a look back at the music... and the murders.

Disco Rick and The Dogs was always really a solo act... the Dogs were just the name of whoever he toured with: hypemen, DJ, etc. But when Disco Rock left Joey Boy Records for a new label (Luke Records) and a new crew (The Wolfpack), Joey Boy decided to keep the Dogs' highly successful/ marketable name alive by giving it to Rick's dancers, Ant "D" and the Amazing Peanut, who suddenly got promoted to rappers. So, given that dubious origin, Ant "D"'s 1993 solo album featuring The Puppies, Top Dog, is surprisingly not too terrible.

Like most of the Joey Boy releases at that time, it's produced entirely by in-house producers Calvin Mills II and Carlton Mills, which is a good thing. After all, Ant "D" (by the way, if you're wondering why the "D" is in quotes, I don't know - it just is) has the approximate rapping skills of a professional athlete, so if he works, he works because he's essentially an in-studio creation. ...That said, to his credit, he does apparently write all his own lyrics here - at least according to the liner notes. Of course, it says, "all lyrics by Labrant Dennis [Ant's real name]," which would mean all the guest MCs' verses as well... so I'm guessing the album credits aren't telling the whole story here. Heck, they don't even name the guest MCs... but more on that later.

So, the album begins and ends with forgettable skits about two guys very excited to have the new Top Dog tape. But once we're past that we get right into one of the nicest (not "next level" exceptional or anything, but just really engaging and fun) Miami bass beats you're likely to hear, called "We Wanna Party." Perhaps the best thing about this album is that Ant "D" raps through the entire thing. It isn't 50% "shout and call" tracks, or long instrumental fillers devoted solely to car stereo system testing baslines. Don't get me wrong, this album does have the low frequency prolonged, programmed rumble you'd expect from a Miami-bassed artist at this time; but on this album it's clearly secondary; an afterthought to making enjoyable songs anybody can listen to without a jeep full of coffin-sized woofers.

Next up is the prerequisite track based off of Planet Patrol's "Play At Your Own Risk" (hey, I said this was a solid entry into the Miami bass music genre, not that it was revolutionary), followed by the first of only two songs to actually feature The Puppies. The other is the single, "Break It Down," with Ant "D" and Big Boy sharing the mic - Tamara is name-checked, but never rhymes. You've got a few other typical dance tracks, like "Work It" and "Get It Get It," and one ultra-corny love song called "Good Thing," where Ant slows it down almost to a spoken word piece. The first verse is about being true to a good relationship when you find it (something we know came from the heart and his real life experiences), and the second is more of a "do what your parents tell you to do" "Hey Young World"-type thing.

By and large, Top Dog is a collection of nothing but upbeat, fun party rhymes making for a fast-moving (the whole album just barely tops half an hour, since almost all the songs are just 3 minutes long), family friendly experience. Not what you'd expect, really, from a member of The Dogs, and certainly not when you consider what we now know he'd go on to do later...

Even on the hardcore posse cut (and only song with explicit lyrics), "Here Come Them J-Boys" (the chorus is "Here come them Joey Boys"), which features... well, I don't know. I'm gonna guess Ace the Bulldog and at least one of the Miami Boyz. They do name check themselves, but except for Ant, the MCs seem to have difficulty with ennunciation. So what you wind up with is a lot of really violent, realy slurred lyrics, like:

"I'm the Bulldog;
I've got the heart of steel
On the real,
These gangstas love to kill.
[something] from the knife wound,
Then I'ma drink your blood with a spoon!
...
Grabbed my nine
And shot a girl in the chest.
Now that was real messed up and hated.
Step to me, girl,
And even God couldn't save ya.
So, lay low before I pull ya card;
Don't snitch on the boulevard.
I told you once;
You didn't follow example.
Now your family must be dismantled!"

Another one of the MCs directs his verse towards Disco Rick:

"Let me talk about this cat
That tried to diss Ant D;
But you know that you gots to come clean.
I'm not even gonna say your name,
'Cause, punk, you don't deserve that kind of fame.
Tryin' to make girls jiggle;
I heard at the store, 'Wiggle, Wiggle.'"

But, yeah. What I was saying... even on this track, Ant D leaves the curses, violence and dissing to his guests, and keeps his verse relatively clean and non-threatening. Like Jose Armada, Jr. of Joey Boy Records said, "It really shocked me because he was a quiet guy, not that violent at all. But I hadn't seen him in three years. I guess a lot can happen in that time."*

The only other non-party song, "Ya Gotta 'Go'" (I don't know why the word "Go" is in quotes either... I guess Ant "D" just has a thing for quotation marks), takes on a disturbing new subtext when you listen to it now, knowing what happened. It's about Ant dealing with a cheating girlfriend. He decides to video-tape her in a gangbang (classy all the way), but the infidelity still gets him so mad "I was so mad, I just pulled out my glock." But in the end, he thinks better of it all, and just tells her, "you gotta go." Tragically, he didn't have those second thoughts in real life.

[Continued in a follow-up post being added immediately.]

* Taken from a 1996 article titled "Business is Booming," by John Floyd. Most of it has nothing to do with Ant D, but he does also say, "[The Dogs'] stuff has always sold steady... It's sad to say, but it's really picked up [since Dennis's arrest]. The whole thing is just crazy."

Tags: Ant D, The Dogs, The Puppies