Keith LeBlanc, Session Drummer For Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, NIN Dies at 69

Keith LeBlanc, the multi-talented drummer/producer who helped shape the sound of early hip-hop with his playing on albums by the Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash has died at 69. LeBlanc’s death was confirmed in a statement from his label, On-U Sound, as well as LeBlanc’s wife, Fran LeBlanc, who told Variety that her husband died on April 4 due to an undisclosed illness.

“All of us at On-U Sound are heartbroken to share the news that the great Keith LeBlanc has passed away,” read a statement from the label.

Over the course of a four-decade career that began with his gig working along bassist Doug Wimbish and guitarist Skip “Little Axe” McDonald as part of the house band for rap pioneers the Sugarhill Gang in the early 1980s, LeBlanc played with and performed on records that spanned electronica, rock and pop.

LeBlanc’s work can be heard on such landmark Sugar Hill records as “Apache” and “8th Wonder,” as well as Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “It’s Nasty” and the 1982 album The Message. In a nod to his versatility, LeBlanc spent the 1980s and 1990s playing sessions with a wide variety of acts, from Ministry to R.E.M., Seal and Annie Lennox, as well as adding his production and engineering expertise to Nine Inc Nails’ landmark 1989 industrial rock classic debut, Pretty Hate Machine.

Born in Bristol, CT in 1954, LeBlanc also had a robust solo career, drumming on tracks for English producer Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound productions. He snagged an unexpected underground solo hit in 1983 with “No Sell Out,” which sampled the voice of late Nation of figurehead Malcolm X over bouncy synths and drum machine beats and is considered one of the first songs to use samples in a commercial release.

He also performed in the rotating lineup of Sherwood’s industrial hip-hop band Tackhead in the late 1980s and early 1990s alongside Wimbish and McDonald after Sherwood was impressed with LeBlanc’s musicianship, inviting the trio to join him in London for experimental sessions.

“Once ensconced in the studio, they continued their sample-based explorations, with the producer as a fourth member manning the mixing desk. This is something they would also replicate in their live set-up, with Adrian dubbing and processing the musicians in real time as they played on stage,” On U’s memorial read. “Cutting records simultaneously as Fats Comet (for the more dancefloor-oriented material) and Tackhead (for their more aggressive political tracks), they also became the second incarnation of The Maffia, the uncompromising backing band of Mark Stewart [the Pop Group]. The members were additionally involved in solo projects, session assignments, and appearances in other mysterious guises on the On-U roster, such as Barmy Army and Strange Parcels.”

In a statement, Sherwood said, “Keith was a major, major talent ..incredible drummer, producer and musician.. Along with Doug, Skip and also dearly missed Mark Stewart we enjoyed some of the most creative times together that shaped my musical life. Thank you Brother Keith..Love Forever. Heart and Soul.”

LeBlanc also released six solo albums during that period, including his 1986 album Major Malfunction, which was inspired by the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Throughout his musical adventures, LeBlanc folded in hip-hop, spoken word, film/TV samples and a mix of live drumming and programmed beats, releasing material through his Blanc Records label, which also offered fans budget-priced collections of “sample packs” featuring beats and effects.

Among his other notable recordings is an appearance on “Little” Steven Van Zandt’s 1985 anti-apartheid all-star single “Sun City,” as well as collaborations with McDonald’s blues-leaning group Little Axe and writing/producing for Living Colour, Peter Gabriel and The Cure and drumming on songs by James Brown, the Rolling Stones, Stone Roses and Sinead O’Connor, among many others.

Check out some of LeBlanc’s music below.

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