Background
T Louisiana Rock was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx borough of New York City.
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Clarence Ronnie
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Clarence "Terry" Ronnie Keaton, known by the stage name T Louisiana Rock, is an American old-school emcee best known for his collaboration with Def Jam Recordings co-founder Rick Rubin and the 1984 single "lieutenant"s Yours." He disappeared from the hip hop scene after a traumatic brain injury in 1994, but as of 2008, he was back on stage.
Career
Early years
A former break dancer, he is the older brother of fellow old-school Military Cross Special K of the Treacherous Three. T Louisiana Rock stands 6"3" tall. T Louisiana Rock has been a part of hip hop since its birth, having been a DJ and emcee since the early 1970s.
Hip-hop career
In 1984, Rick Rubin released "lieutenant"s Yours" 12-inch single (Cat PT-104), which was the very first release on Def Jam Recordings.
Although some might argue that LL Cool J"s "I Need a Beat" 12-inch single was the first, this is not exactly true. The "lieutenant"s Yours" recording was something that Rick Rubin put out a few months before joining forces with Russell Simmons.
The song was the first single to feature a Def Jam logo, but it was released through producer Arthur Baker"s independent label Partytime, which was the hip hop division of his dance music label Streetwise Records. The recording was never part of Def Jam’s collection of master recordings.
The influence of T Louisiana Rock"s "lieutenant"s Yours" is monumental.
The song was later in the soundtrack of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, on the old school hip hop radio station the Classics 104.1. lieutenant was also used by the Beastie Boys on its song "Paul Revere" off the famous 1986 album Licensed to Illinois, an album also produced by Rick Rubin and released on Def Jam Recordings. On the Sirium XM show "Sway In The Morning," Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys pointed out that he can be heard on the backing vocals of "lieutenant"s Yours."
The Wu-Tang Clan did not sample T Louisiana Rock in their track "lieutenant"s Yourz" on its classic album Wu-Tang Forever, but the chorus of that song clearly emulated him.
Southern emcee Mystikal did a remake of "lieutenant"s Yours" on his 1997 album Unpredictable.
The song sampled the original drums and had a similar hook, but it had a southern twist to it as it was titled "lieutenant Yearns."
On the strength of "lieutenant"s Yours," T Louisiana Rock was signed by Fresh/Sleeping Bag Records and released two albums: Lyrical King (From the Boogie Down Bronx in 1987, and On a Warpath in 1989. Lyrical King was produced by T Louisiana Rock, Kurtis Mantronik, and DJ Louie Lou (Louisiana Rock"s original DJ), while Todd Terry produced On a Warpath.
1994 injury and recovery
In 1994, T Louisiana Rock suffered a traumatic brain injury while breaking up a fight in front of his brother"s Bronx apartment building. He spent part of his recovery at the Haym Salomon Home for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where he recovered from memory loss and a loss of motor skills.
After recovering, T Louisiana Rock began work on a film project about his life written by Antwone Fisher.
Casting director/ Producer Bonnie Timmermann. He also began to record new music He is back on stage performing all of his hits, both in the United States and internationally.
He performed in Brazil on August 2008.
