MC Rage
MC Rage | |
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Birth name | Ronnie Lee |
Origin | Schweinfurt, Germany |
Genres | Hardcore techno |
Occupation(s) | Producer, Emcee |
Years active | 1992–2010 |
Labels |
So-Real Records D-Boy Black Label |
Ronnie Lee also known as "MC Rage", is a German-born American hardcore producer and Emcee based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He became famous while living in Italy where he initiated his recording career in 1991 as Digital Boy’s hype man performing as MC Fresh during the “Technological” tour. He continued with Digital Boy performing as a featured artist on several songs found on the “Futuristic” album. His first successful recording, “Revolution,” by DJ Molella, was released with little to no credit for his participation. The song was the first ever chart topping success for DJ Molella.
After his first single release titled “Don’t You Wanna Be Free” had very little commercial success, this American emcee living in Italy returned with the name “Ronny Money.” Still working closely with Digital Boy, Ronnie wrote the number one hit “The Mountain of King” along with several other songs on Digital Boy’s album “Ten Steps to the Rise”. This was followed by Ronnie’s own first chart topping performance with “Ula La” released in 1993. After a series of successful releases such as “Money’s Back”, “Again and Again” and “Don’t You Know” featuring Jeffrey Jey from The Bliss Team, Ronnie went on to host “Caos Time” on Video Music and a regional radio show. He made a featured appearance on Adriano Celentano’s Quel Punto album in 1994. This was the same year he received recognition as the Male Dance Artist of the Year.
Together with Digital Boy, Ronnie created D-Boy Black label in 1995 and the two focused their energy on the high speed underground techno known as “Hardcore”. Ronnie used the name “MC Rage” as an artist for the first time when D-Boy black Label released “Fuck Macarena” in 1996. This song placed Hardcore music in Billboard’s top ten for the first time ever. Charting in The Netherlands and being released in Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Israel, Russia, Austria, UK and a number of other territories, this chart topper sold in excess of 500,000 copies.
MC Rage released several more singles and two albums which were respectable but did not achieve the commercial success of “Fuck Macarena”. In 1997 Ronnie parted ways with D-Boy and Luca Pretolesi, establishing his own label under the name So-Real Records. By 1998 So-Real Records shared the spotlight as Italy’s top hardcore label with Traxtorm records and had become one of the most respected hardcore labels in the world. So-Real Records expanded into So-Real Music Group and was home to Combined Forces Revenge, D-Boy Black Label, HSC Records, and Ruffneck Classic, releasing what later became iconic titles such as “Hardcore For Life” and “Extreme” along with an extensive merchandising catalog.
MC Rage walked away from the scene in 2004 as the highest paid emcee in the world of Hardcore. His 12+ years in music includes more than 800 live performances, several albums, dozens of singles, video magazines, TV and radio shows, appearances in several magazines as a celebrity model and appearances across the US, Russia, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Scotland, England, Ireland, Spain, Mexico, Croatia, Belgium, Greece and every major city in Italy.
MC Rage returned to music one last time in 2010 when he performed at Number One and was featured on “Hardcore for Life – Resurrection”. He now lives in Las Vegas Nevada with his Wife Patricia and two kids, Brianna and Devin Miles.
Discography
Singles
Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
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NED [1] | ||||||||||||||
1996 | "Fuck Macarena" | 8 | Singles only | |||||||||||
1997 | "Rave Machine" | — | ||||||||||||
1998 | "Santa Claus Is Hardcore" | — | ||||||||||||
"Two the Hard Way" | — | |||||||||||||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||