See Also: MTD
Nonsense Media: Listen to MP3s
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Mentally Transmitted Disease, known as MTD, found his beginnings at the age of 9. His sister would sneak him mix tapes of the Black Crows, Metallica, Megadeath, Faith No More and Alice in Chains as she taught him the importance of listening to the message and not only to the sweet guitar riffs in the background. MTD was a rock enthusiast and hated mainstream rap until he got a dose of Rage Against the Machine that would send him to later influences of Doseone, Ozomatli and Jurassic 5. MTD then stumbled upon one of the hypest local hip-hop scenes in Orlando, Vocalization, where little did he know a new genre of contagious hip hop would form. At Will's Pub is where MTD would meet the founding member of the Epidemic, Kelly Shockley.
It must be something about being a kid and having the ability to recognize truth because at the age of 10 Kelly Shockley recognized good music coming from the core of a speaker system inside of a trunk that reverberated bass lines of a song by the Beastie Boys as he skateboarded through the neighborhood. It was at that moment he would fall in love with hip-hop. He would listen to groups such as De La Soul, Poor Righteous Teachers and Rage Against the Machine. None of which would be an influence to him as much as the teachings of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. After being in the music scene for over 10 years with local bands such as Instruments of Construction, it was time that the world felt what Kelly lived. In 2004 Nonsense Records was born, bringing with him The Epidemic.
"He's driving the bus and I'm on it," says James "The Milkman" Curry about Kelly Shockley. As the bass player for The Epidemic, James has been a devoted musician and lover of the art of funk. James and Kelly have been at the music world together since their days in Instruments of Construction. Hailing from Panama City, James was inspired to play the bass after seeing The Roots in concert in 1998; he would soon strum bass lines to poets and to the scratching of deejays. James music career did not start with a bass but with turntables and house parties. He was inspired by the tunes of Houdini, LL Cool J and 2 Live Crew and later Wayman Tisdale. Now as the bassist, James Curry is the foundation of The Epidemic, making sure everyone stays in the groove while keeping funk alive.
MTD and The Epidemic wouldn't be hip hop without resident DJ Stranger. When asked why hip hop and not something like rock, he says "It found me." Coming from a family of deejays his first hip hop record was A Tribe Called Quest followed by Gangstarr. The music of Prince Paul, Magic Mike, X-men and more would send him on his way to the world of being a deejay. His "dj education" started in house parties and nights at Dante's. He has been the resident deejay for the Anti-Surface Showcase and has opened for some of the best hip-hop groups such as Grey Skull, Sleep of Old Dominion, Bleubird, Drum & Tuba and more. Now Stranger serves as the master scratcher for The Epidemic.
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