DJ Tomekk

Tomekk was born in Krakow. His father was a Moroccan pianist and his mother a visual artist. At the age of ten, Kuklicz met a DJ for the first time and was inspired by his work. That same year, his father emigrated to Germany and Tomekk followed him to West Berlin, where he lived in Wedding and attended the Diesterweg High School. His father died five years later. Tomekk lived in the children's home "Frohsinn" in Berlin's Wedding district from the age of 15 to 18. During this time he met the rapper Sido, five years his junior. Sido would later dedicate one of his songs to Tomekk. As a teenager, Tomekk got his own radio show on 98.8 KISS FM Berlin called "Boogie Down Berlin". At 17, he made his first recording contract with Stuff Records, and in 1991 released the single "OC featuring MC Mis One“.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

In 1993, DJ Tomekk invited Kurtis Blow to Kiss FM Berlin. Coincidentally, Kurtis Blow needed a short-term replacement DJ and offered the position to Tomekk. After that, Tomekk toured with him for a year through the east and west coast of the US, the east coast and west coast. While he was barely known in Germany, he already appeared in the US together with Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Ice-T, the Wu-Tang Clan, LL Cool J and KRS-One. After their US tour, Tomekk returned to Europe where he continued to tour with Blow. [8]

In November 1993, Tomekk was honored for his work by the City of Los Angeles for Peace and International Understanding.[9] In 1994, DJ Tomekk became the first non-US American to be nominated for the 1st Annual Rap Music Award.[10][11] 5. Juli 1996 that year he toured with the band Reality Brothers and acts as opening act at Reggea Summer Jam by Ziggy Marley.

From the mid-nineties DJ Tomekk produced his first compilations and mixtapes, where he frequently integrated American and German artists together in his songs. In 1998, he founded one of the first hip hop labels "Hip Hop Büro Berlin" with Ronny Boldt, a roommate of his flat-sharing community in Berlin Mitte. Here, first mixtapes were produced on a cassette copying machine.

In 1999, Tomekk produced the single "1, 2, 3 Rhymes Galore", which featured Grandmaster Flash, Flavor Flav, Afrob, Jazzy Jeff and MC Rene. The song stayed in the German Top 10 charts for several weeks, peaking at number 6 in the German charts. 1999 he produced a remix for Jay Z's Anything which rose to number 9 in the US charts on the 12" Vinyl "Anything (The Berlin Remixes)". His second single, "Ich Lebe Für Hip Hop", featured GZA, Prodigal Sunn, Curse and the Stieber Twins, and reached number 11 in Germany. In 2000, DJ received a Comet award as the best national newcomer.[12] In 2001, he released the single "Return of Hip Hop (Ooh, Ooh)", featuring KRS-One, Torch and MC Rene, and later that year, released his first album. A short time later, DJ Tomekk released his first album, also entitled "Return of Hip Hop".

In 2001 he went to the studio with Shaq O'Neal. Their music was used for the America-wide advertising campaign against drink driving.[13] That same year, he produced the single Beat of Life with Ice-T, which stayed in the German charts for 9 weeks, peaking at number 12.

From July 2001 Tomekk ran a biofarm near Berlin with guest apartments and studios. Here artists from all over the world produce and young musicians are supported. Under his label Boogie Down Berlin he was booked by many American hip hop and RNB artists as a producer. 2002, his song Kimnotyze with Lil' Kim reached number 6 in Germany.

In 2003, DJ Tomekk toured with his Boogie Down Berlin crew (DJ Noppe, Saeed, Trooper Da Don), where he completed about 150 appearances. DJ Tomekk's production for Paul van Dyk was nominated for a Grammy award.[14]

In the following years DJ Tomekk worked together with artists such as MC Lyte, Xzibit, Sido, Fler, Noreaga, B-Tight, Montell Jordan, Truth Hurts, Horace Brown, Black Ivory and Harris on his album Numma Eyns, which was released in 2005. The single "Jump, Jump" featuring Fler, also released that year, reached number 3 on the German charts. At the end of 2006, DJ Tomekk released the mixtape The Next Generation. He produced this mixtape together with artists including Bushido.

In 2008, Tomekk featured in the third series of German reality show "Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!" but was evicted by RTL Television for making a Nazi salute and singing "Deutschland Über Alles". In response, Tomekk stated his actions were clearly a joke that was not intended to incite racism, noting among other things that his wife is African.[15]

On the occasion of their 20th stage anniversary, DJ Tomekk and Kurtis Blow jointly released the single "The Legendary Hip Hop Sway" about 20 years DJ Tomekk and MC Kurtis under the label "Boogie Down Berlin" with a video - just for fun[16] and won the Music recording certification in gold.[17]

DJ Tomekk renounced all drugs and began campaigning against drug use as a speaker, author and sponsor.[18]

In 2016, he released the single "Lonely" with Dante Thomas.[19]

Juice-Awards

• 1999: Category Best Producer

1 Live Krone

• 2000: in Category Best Producer

Bravo Otto

• 2000: Gold in Category HipHop National
• 2002: Silber in Category HipHop National
• 2003: Silber in Category HipHop National

Comet award

• 2000: Category "Best Newcomer"

Weitere Auszeichnungen

• 2003: Rap Music Award
• MC Mega Music Award

• Official site (in German)
• DJ Tomekk on IMDb
• DJ Tomekk at AllMusic
• DJ Tomekk discography at Discogs
• DJ Tomekk's channel on YouTube
• DJ Tomekk on SoundCloud