The Fifth Black Eyed Pea... or who is DJ Motiv8?

Needless to say, we were intrigued when we saw that a "DJ Motiv8 of the Blacked Eyed Peas" is coming to Bonbon in Shanghai. While Bonbon is widely known as a place for foreign exchange students to get sloshed, it is not known as a mecca for megastar recording acts, certainly not on a Thursday night. A perfunctory web search only deepened our curiosity. DJ Motiv8's name was mysteriously left off the band's history on allmusic.com. Monroe Walker (aka DJ Motiv8) had his Wikipedia entry deleted for "blatant advertising."

Google cache pulled up the deleted Wikipedia entry:

"Dj Motiv8 came across William Adams at an early age, at the time (Will 1X) was taken under Motiv8's wing to be taught the ways of music production, studio recording, and overall stage presence. Along with Will there were three other MC's: Allen Pineda, Dante Santiago, and Mookie Mook(Burning Star). The Four became known as The Atban Klann and signed to easy E's "Ruthless Records" in 1992. The group recorded an album in 1994 entitled Grass Roots, which was supposed to be released on "Ruthless Records" but wasn't do to the death of Eazy E.

After the tragedy, the group changed it up adding Jaime Gomez as Dante Santiago left to pursue a solo career. The Group would now become the "Black Eyed Peas". With Will.i.am (Will Adams), apl.de.ap (Allan Pineda), and Taboo (Jaime Gomez) being the MC's, and Motiv8 being the groups official Dj... Motiv8 has become a frequent celebrity guest of honor in Shanghai China. On his third trip there this year, Motiv8 is laying foundation for the upcoming Black Eyed Peas tour following the release of their upcoming 2009 album The E.N.D (The Energy Never Dies). Furthermore, Dj Motiv8 has been featured on many projects for artist such as: Madonna, Bel Biv Devoe, Kid from Kid n Play, Billy Idol, N-sync, Shifty of Crazy Town, and Kylie Monogue to name a few."

A booking listing on A&M Entertainment had additional self-promotional details:

"... Today they are known in the world as AplDe Ap, Taboo and Will.i.am Now better known as the World Famous Black Eyed Peas. For years they worked and lived together in pursuit of making there love for music into more than just a passion for hip hop. By 1993 they were signed onto Easy Es record label Ruthless Records under the group name the Atban Klann. In 1994 the record came out which was produced by DJ Motiv8. Unfortunately shortly after the records release, Easy E passed away due at an eraly age due to a publicly unknown infection of the A.I.D.S. virus. The Atban Klann were then released from Ruthless Records.

Motiv8 continued Djing on artists tracks such as Kylie Minogue always remaining busy at work in the studio producing tracks for many artists. Also touring as a solo artist in countries such as the Philippines, Japan, and Australia where he has headlined overseas tours with MC Supernatural. By this time, the Black Eyed Peas had been Created and Motiv8 since The Atban Klann days remained as their official group DJ. Touring all over the world and appearing in many of the early music videos from albums such as Behind the Frontand Bridging the Gap.

Furthermore he is the only featured scratch DJ for the Black Eyed Peas from the first album to the current and upcoming projects. Although touring took up a large part of his time, Motiv8 has always found time to work with some of the worlds biggest and respected artists. Producing tracks for Music Legends like Madonna ("Ray of Light album"), Billy Idol and the Coors,etc..."

A movie listing on Yahoo made similar claims to the A&M agency: "DJ Motiv8 is widely lauded throughout the hip-hop world, mostly for his work with Black Eyed Peas. As a producer he has worked with such luminaries as Madonna, Billy Idol, N-Sync, and more. This solo outing is a soundclash of hip-hop and drum and bass, all digitally remastered for the stunning DVD-Audio format."

Finding corroboration for some of this information proved to be a bit difficult. Walker is not mentioned in either the production details or credits for Madonna's "Ray of Light" album, at least as quoted on Wikipedia. Discogs.com also makes no mention of any work Walker did on the album.

DJ Motiv8's credit listing on discogs.com offers up a more modest summary: production credit for an Atban Klann promo single, "Puddles of H20." Atban Klann, as mentioned in the bio above, were a predecessor group to the Black Eyed Peas signed to Eazy-E's Ruthless Records label. Motiv8 is also listed a scratcher on two tracks from the Black-Eyed Peas' 1998 album Behind the Front. On the 2000 followup (and breakthrough album) Bridging the Gap, a "DJ Motive" (presumably Motiv8) is listed as being the turntablist for six tracks. The website did not credit him with any contributions to Elephunk or Monkey Business.

Wikipedia lists another "DJ Motiv8," Steve Rodway, who produced a remix for Kylie Minogue. More on the other Motiv8 is here...

That's as far as I was motivated to delve into the matter. I don't know if Walker is a good DJ or not, but if you're in Shanghai you should be able to find him at Bonbon tonight and most other nights from now until December 9. If nothing else, you can get sloshed for 100 kuai on a Thursday night (50 kuai if you're a chick). And who knows, maybe he'll play a little Black Eyed Peas.