Copyright by OWEN "TOP" RANKINE
1981,84.World Rights Reserved.
B I O G R A P H Y
Owen Rankine
& The "Top Rankine Girls"
Up-Dated Sept 1998.
From 1996 and currently 1998,
Owen Rankine of RM-TV PROD
created a
merger with Carl McGregor
Production Company.The new
merger is called
C.R.M. PRODUCTION. CRM is owned
by three producer partners:
DR. LUDLOW CREARY - Producer,
OWEN RANKINE - Producer and
CARL McGREGOR - Producer.
CRM PRODUCTION signs artist to its
production company, produces
Film,
TV songs and sound tracks.
Carl McGregor has major
recording production credits:
BOYS 2 MEN, MARIAH CAREY,
WHITNEY HOUSTON, BRANDY, MC
HAMMER,
ANDRAE CROUCH, MICHAEL BOLTON ,
PEGGY SCOTT ADAMS, ARETHA
FRANKLIN,
702, SALT n PEPA to name a few.
CARL also has Major TV songs and
sound track credits, to name a
few:
"THE CONNECTION"
- Movie - Mc
Hammer
"FRIDAY"
- Movie - Boys
2 Men
"VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN" - Movie
- Eddy Murphy
"FAKIN DA FUNK"
- MOVIE -
1998.
"FREE OF EDEN"
- TV MOVIE - 1999.- Sydney
Poitier
"HAPPILY EVER AFTER" - TV
CRM PROD is currently producing
R&B un-sign artist 14-22 yrs
old.
At the end of the production period,
CRM gets artist a record deal.
CRM PROD recent projects have
been ANDRAE CROUCH (Re-Mix),
"FREE OF EDEN"(TV Movie -
Showtime Showcase) Starring
SYDNEY POITIER.
From mid 1998,OWEN has organized concert tour
promotions.
RM-TV Concert Tour Promotions
has recently merged with a major
tour
promotion company, this joint
venture promotes overseas (Int'l)
concert
tours with major R&B and Reggae
Artists.
Paula/1995
Owen "TOP" Rankine was born in
Kingston,Jamaica.
At age three, he was riding a bus
with his mother and they were
both
listing to the nation's only
radio station. Baby Owen
asked,
"Where is the man in the
radio?". As a curious boy, he
started to search
for "THE MAN IN THE RADIO".
Owen grew up and attended high
school. He was the founder of his
high
school photography club and was
very active in the choir and
sang in
a high-pitch opera type voice.
At age 17, he graduated from his
high
school and began his first
permanent job at the Jamaica
Broadcasting
Radio & TV Station as a studio
engineer and a radio announcer.
At the
age of three, this was the same
radio he was listening to, while
riding
the bus with his mother. Now he
became "THE MAN IN THE RADIO".
Aside from working at the
station,Owen was assigned to
remote (outside)
broadcasts at shopping malls, the
race track and political
conventions.
His favorite assignment was
"traffic tips". This assignment
allowed
him to fly over the city of
Kingston on board a Cessna twin
engine aircraft while working as a
radio operator, to assist
traffic gridlocks on city
streets during peak
hours. While at the Radio station,Owen's taste for music
had grown
tremendously.When is off the air,
he would lock himself in the
record
library forseveral hours and
listened to all genres of
music.
Genres of music included jazz,
R&B and contemporary music.
Also on
his days
off, he would work part-time
hours as a studio engineer at
various recording studios such
as Record Specialists
and Harry J Recording Stidio.
While at
JBC Radio, he joined a newly
formed reggae band called
"SKIN, FLESH AND BONES", which
included popular musicians SLY
DUNBAR,
LLYOD PARKS AND RANCHIE
Maclean, to name a few. On
week-ends,
Owen took up flying courses at
the Tinson Pen airport. His
intention was to become
a commercial pilot, but his
endeavor was interrupted when he migrated
to New York City.
While living in New York City,
he attended college and majored
in Broadcast
Engineering. He then joined WBAI-FM
Radio, New York City, as
a radio announcer, doing various
radio shows - R&B, Reggae and
Jazz.
He left WBAI-FM Radio and worked
on many other radio stations
across the USA, producing and
hosting his own radio and TV
shows.
Throughout his career, he was
Master of Ceremonies (Emcee) for
various
major Live Reggae Concerts,
STEELE PULSE, JIMMY CLIFF, THIRD
WORLD ,
BLACK UHURU and ASWAD to name a
few. Owen has also written and
produce
voice overs for several hundred
promos, jingles and commercials.
In 1981, Owen moved to Los
Angeles and founded a company
entitled
"Reggae Magazine TV (RM-TV)." RM-TV
was registered and operated in
the
city of Los Angeles and was
responsible for lots of Major
Reggae
concerts in Los Angeles.
Owen continued to host and
produce his own radio show,
while producing and promoting
major reggae concerts at THE
UNIVERSAL
AMPHITHEATRE, THE HOLLYWOOD
PALLADIUM, THE PALACE THEATRE
AND THE
GREEK THEATRE to name a few.
After two years the company's
magazine
publication division became
inactive. However, the company
still continued
to provide entertainment
services to the Los Angeles
community in other
areas such as Radio Programs,
Reggae Concert promotions, and
Reggae music
record store outlet. Reggae
Magazine TV Record store was
located at a
popular street location, the
corner of Hollywood Boulevard
and Highland
Avenue. The store was always
visited by major celebrities,
Richard Roundtree, Whoopi
Goldberg to name a few, who
loves Reggae Music.
How coincidental, that The Los
Angeles Songwriters
Showcase (LASS),
operated by Len Chandler and
John Braheny, was Owen's
immediate Record
Store neighbour. Owen was
invited to be a guest at The
LASS Songwriters
Music Convention at Pasadena
City College, to select,
organize and lead
a group of people, in
attendance who were knowledgeable about
Reggae Music. Owen organized a panelists and
assisted in the selection of
popular
Reggae musicians for The Los
Angeles Songwriters Showcase.
The conference
was a success ,Owen and the
panelists were featured in The
Songwriters
Musepaper, a monthly magazine by
LASS.
Owen continued working
diligently to help expose and
promote Reggae Music
to The Los Angeles population,
through the medium of radio
programs,
the record store and live major
concerts. As a pioneer,
sometimes called a "trend
setter", OWEN was the first
concert promoter to
bring Reggae Music to The
Universal Amphitheatre in
Hollywood.
Often times he would emcee the
concert and take the opportunity
after
concert performances to have the
celebrities appear at his record
store
to sign autographs with the concert
fans. In 1992,the company
reduced its
operation and is currently
involved in song writing and
music productions.
In 1987,Owen wrote a concept for
a new music program. The program
was
aired live for several months on
KMAX-RADIO, Pasadena,
California.
The music program had three
music categories:R&B-Reggae,
Rock and Roll
Reggae and Jamaican Reggae.
From a businessman to a
singer,Owen didn't know he was
going to be
writing and singing songs but he
had an insight for several
years,
that Reggae Music would
inter-marry (merged) with R&B
music and be
called a new name. Several years
to follow, the name Hip/Hop
Reggae,
a new music style was born.
In late 1993, a
friend of Owen, Vida
Rankine (no relation),
asked him to do some Jamaican
rapping accents on her Hip-Hop
single.
After being asked several
times,Owen reluctantly went to
the studio.
While in the studio, he went into a
high energy mode, his voice
filled the
studio with excitement and
electricity. After co-writing and
vocally
recording Vida's Hip-Hop single,Owen got motivated and started writing,
composing and producing his own
materials. With two singles
completed, Owen's attorney
friend took the demo tape to
Phil's Collins
attorney, Barry Menace. Barry
liked the songs very much and
encouraged
Owen to make more songs.
Owen had an
appointment with Maurice
Warfield of CBS
Records. Luther Vandross was on
his way to Maurice's
office, therefore
Owen's meeting ended quickly,
however Maurice was able to
listen
to Owen's demo scratch vocals of
the two songs and fell in love
with
them both. Maurice also
encourage Owen to continue
writing as many songs
as he could.
After all these years,Owen has
been working outside the music
business, he
finally decided to come and work
inside the business as a
balladeer,
writing, composing and producing
songs, such as Hip-Hop Reeggae, R&B
Jazz
Music, R&B
Ballads, contemporary,and Reggae
Music. He intends to duplicate
several American love ballad song
into Reggae cover songs. Owen
has a rich song writing ability
which started from writing radio promos, jingles and
commercials. Now, he is creating
his own unique
style of songs.Owen considers
himself a balladeer and a
singer/
songwriter with over 500 songs
in his repertoire. Songs for
duets,
duos, solo male, solo female, male
and female groups.
Owen is supported by the "TOP
RANKINE GIRLS" on background
vocals.
Sometimes he enjoys featuring
several of his male and female
vocalists
from his "Top Rankine
Singers", singing as a duet or a
duo. Some day he
anticipates forming his "Top
Rankine Orchestra" backed by his
current
"Top Rankine Singers", to
support his rich bass voice and
give his
audience full satisfaction of
his writing and singing talent.
On April 24, 1995, he appeared
as a guest on "Five Minutes of
Fame",
on KKBT-92.3 FM, Los Angeles,
the #1 radio station with 1
Million
listenership. Three songs were
featured: "A Million Words",
"Midnight
Doctor", and "Take Your Time".
Words can not explain Owen's
excitement.
Words could not portray his
confidence. Words are not enough
to
describe his happiness, now he
is able to expose other
submerged
talents.Words cannot explain
his hope.
Wait until you hear "A Million
Words" to say I Love You (sideA-#1),
with lyrics full of comedy and
humor. This million dollar love
ballad
song is a duo with Owen
baritone, sometimes using his
million dollar
bass voice, while Ron Coleman (RC), a
supporting artist, uses his
high- pitch soulful voice, to
mesmerize the radio
audience. Owen
once described this song as a
tear dropper, from the lovemaker.
"Midnight Doctor" (side
A-#2), has a Hip-Hop/Reggaelicious
flavor
beat, with lots of love making
lyrics. This song came on strong
to the
radio audience. It's filled with
comedy and lots of humor. This
trio
combination song was written
with three parts, An American
male rapper,
An American Female singer and a
Jamaican Male Rapper.
Currently,Owen plays a double
male rapper role using unique
talents
of switching back and forth from
an American accent bass voice, to
a
Jamaican accent high pitch or
bass voice. Elizabth Hangan sings
hook
vocals, with her sweet smooth
voice. Then there is a song you
can laugh
to while dancing,Owen wrote aand
composed "Take your Time"(side
A-#4),
another Hip-Hop Reggaee
flavor, with love making lyrics
and a Reggae
base line. "BJ" uses her sexy
singing and rides the music
track with
her voice, doing the hook
vocals.
The stations radio audience
participation gave overwhelming,
positive
responses, asking for
more, more, more. After the five
minutes of successful
true test-marketing, Owen
continued to plunge straight
ahead
and promote other songs
like,"Lets Get Married" and have
a baby,
(side A-#3).This song is a duet
with Owen and Rose Womack on
lead. A
smooth love ballad, and
sometimes called a
"heart-breaker".
If you listen carefully, it will
send chills through your body
and
sometimes makes your body work
up a sweat. After all that
sweating,
there's nothing like "Turn On
The Shower"and taking a
refreshing
shower especially with the one
you love.
"Turn on the shower"this song
has a R&B Jazz-Ballad flavor,
with
Owen bass vocals along with "RC"
and Owen background vocals.The
only
problem with this song, it is
only 4 minutes:55 seconds, it's
just
not enough..not enough time
baby,"for a shower". After
hearing this
song, believe me, you will want to
stay all day in a shower.
Recently, after celebrating his
birthday,Owen thought how
appropriate
it would be to release a
birthday song written for every
one to use.
This ballad song ,a song of
celebration,"Happy Birthday To
You", has
Owen on barritone voice and "RC"
on background vocals. Whether
it's your
birthday or not, this R&B
Reggaelicious song will surely
make you
"Have a nice day". The song,"Have
a Nice Day", has a message in
the
music - slow down and pick up
the phone and call
someone,anyone
you love, and say "Have a Nice
Day". This is a slow song, a
ballad song,
a love song.
After reading his biography, you
now know "A Million Words", is
not enough
to describe the man, the man
inside the music,"The Man in The
Radio".
Carl began playing keyboard at
age eight and bass guitar at the
age of
twelve in his native Central
American Home,Belize.
Influenced by jazz,R&B, and
Reggae Music,He and His brother
formed a
band which brought them to the
United States.
Once in the States, Carl and his
brother Delhart joined with a
third
partner and formed the Trio
"BELIZE". Working with Kerry
Gordy, son of
Berry Gordy,they were signed
with Voss Record Label. Shortly
there
after their contract was bought
by Prince of Paisley Park and
Finally,
Warner Brothers where they
released "BELIZE".
When Belize split up,Carl
focused his energies on
producing and writing
music. Carl uses his varied
background and versatility to
create a sound
that is uniquely marketable in
todays musical climate.
He is currently in the studio
producing an album for his own
band,
"BAMIKI BANDULU". "BAMIKI" has a
loyal following in Los Angeles,
New York and Chicago and has
most recently played at House Of
Blues
And Billboard Live,Los Angeles.
Album release date is schedule
for late summer.