Martin Kierszenbaum and Will Pflaum didn’t come to the University of Michigan during the mid-’80s to become rap stars.
But as MK Chilly Dog and Will E.P. in the duo Maroon, they became an impactful part of hip-hop’s early wave, and they’re revisiting those glory days this month.
Maroon made its mark with singles such as “I Ain’t Runnin’ For Pope” and “Let The Music Take You Higher,” as well as its lone album “The Funky Record.” The 1988 release made New York critic Robert Christgau’s prestigious year-end best-of list – ahead of peers such as Run-DMC, Ice-T and Boogie Down Productions – and now enjoys status as a cult favorite amidst hip-hop aficionados.
Earlier this month, Maroon released a new single, “Time Bomb.” And on Friday, April 27, Maroon releases an expanded 30th anniversary edition of “The Funky Record” which includes tracks Maroon recorded for its 15th (“Nitrogen”) and 25th (“Back To The Old School”) anniversaries. Def Jam Recordings Chairman and CEO Paul Rosenberg, who manages Eminem, wrote liner notes for the new collection.
“I’ve marveled at their bold, quirky and progressive work,” Rosenberg said. “The fact that they even existed in such a remote rap place given the climate of the music at the time is truly remarkable.”
In a phone interview, Kierszenbaum calls the record, “very comprehensive – probably more Maroon than people want.” He went on to produce Sting (who he now manages), Lady Gaga, Robyn and others, and he operates the CherryTree Music Company. “But it’s nice to have a destination now for people to inquire and want to know, and it’s nice that people still remember and think fondly about us. I’m proud of that.”
Kierszenbaum, from East Lansing, and Pflaum, from Chicago, met in U-M’s East Quad dormitory. Kierszenbaum’s father worked for Michigan State University, but he wanted to go to Ann Arbor to be close to hip music scenes there as well as in the Detroit metro area.
The two hit it off immediately, bonding over their mutual love of music and especially first-wave rap from Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash through the likes of Whodini, Kool Moe Dee, Eric B. & Rakim, among others.
“There weren’t many people into hip-hop back then, believe it or not,” recalls Kierszenbaum, a music theory major. “It was kind of rare to find someone like-minded.”
Pflaum remembers that, “We ran into each other in the dorm and we immediately started making music within five minutes of meeting.” Pflaum played some recordings he’d made in Chicago, which Kierszenbaum found “really creative. It really inspired me.
“I had a little studio set up in my room,” he says. “Literally the day we met we started making music together and it felt good. It wasn’t long before we were a group.”
Maroon played around Detroit and Ann Arbor as much as they could, although Kierszenbaum acknowledges “there weren’t very many opportunities back then.” They recorded their first track, “Baddest and the Hippest,” in East Quad’s Quadrangle Studios and chose the Maroon name during discussions in the cafeteria. They continued their DIY escapades in the basement of a house they rented with three other students, and their ambitions grew beyond the local scene. Detroit’s WJLB played some of Maroon’s songs.
As documented in “Time Bomb,” Kierszenbaum and Pflaum would cobble together money for trips New York, where they’d hype themselves to record labels, attend the New Music Seminar and audition their material for the influential Stanley Pltazner at his Music Factory store in Times Square.
“The Funky Album” came together between 1985-88, with the first 300 vinyl copies pressed with financing from “misleading (Plfaum’s) grandmother about tuition.” Pflaum refers to Maroon’s sound as “our alternative planet of hip-hop,” a bit rough by contemporary standards, but still “good music and completely from and within the genre, not a conscious hybrid of one thing and another, just off the wall. … It’s a true lost classic of an era that is as done as any period of time can be.”
Maroon came to an end as Kierszenbaum and Pflaum graduated and decided to pursue other interests – Kierszenbaum into production and music business, while Pflaum went into teaching, although he did release a Will E.P. solo album in 1994. They’ve stayed close, and the “Time Bomb” track was written while riffing to each other over the phone, subsequently recorded on both coasts.
“We came up with the idea about having 20/20 vision – hindsight in 2020,” Kierszenbaum says. “We got kind of obsessed with that whole idea of time capsules. That’s what Maroon is, a message from your younger self into the future, especially since hip-hop became so huge, so much bigger than it was when we started listening to it and doing our own.” The duo is happily promoting “The Funky Album’s” reissue and will make a special appearance at the Detroit Music Awards on May 4 at the Fillmore Detroit.
That hardly makes it an active concern again – although Kierszenbaum says, “It depends on your definition of active. We do an anniversary track every five, 10 years – That’s not active?” Which means we shouldn’t be surprised if we get more of Maroon, no matter how long it takes for the next material to surface.
“Will and I have stayed pretty close over the years, just as friends even if we haven’t made music consistently,” Kierszenbaum says. “And when we talk now it’s just like how we used to talk when we were 19.”
Pflaum, adds, “The genre of hip-hop came along when we were kids, and one of the things it’s about is friendship – being friends and being creative. That’s what it was then, that’s what it is now, for us at least. So what’s the difference?”
* TIME BOMB: A special 30th anniversary edition of Maroon’s “The Funky Album” comes out on April 27. Visit fresherthanthis.com. Maroon will make a special appearance at the 27th annual Detroit Music Awards on May 4 at the Fillmore Detroit. Visit detroitmusicawards.net.
