Born in
Manhattan in 1956 to an
African American father, Edgar Overton Edmonds (1926-2002), and
Seneca mother, Charyl Edmonds Romo (1928-2004), Marc attended public school on the
Upper West Side with future noted graffiti artists SAMO (
Jean-Michel Basquiat),
Futura 2000 (Lenny McGurr), and COCA 82 (Pablo Calogero). He began street-tagging in 1970, and with his younger brother Michael, founded the early crew The Underground (UND). He went on to found the Soul Artists (SA) to describe the absurdity displayed in the attitudes of New Yorkers during what he called the Sick Seventies. It was the name he gave to a
subway tunnel being built underneath the
Central Park Zoo at the time, which became a haunt of graffiti writers in the early 1970s. The tunnel's naming occurred one night in early 1973, after several members of The Underground (UND), ALI, FINE and CRUNCH attended a showing of
National Lampoon Lemmings, a new
musical-
comedy review at the
Village Gate in downtown Manhattan. The show (which starred future comic notables
John Belushi,
Chevy Chase and
Christopher Guest) lampooned the
Woodstock Festival that had taken place in upstate New York four years earlier, calling it "
Woodchuck" and equating the entire
hippie generation with
lemmings bent on self-destruction. The crew of
teenagers made similar comparisons between themselves and the residents of the nearby city zoo. Noting the perversities of contemporary urban psychology, ALI proclaimed
New York City itself "not new, but a zoo!"
"Shoot the Pump" In 1981, as street
hip hop and
rapping mainstreamed to
popular music, ALI formed a band he named J. Walter Negro and the Loose Jointz, featuring himself as frontman J. Walter Negro, "The Playin' Brown Rapper" (
songwriter, vocals), Pablo Calogero (composer of the music of "Shoot The Pump", alto and baritone saxophone, flute)
Arturo O'Farrill on keyboards (
Fender Rhodes,
Hammond Organ,
Steinway grand
piano), Leonard K. Seeley (
guitar, vocals),
Tomás Doncker (
guitar, vocals), Lonnie D. Hillyer (
bass guitar, vocals), H.B. Bennett (
drums, vocals). Their first single, "Shoot the Pump," was released first under
John Hammond's "Zoo York" imprint, and was later produced overseas on
Island Records. A conglomeration of rap, hip hop,
Latin funk and
disco rock, the song features ALI as “Negro” rap-vocalizing about opening a
fire hydrant with a
monkey wrench and directing the water blast with a
can to soak passing cars and pedestrians by "shooting the pump" at them. Police arrive, see him reaching for something and "shoot the punk"; they then close the hydrant and flee the scene of the crime. But crafty Negro survives thanks to a
bullet-proof vest, and he heads off to “shoot the pump” again. The act opened for
Talking Heads,
Blondie and
Kid Creole at The
Peppermint Lounge and The
Mudd Club in downtown
Manhattan. The Loose Jointz had an occasional
celebrity guest in
Jean-Michel Basquiat, a friend of ALI's well before earning fame; "Shoot the Pump” co-writer Pablo Calogero went on to record music for the soundtrack of Basquiat's
New York Beat Movie,
Downtown 81. ==Death==