One Block Radius was formed in late 2003. Marty and MDA were living in Marty's North Hollywood studio, "The Dump," and working on a project when they decided they needed another voice and flavor to make it sound complete. They had been fans of San Francisco underground rap star Z-Man's "Gingerbread Man" and "Four Hours Of Sleep" tapes and asked him if he wanted to work on some songs. He said "oh heck yes" and madness ensued.
Label horror stories and empty Carlos Rossi jugs aside, One Block Radius independently released "Long Story Short" in summer of 2005. They then went out in a big green nasty broke down van and opened for Hieroglyphics, De La Soul, The Pharcyde, Living Legends, Matisyahu, KRS-One, Aceyalone, Peanut Butter Wolf, Pigeon John, Trick Daddy and more, selling cd's, t-shirts and giant foam fingers all along the way. Songs from "Long Story Short" have appeared in numerous film and television projects including "American Gun" and "50 Pills" (for which Marty was a music supervisor). In 2006 they also released "Cut Some Static," an internet/live-show-only original mixtape), of which only 300 original copies exist.
In 2006 Marty was asked to sing "Stunna Glasses At Night" by The Federation. Since that time Marty has become an in-demand songwriter and producer as well, having worked with Rick Rock, Baby Bash, JR Rotem, Diane Warren, DJ Felli Fel, Sean Kingston, E-40, Lil Jon, The Grouch, Paula Deanda, Luckyiam, Mozella, Turf Talk and many others.
If you HAD to (and since this is a bio, I guess you do have to) describe the OBR sound, it would probably sound like if Steve Winwood, Hall & Oates, Earth, Wind and Fire and David Bowie listened to some Sublime, The Pharcyde and Tribe Called Quest, got high and made an album on an SP1200. It's a different sound - and that's just how they like it!
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