Early History
The main players in 4hero first met and came to prominence in the late 1980s when they were involved in the Strong Island FM pirate radio station. Marc Mac and Gus "Reinforced Gus" Lawrence set up Reinforced Records in 1989 to release their own productions as 4hero, with the group being completed by Dego and Ian "Da Rebel" Bardouille. Their first release was the 1990 single "All B 3 / Rising Son".
The follow-up EP, Combat Dancin', underpinned the sub-bass pressure of the bleep 'n' bass artists associated with Sheffield's Warp Records, such as LFO and Nightmares on Wax, with mid-tempo hip-hop-style breakbeats. It also brought the group to the attention of the rave community due to the track "Mr Kirk's Nightmare", which pivoted around the "Get Into Something" break (taken from the Isley Brothers) and a morbid vocal sample ("Mr Kirk? Your son is dead. He died of an overdose.") taken from the Bobby Susser, anti-drug hit "Once You Understand" by Think. 4hero were among the first proponents of what would become known as "drum and bass", which began to grow in profile via a series of releases on Reinforced. Another drum and bass figurehead, Goldie, met 4hero at a performance in London's Astoria. Marc and Dego went on to collaborate with Goldie and bring the sounds he envisioned to life, forming the Rufige Cru and MetalHeadz monikers.
The band's debut album, In Rough Territory was released in 1991 on Reinforced Records. This would be the only one of the group's albums to feature Reinforced Gus and Da Rebel as full members, with future releases being created by Marc Mac and Dego either together or in parallel.
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