Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: RPM (1993)
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
Mo’ Wax’s second release of 1993, and their fifth 12" single, was from RPM, or Revolution Per Minute. RPM was originally started by Stefan Cartwright, who was then joined by Peter Adjaye, and later Joseph Hipkin. Prior to forming RPM Cartwright had been visiting Honest Jon’s record store in London, and it was here that he met James Lavelle who was working there at the time. During one of his visits Cartwright gave Lavelle a cassette tape of some solo music he was working on and Lavelle told him he wanted to release it on his new record label , Mo’ Wax.
RPM had begun recording music together in Cartwright’s recording studio, and in 1993 RPM’s debut 12" Food Of My De-Rhythm was released, followed by 1994’s 2000 / Sortie Des Ombres featuring the French MC Menelik. The 2000 / Sortie Des Ombres 12" was released with three different cover variations, two by Swifty with a similar obi design to that of other Mo’ Wax releases at the time, and one featuring artwork by REQ, aka Ian Cassar.
Mixmag described RPM’s 2000 as “waves of chunky beats and weirdo effects”, and The Guardian would later call the group, “pioneers of sampling and turntablism, layering live strings and vocals with otherworldly sounds to form a bold new style.” Stefan Cartwright explained to Mixmag in 1994 how RPM defined their sound, “We’re not about what comes out of America, we reflect how we do things, our own way. You’re limiting yourself working with vocals…We create sounds — it’s our voice.”
In 1995 RPM ended, and Joseph Hipkin and Peter Adjaye created a new group called Runaways. At the same time Adjaye co-founded Ultimate Dilemma Records with Max Lousada, which would be Runaways record label throughout their career. Runaways released two albums, 1997’s Classic Tales, and 2000’s Progress, with the band renamed as Runaways UK for the albums US releases, reportedly due to issues with Joan Jett and The Runaways.
Neither RPM or Runaways found any chart success, with RPM’s 2000 / Sortie Des Ombres just missing out on a place in the UK Singles Top 100 when it peaked at #110, while the Runaways’ Finders Kreepers Revisited reached #155 during its own one week in the charts.
While they weren’t in the charts, Runaways did receive positive press, with The Wire reviewing their Playschool EP in the September 1996 issue and stating that the Runaways “brilliantly reappropriate Easy Listening for New Age B-Boys.” All Music called their second album Progress “more L.A. underground than it is British.” While The San Fransisco Bay Guardian called Progress “a strange and wonderful trip through the duo’s love of hip-hop, mellow breaks, American MCs, jazz-funk, and head-case instrumentals.”
Tricia Romano suggests that the reason the Runaways didn’t have the same success as some of their contemporaries was because they “don’t embellish their records with tortured sirens wailing that nobody loves them or croon darkly about angels with dirty faces–instead they rely on raps and samples.”
Progress was the groups final album, with the Runaways official ending in 2005, but their members continued working separately.
Joseph Hipkin, aka Joe 2Grand or Joe 2000, and better known as Joseph Vaughan now, provided turntable scratches for groups such as Killah Priest, US3, and Groove Armada, judged at the a DMC World Mixing Final, and taught Turntablist classes in Noway and London. In 2012 he started a project as a Swing DJ named DJ Maximillion Fothersgill (AKA Lord Fothersgill of Kent) and continued to DJ around the world.
Outside of music Vaughan began posting miniature replicas of Ralph Lauren clothing online in 2013. He devoted himself to create fifty sculptures in 1/12th scale, which led to offers to show his work in galleries and a short documentary about the project was made.
Following Runaways’ final album Peter Adjaye, aka A.J. Kwame, left Ultimate Dilemma Records in 2001, and in 2004 co-founded Afri-Kokoa with Steven Bonner, a music and arts organisation who worked with Soul II Soul’s Jazzy B, Attica Blues’ Charlie Dark, and more to present programs and events “reflective of the cultural fusions of Africa and its Diaspora”.
In 2016 Peter Adjaye created an album of soundscapes inspired by his brother, architect David Adjaye’s work. The album, Dialogues, was released by Vinyl Factory in a vinyl package with photos of David’s work inside. Peter Adjaye has continued to DJ and create soundscapes, with installations shown at Tate Modern, Art Institute Of Chicago and Somerset House. In 2019 he collaborated with Moroka and Layfullstop for the song Broadcast By Chocolate, inspired by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Outside of his work with RPM, Stefan Cartwright had released music under the name Luminis, with his song Spectral Arc appearing on Mo’ Wax’s Headz 2B compilation album. Following his work with RPM, Cartwright teamed with Rachel Collinson and together co-founded Rechord in 1999, a design studio which had a strong ethical policy and gained press for their experimental sound instalations . They were featured in articles by Creative Review, and Design Week, while their redesign of Greenpeace UK’s website was featured in the book Layout, making it fit : finding the right balance between content and space.
Stefan Cartwright also began teaching yoga in 1995, and would perform using gongs and singing bowl instruments. In 2008 he released a solo album in this style called Quiet Illumination — Improvisations with Singing Bowls, Bells and Gongs.
Note: This article was updated on August 8 2020 after Stefan Cartwright contacted me to point out some errors. This article originally stated that RPM was started by Joseph Hipkin and Peter Adjaye, and that Stefan Cartwright had joined after RPM was formed. This was incorrect and RPM was formed by Cartwright, with Hipkin and Adjaye joining soon after. Additional research has seen the inclusion of an expanded biography of Cartwright at the bottom of the page.
