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Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins (born September 14 1977 in Pleasantville, New Jersey) is an African-American Grammy Award-winning songwriter, record producer, and musician. Working largely with his brother Fred Jerkins III & writer LaShawn Daniels, Jerkins has been an extremely in-demand producer for over a decade, being requested by such legends as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston & Lionel Richie. He has also produced recent singles by Mary J. Blige ("Enough Cryin'") and Beyoncé ("Deja Vu") and worked on the latest album from Ciara. The word "Darkchild" appears in some form in many of his tracks.
BiographyJerkins was born into a religious family as the youngest son of a minister and choir director mother. He began taking classical music lessons on the piano as a small child and as a teenager he had already decided to become a record producer. At 15, he and his brother Fred Jerkins III wrote and produced their own gospel rap album - "On the Move". He began making more demos, one of which caught the attention of idol Teddy Riley, who gave him advice on the music industry. Finally, his first professional writing and producing job came in 1994 when he contributed two tracks to the debut album of R&B artist Casserine. Riley also subsequently let Jerkins share writing and production duties on tracks by Pure Soul, Men Of Vizion & Wreckx-N-Effect in 1995 & 1996. [1]
Darkchild Records & Label VenturesJerkins has made two attempts to bring his label to prominence. The first was in 1999 when he joined with Sony/Epic Records to promote such signees as Whitney Houston-style power vocalist Rhona, R&B girl group So Plush & rapper Fats. Buzz was created about artists with Fats appearing on two tracks Jerkins produced for Michael Jackson's "Invincible" album and So Plush releasing the single "Things I've Heard Before" with a Hype Williams-directed video. Singles such as So Plush's "Damn (Should Have Treated You Right)" and Rhona's "Satisfied" were also released and made fair impact on charts. Subsequently, So Plush albums and "Things I've Heard Before" singles were pressed (and made available as promos) and Rhona's album was even released in Japan, output from the label stopped from this point however. It seemed that eventually artists were released from the label as Rhona reappeared in 2003 joining infamous R&B group En Vogue [2] and Fats released an album as part of the duo F.A.T.S. & Bathgate in 2006. [3] In 2005 Darkchild Records reappeared when Jerkins signed brand new acts including Shamari Fears from R&B group Blaque, female MC Asia Lee, Dancehall artist Atiba and Gospel singer Anesha Birchett. It seems the label has again had problems however, as a track recorded by Shamari - "The One U Need" was used by Jerkins as a single for Def Jam singer Megan Rochell without her consent or awareness. Other tensions formed and according to her Official Website she is no longer signed to the label. Asia Lee has apparently not heard from the record company or Jerkins for a long time and Atiba is still awaiting an album release on the label. Anesha Birchett seems to be the only successful member of Darkchild Records being that she has co-written several recent Darkchild Productions, including those for Shareefa, Joy Enriquez, Natasha and Tamia. Seemingly one of his only successful recent label ventures, Jerkins released his wife Joy Enriquez' sophomore album "Atmosphere Of Heaven", which features a religious direction, on his independent gospel imprint "JoyFul Child Records". The album is available to purchase through Joy's Official Website although she was formerly featured on the Darkchild Records Site with its other artists. The Darkchild name has also been lent to a record company run by Jerkins brother Fred Jerkins III "Darkchild Gospel" [4] which released the latest album from Virtue - "Testimony".
Singles & Notable Darkchild Production Credits
Guest Raps
Album Productions (5 or more tracks)
Video Cameos
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