LA Dream Team

Rudy Pardee, a Cleveland native, and Los Angeles' Chris Wilson formed the L.A. Dream Team in the early '80s. The times were rife with experimentation and the dance-rap hybrid of electro was still a new form — not yet firmly aligned with dance, with dance itself still capable of embracing hip-hop. Enterprising and resourceful, the duo formed their own label, Dream Team Records, that would go on to issue not only Dream Team records, but other early California rap as well, including the first single from J.J. Fad. The group's electro classics include "The Dream Team Is in the House" and "Rockberry Jam." In 1986, the group signed with MCA and recorded two albums with the label. Electro was fading from its brief mainstream popularity, however, and neither of the records sold well enough to sustain the group. L.A. Dream Team surfaced in 1993 as DTP to issue a few singles, including an update of one of their old hits, "Rockberry Revisited." Chris Wilson went on to pursue video and music production, while Rudy Pardee died tragically in a scuba-diving accident in 1998.