The Offical Site Of ''Empire1''

Empire 1 is one of the youngest and yet most outstanding team of Disc Jockeys (DJ’s) found in the City of Belize . The group exploded onto the entertainment scene in the year 2006 and has been growing in popularity ever since. Empire 1 has been “blazing” the radio waves and the clubs for a steady year and their growing fan base have earned them a global “big up”. Empire 1 consists of three extremely talented young men, namely: Siddhartha “Burna” Reneau, a nineteen (19) year old college student and a radio personality on Positive Vibes Radio, alongside Dwight “Dazz” Borrow, a nineteen (19) year old musician, and Wilfred “Franchise” McDonald, a twenty (20) year old electrician.

Although the team didn’t really manifest until about a year ago, the process started many years before. It all came about in the year of 1999 when Burna discovered his love for dancehall/reggae music. He first started listening to live shows, clashes, and mixes on cassettes; due to the fact that at that time CD’s weren’t common in Belize City . Excitedly Burna began to share his love of music with his personal friend Dazz, and instantly Dazz became interested and developed a passion for this type of music as well. As years went by Burna and Dazz got deeper into the dancehall/reggae music. Both Burna and Dazz started to collect various mixed tapes from some of the DJ’s with the biggest names in the music industry from Jamaica - such as Stone love, Renaissance, Bass Odyssey, and others just to name a few. In 2001 Burna got himself a mixer and two CD Discmans that were connected to the mixer and at that moment Burna and Dazz began learning how to mix. In the year of 2002 Burna entered a competition by the name of “King of the Tables” which was hosted by Krem FM; one of Belize ’s most popular radio stations. Burna battled his way up to the semi-finals where he was eliminated by .08 of a point, but that still didn’t stop them from pursuing their dream of becoming professional DJ’s, and with that determination Burna and Dazz became very serious about the DJ field. In the year of 2005 Burna entered another competition by the name of “Green Synergy” which was hosted by Heineken in Belize ; the show consisted of some of Belize ’s top notch DJ’s. Burna placed 3rd in the competition and received a lot of recognition for his performance. After the Green Synergy competition Burna was hired and given spot on a radio station called ‘Da Beat FM’. Burna worked there for only few months, but although the time was relatively short, he managed to build a fan base for his show which he called ‘On the Reggae Beat’. Despite the show’s growing popularity, he was soon fired from Da Beat FM. After he was fired, Burna got an idea to go and approach the boss of the radio station formerly known as ‘Fm 2000’, (now known as ‘Positive Vibes’) to get a show on the station, prior to actually approaching the management of the then FM 2000, Burna shared the idea with his friend Dazz who was in full agreement with the plan. The approach was successful and they were awarded a spot on the radio station and they chose to carry on the name ‘On the Reggae Beat’.

“On the Reggae Beat” was first aired on Positive Vibes radio on April 8th 2006 and only a few months after the show was aired it became successful on the air waves. Afterwards Burna and Dazz released a reggae CD that they began to sell it on the streets, and it was while they were selling these CD’s in the Yarbrough area that they then approached Wilfred McDonald to purchase a CD. Wilfred (also known as Franchise) then mentioned that he himself was a listener of the show, he then started giving them ideas about remixes, mega mixes, etcetera, and then it became very obvious that Franchise had a musical sense and with that revelation they instantly recruited him to the team.

After the final member of the team was recruited, the members; Burna, Dazz and now Franchise then sat down and began seeking an official name for the crew, it was then that Burna came up with the name ‘1Rock’. The reason for the name “1 Rock” was rooted in the fact that Burna was associated with a crew by the name of ‘Rock Hard’’. Burna, Dazz, and Franchise played at couple dances with the name “1Rock”, but after a while the name became controversial so they decided to change the name, and after some searching the name ‘Empire 1’ came about. Afterwards they began playing in the clubs; they played as special guests in other radio stations and now they say that their future plan is to represent Belize to the fullest wherever they go and in whatever they do.

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