Royal Fam is a Wu-Tang Clan affiliated group based in New York City, New York with a seemingly flexible roster that debuted in 1995, centered around the omnipresent three of Timbo King, Dark Denim and Mikey Jarrett Jr.
(of whom Timbo King is the defacto leader). A lot of confusion has existed over the exact members of this group. It was even suggested that Popa Wu was once a member. Early radio freestyles featuring Royal Fam featured some unknown artists.
Two of which were Roc and Jahrule (not of the Murder Inc.) - both were present on the track "Army Brickaid" from Royal Fam's unofficial debut release. Timbo King has made mention that the Royal Fam consists of mainly 3 members, himself, Dark Ages & Malachi and Y-Kim the Ill Figure as the producer with featuring or introducing others, which have not been mentioned, certainly the presence of Roc and Ja Rule would support this statement.
Timbo King is undoubtedly the group's main MC handling the majority of rhyming duties. Dreddy Kruger has also made a number of Wu-Tang album appearances. Dark Denim released a solo track early in his career called "Doin' Our Thang" featuring Lord Smooth, under the name Dark Ages.
Early in their inception, an album called "Black Castle" was rumoured to have been recorded, and was to be jointly distributed by Capitol Records and Wu-Tang Records. The album even had a "catalogue number", a right which is reserved only for completed albums, EP's or singles.
This would suggest some truth to this mystery, but as yet, only a handful of tracks from this supposed album has been released. In early 2000, copies of a Royal Fam album, "Yesterday, Today Iz Tomorrow", was released in Europe and was subsequently made available worldwide, without the knowledge and consent of the group itself.
Y-Kim has promised to release the album officially. "Days, Months, Yearz" was released but is very rare and hard to come across CD. Around 2006, Nature Sound Records geared up to release the long lost "Black Castle" as presented by Timbo King but the album got shelved due to unknown reasons with only promos released to DJs, promoters and so on.
The group have also gone under the name Royal Famous.Members (Past and Present):- Benny Boom- Dark Denim (aka Dark Ages, Dark Knight)- Dreddy Kruger (aka Dutch Master)- Jahrule- Mighty Jarrett (aka Malachi, Mighty Jarrad)- Q-Base (aka the Royal Visar)- Roc- Stoneface (aka ShaRecka)- Timbo King (aka King Tymel, Timbuktu, Bo King)- Y-Kim the Ill FigureDISCOGRAPHY:Summin' Gotz To Give bw/ I Declare War (1995)Yesterday, Today, Iz Tomorrow (2000)Years Months Dayz (2004)Black Castle (2006)
