Antonio Franklin, known as DJ Clark Kent, in 2016. A hip-hop insider for four decades, he worked with many leading rappers.
Credit...Johnny Nunez/WireImage

DJ Clark Kent, Who Introduced Jay-Z to the Notorious B.I.G., Dies at 58

He was a producer and club D.J. who helped rappers find their voices and fortunes, and who later became known as a raconteur of hip-hop history.

by · NY Times

Antonio Franklin, known as DJ Clark Kent, a widely respected hip-hop insider for four decades who had influential relationships with many leading rappers, died on Thursday at his home in Greenbrook, a township in northern New Jersey. He was 58.

The cause was colon cancer, his wife, Kesha (Vernon) Franklin, said.

Mr. Franklin’s career followed the trajectory of hip-hop itself. He entered the scene just as it was taking shape, in New York in the 1980s, and he reached prime time when rap itself did, in the mid-90s. After being a club D.J. for years, he moved on to work as a producer and took jobs with Atlantic Records and Motown.

In 1995, he produced a rap classic — and his first hit song — with “Player’s Anthem” by Junior M.A.F.I.A., a group formed by the Notorious B.I.G., who also appeared on the track. The song became a breakout single for the group and introduced Lil’ Kim to the international hip-hop audience.

The next year, he produced three songs on Jay-Z’s debut album, “Reasonable Doubt.” His most noteworthy contributions were to the song “Brooklyn’s Finest.” Mr. Franklin provided the vocals for the hook, and he suggested to Jay-Z and his manager, Damon Dash, that they include Notorious B.I.G. on the track. The two somewhat hesitantly agreed — without realizing that Mr. Franklin had already asked Notorious B.I.G. to wait downstairs. The collaboration took place instantly.

That kind of behind-the-scenes orchestration was ordinary for Mr. Franklin. In 1998, he saw a young man who went by Shyne freestyling in a barbershop, then introduced him to Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, who signed him to a record deal on the spot.

“I practically knew every rapper before they made their records,” Mr. Franklin told the pop culture publication Complex. “They wanted to be familiar with the D.J.s and what was happening in hip-hop. I was happening in hip-hop.”

The most obvious way Mr. Franklin’s taste became influential was in the songs he produced. He had producing credits on songs by not just Jay-Z and Notorious B.I.G. but also Kanye West, 50 Cent and Mariah Carey, among many others.

Though he never became famous in his own right, interviewers well educated in hip-hop history knew to ask him about the subtler ways he had guided the culture.

Mr. Franklin, for example, first met Jay-Z when the rapper was about 15 years old. He quickly decided that Jay-Z was “the best M.C. in the universe” and tended to introduce him to others as exactly that.

The praise, Mr. Franklin recalled, irked Notorious B.I.G.

As with Jay-Z, Mr. Franklin became friendly with B.I.G. before he was famous, thanks to friends they had in common. In time, the two grew close: Mr. Franklin was the D.J. for many of B.I.G.’s early live shows.

After B.I.G. heard Jay-Z rap, Mr. Franklin recalled to Complex, “He was like, ‘Oh really, he’s nice? I’m coming for his ass.’” B.I.G. finished a song he had long been working on, “Who Shot Ya?,” now one of his best-known tracks.

“B.I.G.’s first album was great, but his second album was unbelievable. Why?” Mr. Franklin said to Complex. “That was motivated by dudes saying Jay was nice.”

Rodolfo Antonio Franklin II was born on Sept. 28, 1966, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. (He often told people he was born in Panama out of allegiance to his family’s ancestral home.) He never knew his father well, and he was brought up by his mother and grandmother, Cynthia (Brown) Franklin and Mildred O. Brown. His mother was a trained opera singer who worked as a legal secretary.

Tony, as he was known, wore glasses, the origin of his Clark Kent alter ego. He attended high school at Brooklyn Tech, but after he started getting into trouble, his mother decided he should transfer to Hoosac School, a private boarding school in Hoosick, N.Y., where he finished high school. He attended Emerson College in Boston but did not graduate.

In 1998, Mr. Franklin was set up with a young woman who was not that interested: She was seeing someone else. She got into the passenger seat of Mr. Franklin’s black truck. They made small talk. She smiled at him. He looked into her eyes, pointed at her and said, “Your life just changed.”

In the moment, she thought that this comment came from distasteful arrogance.

But it turned out that he was right: Two years later, they married.

“He was just a very solid, confident man,” Ms. Franklin said. “It was magnetic.”

In addition to his wife, Mr. Franklin is survived by their son, Antonio III; a stepdaughter, Kabriah Franklin; and two siblings, Eric and Kathryn Franklin.

A documentary about him directed by the New York radio rap personality Angie Martinez, featuring interviews with the likes of Jay-Z and Questlove, will be released next year, Ms. Franklin said.

It will be the last and perhaps best venue for Mr. Franklin to regale the public with his hip-hop anecdotes.

In one interview, with the ItsTheReal rap podcast, he reminisced about hearing LL Cool J’s regrets at a nightclub, Notorious B.I.G.’s inspiration on a tour bus and a surprise Michael Jackson performance that had “thugs” in the audience shrieking. He also discussed his own failure to convince music industry bosses to sign Missy Elliott, Foxy Brown, Mase, Nas, Mobb Deep and Jay-Z (who wound up founding his own label).

Where Mr. Franklin succeeded was even more peculiar: He signed the boy band 98 Degrees to Motown.

“How are you going to do four white boys on Motown?” his boss, Andre Harrell, asked, according to Mr. Franklin.

“I was like, ‘I have to sign them — I have to,’” Mr. Franklin continued. Their album “98 Degrees and Rising,” released in 1998, went quadruple platinum.

“I don’t look for who you’re down with, I don’t look for who produces you,” Mr. Franklin said. “All I care about is the talent. If you’ve got talent, I’m going to find a song.”

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