Paul C

Paul C. McKasty (September 20, 1964 – July 17, 1989), better known as Paul C, was an East coast hip hop producer and engineer in the 1980s. McKasty was of Polish descent.

Work

McKasty began his musical career as a bassist of the pop rock band the Mandolindley Road Show. He gave himself the middle name "Charles" after Ray Charles which he shortened to the initial "C." After the group disbanded, Paul joined the hip hop group Mikey D & the L.A. Posse. He began working as a producer and engineer for numerous hip-hop acts. Paul C's best-known work is on Ultramagnetic MC's 1988 classic debut album Critical Beatdown and the non-album singles the group released between 1988 and 1989. He has only one credit as a producer on the album, for the track "Give the Drummer Some," but according to group members, Paul C was responsible for the overall sound of the album. Paul preferred to work without contracts, so he often did not receive credit for his production work.

Paul C also worked for many other artists including Grandmaster Caz, Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud, Stezo, and Rahzel. He also served as a mentor of Large Professor in the use of the E-mu SP-1200. He overheard a recording session of a new local group named Simply Too Positive and offered to produce its entire demo. Simply Too Positive eventually became Organized Konfusion and its demo created a major buzz around the group.

Carbon-based life

Carbon forms the key component for all known life on Earth. Complex molecules are made up of carbon bonded with other elements, especially oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and carbon is able to bond with all of these because of its four valence electrons. Carbon is abundant on earth. It is also lightweight and relatively small in size, making it easier for enzymes to manipulate carbon molecules. It is often assumed in astrobiology that if life exists somewhere else in the universe, it will also be carbon based. Critics refer to this assumption as carbon chauvinism.

Characteristics

"What we normally think of as 'life' is based on chains of carbon atoms, with a few other atoms, such as nitrogen or phosphorus", per Stephen Hawking in a 2008 lecture, "carbon [...] has the richest chemistry." The most important characteristics of carbon as a basis for the chemistry of life are, that it has four valence bonds, that the energy required to make or break a bond is at an appropriate level for building molecules, which are stable and reactive. Because carbon atoms bond readily to other carbon atoms allows for the building of arbitrarily long complex molecules and polymers.