Incorporated in Charlotte, NC as Live Wire Entertainment by Aaron “Kidd Star” Payes & Stephen “Kontrol” Monica.  History begins.

Live Wire Entertainment began funding and promoting the infamous Bass Wars parties in North & South Carolina while developing the EDM group Decepticonz with the release of their debut Album “Live From Cybertron” which included the singles “Mass Hysteria”, “The Fanny Dance”, “Start Shakin” and “The Big Drum Beater”. Live Wire’s second CD release also came in ’02 from DJ Hydraulic with his underground CD “Elements of Funk” which featured the club hits “La Freak”, “When I Move My Body” and “Hands Up”. Shortly after the 2 releases, 3 Bad Brothaz was formed to combine the raw underground turntablism of DJ Hyrdaulic with the Mainstream ears and eyes of Kidd Star & Kontrol.  Members, Kidd Star, Kontrol & Hydraulic first started performing together at their Bass Wars parties and from there their special mix of talent gained an instant loyal following.  During this time, Live Wire Entertainment also started a local Nightlife Magazine that spotlighted nightly events and music in Charlotte, Greensboro & Raleigh.  The magazine ran for a year and half before stopping printing due to its relocation to Tampa, FL. 

Live Wire Entertainment relocated to Tampa, FL and focused on their flagship group 3 Bad Brothaz, with original members DJ’s, Kidd Star, Kontrol & Hydraulic.  Their first CD, “We Perfected the Remix” featured the club anthems “Acid Party”, “Whutchugonedo” and “Just to be With You”. This CD featured the first ever e-Hop track “Whutchugonedo” and the soon to be smash radio hit “Just to be With You” (Walk on Water Rmx) and put 3 Bad Brothaz on the map in the underground music scene.  Accompanying their CD was a storm of 12” white label vinyl releases including, “I can’t stand it”, “Get the F*ck Up”, “Through the Rain”, “Supa Dupa Alarma” and “Children on the Dancefloor” to name a few.  In 2003, Live Wire Entertainment switched its name to Live Wire Empire to show the world that Live Wire had its site set on much more than Entertainment, its sites were set on building an Empire, starting with 3 Bad Brothaz. 

Live Wire Empire released DJ Hydraulic from the label and group 3 Bad Brothaz and signed DJ Mike B to take his place within 3 Bad Brothaz.  Shortly after, the song “Just to be With You” also titled and re-released as “Walk on Water” (Rmx) was put into daytime radio rotation on Atlanta’s #1 Top40 Radio Station Q100 due to its popularity on the Mix-Show circuit.  Staying on the charts for over 10 weeks, and gaining a huge following in Atlanta, Live Wire released the first 3 Bad Brothaz Album “The Live Wire Show: Atlanta” which was an instant classic featuring all the biggest hits in Breakbeat history and sold out in stores all across the country including Tower Records, making them the best Independent selling group/label in 2004.  In addition, that year Live Wire Empire partnered up with several European Record Labels from Germany to distribute and sell each of their top selling artists singles in the United States.  These labels included, Tunnel Records and their artist DJ Dean’s singles, “Play It Hard” & “Protect Your Ears”, House Nation and their artist 666 single “Bomba!” and Aqualoop Records artist Pulsedriver and his single “Time”. These singles and their remixes were featured on the maxi single and double vinyl release titled, “Club Music for the Masses” which solidified Live Wire Empire as major player in the International Independent Dance Music Scene and showed the world the Empire’s direction.

Live Wire Empire relocates to Atlanta, GA and introduces the world to e-Hop music, a sound that combined Hip-Hop & Electronic music.   E-Hop vol. I was the first full release of e-Hop music.  This mix-tape set fire to the underground scene with the 3 Bad Brothaz remixes to Usher’s “Yeah”, Jay-Z’s “Dirt off your Shoulder”, Young Buck’s “Welcome to the South” and Baby Bash’s“Suga Suga”.  E-Hop was the new sound in clubs all across the South and took the club scene by storm and can be heard in today’s Pop music by artists like Akon, Flo rida, Lady Gaga and David Guetta just to name a few.  DJ Mike B was released from the group 3 Bad Brothaz right after the release of e-Hop Vol. I while Kidd Star and Kontrol were then left to carry the group name by themselves.  Due to the demand of e-Hop vol. I, 3 Bad Brothaz continued on with nine more volumes making it one of the most historic mix-tape series ever.

Live Wire trademarks e-Hop and continues to develop the sound with several original e-Hop singles by Kontrol & Kidd Star, “Can I Be A Rockstar”, “Baddest DJ” and “In the Back”. “In The Back” became a club smash hit and Kontrol & Kidd Star continued the brand name 3 Bad Brothaz as a two man group while touring the South and released the Hybrid Remix/Original Album Kontrol & Kidd Star “The 3 Bad Brothaz Show” which featured the singles “Love Is An Angel”, “What You Know”, “Ghetto Blaster, “Live 2 Dream”, and “Sun Will Shine”. Atlanta then coins them “The Late Night Kingz” with their famous afterhours residency at the Cabin Room which they held until it closed down.

Live Wire shoots two music video’s off the Kontrol & Kidd Star “The 3 Bad Brothaz Show” album to “In The Back” & “Baddest DJ”. Live Wire also partners up with Mixed Motionz B’boy crew and puts together the e-Hop Brigade, a group of B’boys, MC’s & DJs that perform live at their shows.  The E-Hop Brigade toured with 3 Bad Brothaz all over the country in cities, Atlanta, New Orleans, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Nashville, Mobile, Birmingham and Tampa in support of e-Hop Music.

Live Wire signs Kayno (Augusta, GA) to its label and under Kidd Star’s production starts work on the single “Miss My Baby”.

Live Wire Empire re-signs DJ Mike B to 3 Bad Brothaz.  The group continues forward and gets placed on CrooklynClan.net as one of their featured Remixers.  “Miss My Baby” is released as a single and Live Wire shoots it’s 3rd music video for the single which gets over 900,000 views on Blastro.com as well as being picked up by Promo Only & placed as a featured video in all of the LA Fitness’s, Krunch & Gold’s Gyms across the country.  It quickly becomes the southern anthem.

Live Wire Empire releases several artists on its roster.  Live Wire Empire is left with Kidd Star and The E-Hop Brigade which includes Mixed Motionz, Conflict, Pen Pals and Starr Jamezz.  Live Wire Empire then shifts focus on Kidd Star and his full length original album.  A new Board of Directors join Live Wire and a Promotions & Distribution deal is signed with John Abbey, Ishi Records (formerly Ichiban Records) and partners up for the release of Kidd Star’s upcoming solo album, Kidd Star & The e-Hop Brigade.