King Kirk, also credited as Thieven Stealburg, is the artist and producer who founded the hip hop group Sporty Thievz. This profile draws on a short biography published on the group’s former website and is presented for general information.

Early years

According to that account, King Kirk grew up in Yonkers, New York, and began rapping and producing at about fifteen. With teenage friends he formed a crew called the Wrecking Crew, which funded and pressed its own maxi-single cassette. The songs on it were titled Tick Tock Boom, Duck or Get Bucked and Mad Deep.

Going solo

After the crew, he recorded solo and handled production, mixing, mastering and pressing himself. The biography says he sold thousands of vinyl records, CDs and cassettes of his early underground singles Glamorous Dreams and What I Look Like. It adds that the radio DJ Mister Cee was the first to play Glamorous Dreams on his underground show. Because labels were not interested at the time, he continued independently, and that effort grew into Sporty Thievz.

Sporty Thievz takes off

The group appeared on mixtapes by up-and-coming DJs, followed by other well-known underground names such as DJ Kay Slay, which the account credits with drawing label attention. A deal with Columbia, part of Sony, followed.

The storytelling idea

To stand out, King Kirk chose to build records as stories. That approach produced the album Street Cinema and singles including No Pigeons and You Ain’t Gittin Nada Cheapskate.

More on the group is on the Sporty Thievz page, and his later activity is covered in the interview and the art and music blog.