What do rap and hip-hop artists KANYE WEST, BRANDY,BLACK EYED PEAS, WYCLEF JEAN, FLOETRY, TWEET, MISSY ELLIOT,NAS, DMX, ICE CUBE, and PUBLIC ENEMY have in common? They are just a few of the many artists who have sampled the legendary Funk/R&B/Jazz/Latin/Rock sensation MANDRILL . . . a sunburst of musical energy that defies category.

Currently, you can hear their signature sound on Kanye West’s “Two Words” with Mos Def from Kanye’s Grammy Award-winning College Dropout album as well as on Brandy’s single “Talk About Our Love” featuring and produced by Kanye West from her Grammy nominated Afrodisiac album. Other samples include Black Eyed Peas’ “Weekends”, Floetry’s “Have Faith,” Tweet and Miss Elliot’s “We Don’t Need No Water”, Kindred’s “If I,” and Nas’ “U Gotta Love It.”

The state-of-the art MANDRILL LIVE AT MONTREUX DVD, produced by Wilson Bros Records, includes interviews, behind the scenes footage and a photo gallery in addition to the 90-minute concert recorded in Switzerland at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Stravinsky Hall. Viewers are treated to bonus musical surprises on what is sure to become a collector’s item. The concert CD is one of Mandrill’s finest albums. Both the CD and DVD are available on the official website at www.mandrillis.com and is available in stores worldwide. The DVD is currently featured on BET J (Black Entertainment Television’s new channel) “Club J Concerts.”

Today, the Wilson Brothers remain the driving force behind MANDRILL, strongly supported by a new generation of players. Still touring the U.S. and internationally, MANDRILL’S live performance at San Diego’s Saville Theater was broadcast worldwide on Jazz 88.3 FM and they appeared at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre in Washington, D.C. where their vibrant energy and sensual beats combined to create an extraordinary live performance that had the audience dancing in the aisles.

The Carter Barron performance also showcased the second generation of Wilson musicians with the advent of The Drill Collective (TDC) featuring The One Sun Lion Ra. He and the other new young artists of TDC are sure to establish themselves as the next generation of phenomenal musicians and performers. The presentations have in common powerful and positive messages and will span the spectrum from music, spoken word and poetry, to the visual domain. Look for the One Sun Lion Ra’s CD coming soon.

Hailing from Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York, this extraordinary group is one of the country’s greatest musical treasures. MANDRILL, formed by the Panamanian Wilson Brothers (Lou, Ricardo, Carlos & Wilfredo), is a family crew of astonishing multi-instrumentalists whose background is a melting pot of Caribbean culture blended with the sound and heart of Urban America. With sixteen albums that include the smash hits “Fencewalk,” “Git It All,” “Hang Loose,” “Polk Street Carnival,” “Ape Is High,” “House of Wood,” and thirty years of thrilling audiences all over the world to their credit, MANDRILL has shared the stage with the likes of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock; James Brown, Patti LaBelle, David Bowie, Earth, Wind & Fire; Tito Puente and The Fania All Stars; The Eagles, Deep Purple, Mott The Hoople, Jim Croce and the New World Symphony.

MANDRILL rocked San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall and opened the Grand Performances summer series on the beautiful California Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. The group also completed highly successful engagements in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Of particular note, the D.C. event celebrates musical history when the group headlined the bill that packed RFK Stadium beyond capacity as 80,000 people came to see MANDRILL, along with Parliament-Funkadelic, Buddy Miles, Rare Earth and the Jimmy Castor Bunch in 1973, breaking the previously long-held attendance record set by the Rolling Stones.

MANDRILL created an eclectic film score for the feature film Civil Brand, a Lions Gate Entertainment (Monster’s Ball, Fahrenheit 9/11) production. Civil Brand is the riveting story of young Black women fighting abuse and exploitation in the private prison system and features platinum-selling rappers Mos Def, Da Brat and MC Lyte. Mandrill’s hit “Sunshine” from the compilation CD Sunshine: Love Songs is featured in the movie. The Civil Brand score stands along with Mandrill’s movie soundtracks for The Greatest (Columbia Pictures biopic of Muhammad Ali) and Paramount Pictures cult classic The Warriors.

Sirius and XM Satellite Radio have both done current features on MANDRILL as well as past documentaries. You can also read about the life and times of MANDRILL in the book by Jim McCarthy and Ron Sansoe titled Voices of Latin Rock: the People and Events That Created This Sound (foreword by Carlos Santana) published by the Hal Leonard Corporation.

Always socially conscious, the group is actively involved in a campaign that focuses on the plight of its namesake, the Mandrill (West African baboon), which has been classified as an endangered species.

Mandrill deeply appreciates the strong fan support they have received over the last three decades. They are currently in the studio recording their seventeenth album that will truly be a treat for the ever-growing MANDRILL family. The highly anticipated debut of their new songs will be followed by performances throughout the United States and Europe.