Ed Lover

Ed Lover
Birth name	James Roberts
Born	(1963-02-12) February 12, 1963 Queens, New York City, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop
Occupation(s)	Deejay radio personality actor musician
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Relativity

James Roberts (born February 12, 1963), better known as Ed Lover, is an American deejay, radio personality, actor, musician, and former MTV VJ. He hosted "The Ed Lover Show" on SiriusXM's old-school hip hop station BackSpin. As of April 12, 2018, he hosts the morning show at classic hip-hop "104.3 Jams" WBMX in Chicago.

He is also widely recognized for being the first person to announce Tupac Shakur's death at a Nas concert in 1996.

Biography

Pre-MTV history

Roberts was born in Brooklyn, New York. Before reaching fame on MTV, he was part of an eccentric and deliberately enigmatic hip hop collective called No Face, primarily with fellow members Kevon Shah and Mark "Mark Sexx" Skeete, who served as the main producer. No Face debuted in 1989 on Island Records' Club music imprint Great Jones with its only known recording for the label, "Hump Music"—an underground sexually explicit parody of The Jungle Brothers' 1988 hip-house classic "I'll House You." No Face would continue recording for another five years, but it only released one album in 1990, Wake Your Daughter Up on its own No Face label, which was operated as an imprint of the Rush Associated Labels division of Def Jam Recordings.

Though Ed Lover was clearly recognizable throughout parts of the album, his name was not credited on the album and he was not featured on any album or single covers during this period, thus rendering Ed Lover the "no face" part of the group. Its main logo featured two heads with the word "face" written in graffiti-style' at the bottom of the right face, while the official label logo featured three heads with the word "face" in a more legible font.

Wake Your Daughter Up spawned two singles—"Fake-Hair-Wearin' Bitch," an underground cult classic that sampled The Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" and featured the 2 Live Crew, and "Half," an R&B-styled divorce tale that featured the up-and-coming hardcore female hip-hop duo BWP (Bytches with Problems), which was discovered by and recorded for No Face to a slightly bigger level of success for the label than the group No Face did. Ed Lover is featured in the video for "Half," which regularly aired on Yo! MTV Raps during his tenure as co-host.

For reasons unknown, other than possibly to avoid conflicting with his duties on MTV, Ed Lover left No Face shortly after its time with RAL. His swan song to the group and to the label was his cameo appearance with partner Doctor Dré in BWP's video of its third single, "Wanted," from its one and only album, The Bytches from 1991.

Yo! MTV Raps

Roberts is best known for saying "C'mon, son!" and being the co-host of the weekday version of MTV's hip hop music specialty program Yo! MTV Raps Today with partner André "Doctor Dré" Brown. (The main weekend version was hosted by hip hop pioneer "Fab Five Freddy" Brathwaite) On Yo! MTV Raps Today, Ed created his own dance called the Ed Lover Dance that became massively popular in the 1990s and was performed to the track "The 900 Number" by DJ Mark the 45 King.

He appeared as a guest on MSNBC's The Beat with Ari Melber on June 1, 2018, along with Yo! MTV Raps co-host Dr. Dré. During their segment they promoted the re-boot of the show.

Radio career

Ed and Dré—who hosted the high-rated Morning Show with Ed, Lisa, and Dré on New York's Hot 97 FM from 1993 to 1998—released only one album, 1994's poorly received Back Up Off Me! The previous year, they starred as a pair of hapless barbers turned police officers in the New Line Cinema feature film Who's the Man?, which was well received and was hailed as the hip hop whodunit.

He was later a radio personality on New York's Hip-Hop Radio Power 105.1 FM starting in January 2003 until January 2010 and was reprimanded by Oprah Winfrey for his use of the word "bitches," leading to an Oprah show on the subject of disrespect in hip hop. He also appeared on the VH1 program 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders in 2002. Lover also hosted a show on HBO in 2000–2001 titled KO Nation. Ed is currently the host of the hit TV show Hip Hop Hold 'Em along with the self-produced web show called C'mon, Son! edited and post production by BrowCo. He was also the co-host of the morning show on WWPR-FM (Power 105.1) in New York City until he was released from the station on Friday, November 19, 2010. In 2011, Lover became the host of his own show called "Friday Night Flava" on WRKS (Kiss FM) in New York City.

On June 21, 2014, Ed Lover became part of the Old School 100.3 FM family in Philadelphia with his own "The Ed Lover Show". He later joined 107.9 in Philadelphia on a show with Monie Love.

On February 14, 2024, Ed Lover returned to radio and became the host of "The Ed Lover Experience", a syndicated program heard on rhythmic Audacy stations including New York's WXBK and Chicago's WBMX. Ed lover also has his program on San Francisco's KRBQ. a station, similar to that of WBMX.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Juice	Contest Judge
	Move the Crowd	Himself	TV movie
1993	A Cool Like That Christmas	Himself (voice)	TV movie
	Who's the Man?	Himself
1994	Gunmen	Himself
1998	Ride	Six
1999	Double Platinum	Party Ardie	TV movie
2002	Undisputed	Marvin Bonds
2003	The Hustle	Red	Video
2004	The Bahama Hustle	Red	Video
2011	You're Nobody 'til Somebody Kills You	Himself
2018	Come Sunday	Elector
2022	Staring at Strangers	Himself
	Respect the Jux	Himself

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988-95	Yo! MTV Raps	Himself/Host	Main Host
1989	Camp MTV	Himself	Episode: "Hour 2"
1992	The Royal Family	Himself	Episode: "The Fame Game"
	Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?	Himself	Episode: "The Brazen Bean Bamboozlement"
	The Cosby Show	Taxi Driver	Episode: "Bring Me the Lip Gloss of Deirdre Arpelle"
1994	Ghostwriter	Himself	Episode: "Don't Stop the Music: Part 1-4"
1995	Source Hip-Hop Music Awards	Himself/Co-Host	Main Co-Host
	New York Undercover	Himself	Episode: "You Get No Respect"
1996	The Daily Show	Himself/Correspondent	Recurring Correspondent: Season 1
1998	One World Music Beat	Himself/Host	Main Host
1998-99	The Hughleys	Cousin Jimmy	Guest Cast: Season 1-2
1999	Moesha	Himself	Episode: "Isn't She Lovely?"
1999-01	Battle Dome	Himself/Announcer	Main Announcer
2000	The Jamie Foxx Show	Lucien	Episode: "Serve No Wine Before I Get Mine"
2001-02	According to Jim	Ed	Recurring Cast: Season 1
2003	Comedy Central Roast	Himself	Episode: "Comedy Central Roast of Denis Leary"
	Rock Me Baby	Himself	Episode: "A Pain in the Aspen"
2004	5 Deadly Videos	Himself/Host	Main Host
2005	I Want To Be a Hilton	Himself	Episode: "Episode #1.7"
2006	VH1 Goes Inside	Himself	Episode: "Yo! MTV Raps"
	Hip Hop Hold Em	Himself/Host	Main Host
2009	Life After	Himself	Episode: "Bell Biv DeVoe"
2010	Rude Tube	Himself	Episode: "Viral Ads"
2011-14	Psych	Himself/Bailiff Comonsat	Guest Cast: Season 6 & 8
2012	Big Morning Buzz Live	Himself/Panelist	Episode: "Episode #5.4"
2015	The '90s: We Invented This	Himself/Host	Main Host
	Gotham Comedy Live	Himself/Host	Episode: "Ed Lover"
2015-17	Fresh Off the Boat	Himself	Guest Cast: Season 2-3
2016	The Eighties	Himself	Episode: "Video Killed the Radio Star"
	Unsung	Himself	Episode: "Kwame"
2017	Dish Nation	Himself/Guest Co-Host	Episode: "Episode #5.131" & "#5.217"
	The Nineties	Himself	Episode: "Isn't it Ironic?"
	In the Cut	Roderick	Episode: "Matter of Principle"
2018	The 2000s	Himself	Episode: "The I Decade" & "I Want My MP3"
2019	South Side	Himself	Episode: "Chi-Town"
2022	Unsung	Himself	Episode: "Monie Love" & "P.M. Dawn"
2024	Kings from Queens: The Run DMC Story	Himself	Main Guest

Documentary

Year	Title
1989	Overcoming Self-Destruction
1990	Rapmania: The Roots of Rap
1991	Human Education Against Lies
2001	Street Life
2002	Slip N' Slide: All Star Weekend
2003	Death of a Dynasty
2004	War on Wax: Rivalries in Hip-Hop
2005	New Jack City: A Hip Hop Classic
2010	In Search of Ted Demme
2016	Spring Broke
	We're Still Here (Now).... A Documentary about nobody.

Discography

Album information
Back Up Off Me! Released: November 8, 1994 Chart positions: No. 91 Top R&B/Hip-Hop, No. 27 Top Heatseekers Last RIAA certification: Gold Singles: "Back Up Off Me!", "For the Love of You"

External links

• Ed Lover at IMDb
• Ed Lover TV
• Ed Lover Cmon Son
• Jet