Special Ed is the performing name of Edward Archer (born May 16, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York), an American hip hop musician of Jamaican descent. Hailing from Brooklyn in New York City, he is identified with East Coast hip hop. In his own right, Special Ed is probably best known for the songs "I Got It Made" and "I'm The Magnificent", produced by "Hitman" Howie Tee and released in 1989 on the Youngest in Charge album when Ed was just 16. In 1990, he released his album Legal with the singles "Come on Let's Move It and "The Mission". "The Mission" samples "You Can Have Watergate" (that melody charted back in the 1970s).

He was later a member of Crooklyn Dodgers, an ad hoc group who came together to perform for the Spike Lee films Clockers and Crooklyn, and he performed "Crooklyn" with Shillz on the 2003 compilation album MuskaBeatz. Snoop Dogg counts Special Ed as an influence on his own work. He also released his album Revelations with the single "Neva Go Back" in 1995. DJ Premier produced a remix of his track "Freaky Flow." In addition, Buckwild of the Diggin' in the Crates Crew produced a remix of the song "Lyrics". Special Ed also did a freestyle on the last episode of Yo! MTV Raps. In 2004, he released the album Still Got It Made on his own label "Semi." And he also had a role in the movie "Ganked" starring Kel Mitchell.

Special Ed also had a cameo in "Juice", although he was not in the films credits.

He made an appearance on The Cosby Show as fictional rapper "JT Freeze". Currently, Special Ed can be heard on the Rick Ross remix of " Magnificent" featuring Big Boi from Outkast.

Jay-Z refers to Special Ed's "I Got It Made" on his track "Empire State of Mind" on the album Blueprint 3

[edit] Discography

• Youngest in Charge (1989)
• Legal (1990)
• Revelations (1995)
• The Best of Special Ed (2000)
• Still Got it Made (2004)

[edit] External links

• Special Ed at Allmusic
• Special Ed Myspace