Richard Philips, better known by his stage name Richard X, is a British songwriter and music producer. Gaining attention as a pioneer of the bootleg craze, Richard X has earned success as a producer and remixer. He has helmed hit singles for artists including Annie, Kelis, Liberty X, Rachel Stevens and Sugababes. According to an early issue of the now defunct Popworld magazine, Philips' alias comes from a postcard which was sealed with a kiss misinterpreted for the letter X.
Richard X is known for his "synthesised, grungy pop music", which was inspired by bands such as The Human League and Kraftwerk. His original intention was to "reinvent" pop music by making records that are "deliberately unplayable". Referring to his 'Girls on Top' bootlegs, Richard X says, "At the time it was inspired by anti the po-facedness of the electronica scene as much as anything. The production side, how it sounded – rough and spiky, electronic and modern – was what did it for me. Taking pop and putting it through a blender sound wise was the spirit of the times."
History
2001–2004: Bootlegs and commercial breakthrough
Richard X started his career in the underground music scene creating popular bootlegs, which are "illegal, under the counter remixes which combined two existing records to make an entirely new song." Under the pseudonym Girls on Top, Richard X released a series of vinyl-only underground singles. He says bootlegs were "escaping from that world of formatting – which the DJ culture and club culture relies on so much. They were supposed to be the future of pop music." His mashup "I Wanna Dance with Numbers" (a combination of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and Kraftwerk's "Numbers") helped establish as the most common mashup template the combination of vocals from a female pop singer with a critically noteworthy song.
Island Records heard "We Don't Give a Damn About Our Friends", which was a mash-up of Adina Howard's "Freak Like Me" and Gary Numan/Tubeway Army's "Are 'Friends' Electric?", and requested that Sugababes record it. Richard X said he was "very keen to do it as long as it remained what it was. It was raw, it was against the grain and it was still pop music." Sugababes' version of the song, which kept the Adina Howard title of "Freak Like Me", was recorded in Richard X's flat in Tooting. He said, "there was a loop, some handclaps, the Sugababes and a semi-broken synthesiser." Released as the first single from Sugababes' second studio album Angels with Dirty Faces, it charted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, the first of many for the girl group.
As a result of the interest in Girls on Top and "Freak Like Me", Richard X was signed to Virgin Records. He collaborated with pop group Liberty X to create "Being Nobody", a mash-up of Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" and The Human League's "Being Boiled". Richard X's next release was "Finest Dreams" with Kelis, which was a reworking of The SOS Band and Alexander O'Neal's "The Finest" with another The Human League song "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of". Both the Liberty X and Kelis collaborations charted within the top ten, at number three and number eight respectively. Richard X released his debut album Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1 in August 2003. The album featured "Freak Like Me", "Being Nobody", "Finest Dreams" as well as collaborations with Annie, Jarvis Cocker, Javine Hylton, and Tiga, among others. Richard X described the album as "modern, alternative, future-pop".
He also released Back to Mine Volume 17, as part of the long-running mix album series. His album included tracks by artists including Goldfrapp, Heaven 17, Jona Lewie, John Carpenter and Kelis.