| Kenny Dope:
Born in 1970, Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez grew up in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park. By the early eighties he was absorbing the hip hop beats that were being played at the local street parties, and in 1985 he started to work in a local record store, WNR Music Center. Along with his partner, Mike Delgado, Gonzalez organized a series of neighborhood parties under the Masters at Work alias, and these were regularly attended by Brooklyn hero Todd Terry, who eventually borrowed the MAW name for two releases – "Alright, Alright" and "Dum Dum Cry". Terry returned the favour when he lent Gonzalez a drum machine, and in 1989 the resourceful rhythm addict recorded a series of Powerhouse beat tracks for Frank Mendez’s cutting edge Nu Groove label. Gonzalez’s Nu Groove work culminated with "Salsa House", which received heavy rotation from Heartthrob DJ "Little Louie" Vega. The duo immediately began a prolific relationship with Gonzalez laying down the beats for four tracks on Vega’s album with Marc Anthony, and the new boy established himself as one of New York’s most original rhythm generators when he concocted the swinging syncopated beat for Saint Etienne’s "Only Love Can Break Your Heart". "I used four or five different kick drums in different frequencies to get what I wanted," says Gonzalez. " It took people two or three years to figure out those beats, by which time I had moved somewhere else." Gonzalez has spent the last ten years stretching beats to their conceptual breaking point, producing the murky hip hop of "Blood Vibes", the jazz-influenced rhythms of "The Nervous Track", the stacked percussion of "Love & Happiness" and the slamming sounds of "Close to You". At the same time, the Brooklyn remixer-producer has pursued an independent recording career that has included the pounding house of the Untouchables on Strictly Rhythm as well as a wide range of hip-hop projects. |
My Djshop
