Biography:
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 organised a series of neighbourhood
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-inflected
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.
Gonzalez's breakthrough as a solo artist
came with the recording of the breathtaking Bucketheads
album in 1995. "One night I was driving from Manhattan
to Brooklyn with Johnny “D” and we were listening
to all of these terrible records. I said, 'Fuck that! I'm
going to make some music!'" Gonzalez went home, pulled
out a series of classics and produced "a whole album
in three days." A track called "The Bomb! (These
Sounds Fall Into My Mind)" was the standout track,
fulfilling Kenny's ambition to make "something raw,
something that was fun." With its driving drums, screeching
sound effects and extended sample from Chicago's "Street
Player", the song was an instant sensation on the underground
and before long Gonzalez was gate-crashing the European
pop charts with his first major hit. "That was a big
turning point," acknowledges Kenny.
Following the success of the Bucketheads
album, Gonzalez took a break from his solo career, focusing
on his collaborative work with Vega. The Nuyorican Soul
album marked a particularly important moment, and had Kenny
Dope's unerringly creative imprint written all over it.
Gonzalez was behind every aspect of the album's creation,
and tracks such as "Nautilus" were hand-picked
by the man himself. He also laid down the foundation to
all of the beats for the album, and then worked alongside
drummer Vidal Davis in the studio. "He came from Jazzy
Jeff's camp," says Kenny. "We just clicked."
The album's release marked the MAW man's transition into
one of America's most important contemporary producers.
With the MAW-Nuyorican Soul combination
going from strength to strength, Kenny is keen to revive
his solo career. Having contributed ten of his favourite
tracks to a recent "Stop and Listen" BBE compilation,
Gonzalez is about to relaunch his Dope Wax label. The first
release is titled "The Illout" and the second
runs under the name "Brazilica". A string of Gonzalez
classics will follow soon after. At the same time, Kenny
is also working on a rap album, Merciless RNS, which he's
shopping around, and a hip-hop influenced beats album for
BBE called the Madd Rackett is due to be completed this
summer. The man behind "The Bomb" is about to
go nuclear.
