eightball.ie proudly presents Kenny Dope

Sunday, June 01
Baker Place

Breakbeats, hip-hop, house, jazz, and Latin music are the building blocks for the recordings of DJ, remixer, and producer Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez. While he scored with “Salsa House” and “The Bomb (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind),” produced under the alias Bucketheads, Gonzalez made his greatest impression with Masters at Work, a production team that he shares with Little Louie Vega. Born to Puerto Rican parents in the Sunset Park district of Brooklyn, NY, Gonzalez began his musical career as a buyer for a local record shop, WNR Music. Together with Mike Delgado, he organized neighborhood parties under the Masters at Work pseudonym. When the parties acquired a reputation for violence, Gonzalez and Masters at Work moved to the recording studio.

Using a drum machine borrowed from a friend, Todd Terry, Gonzalez began recording breaks and beats for DJs, releasing several underground hits on his own independent label, Dope Wax, before branching out to produce tracks for Strictly Rhythm, Cutting, Nervous, and Big Beat.

Gonzalez has continued to build on his reputation. While he recorded several impressive solo tracks for the Tu Chicks, Freeze, and TNT labels, he revealed himself as a master remixer, working with such artists as BeBe Winans, Patti Austin, Jody Watley, and the Afro Celt Sound System, and a producer of albums by George Benson and Shirley Bassey. Tracks from Masters at Work’s diverse projects were compiled and released on Masterworks: Essential KenLou House Mixes and MAW Records: The Compilation, Vol. 1.

www.myspace.com/kennydope

www.kaydeerecords.com

www.deejaybooking.com/kennydope