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K-Dence

@melodicminer

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♋ // LA✈NYC✈LA // Music Producer // Audio Engineer // Jazz Theorist // ASCAP

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ONLY IN SANTA ANA: @rawk100_ throwing the @hundredproofcypher in downtown SA. Hosted by the humorous @fredwordwizardhands. The cypher has been ongoing for 4 years and hosts MCs and beat makers alike. Dope vibe, every first Saturday of the month! Come thru!

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A K-DENCE promotional shirt from over 20 years ago (2005)—promoting my MySpace page. I hear MySpace is making a comeback. Let's go!

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K-DENCE ORIGINS: PART 5 - CHUNG KING STUDIOS & KMA STUDIO INTERNSHIP. I was blessed to have set foot in the most legendary and iconic recording studio in the Hip Hop world. Chung King studios operated from 1986 to 2015 and recorded countless notable Hip Hop acts: Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, Notorious BIG, Tupac Shakur, Method Man, ODB, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kanye West. Just to name a few.

This was the first control room I entered. You could feel the oozing of creative energy from past artists that had been here.

This would be the second control room that I set foot into. The red ambient lighting definitely added a certain creative vibe.

These were the many record plaques that the studio received. Following, I took a snapshot of a couple notable ones.

NAS "Illmatic." This right here was the pinnacle of Hip Hop that I grew up listening to. This album was so monumental and life-changing that I believe it marked the transition from 1980s style Hip Hop to the Golden age of hip hop in the 90s.

Outkast "ATLiens" This was another album that ushered in the Golden era of Atlanta Hip Hop. For me, these guys brought Atlanta Hip Hop to NYC's attention.

3rd Bass "The Cactus Album". This was the debut album by Hip Hop trio 3rd Bass (MC Serch, Pete Nice, DJ Richie Rich). This album is notable for featuring the recording debut of rapper Zev Love X of KMD, later known as MF Doom on the hit single, "The Gas Face."

Although I am not a fan of T.I., I respect the work he did at Chung King studios.

Erykah Badu "Baduizm." This was the album that presented Neo Soul to the world. The smooth soulful Jazz chords and fused with live drumming, but with a bit of New York City grit was the attention grabber here. Many Neo Soul artists have tried to top this album, but this still remains top tier and the songs are timeless.

I had the privilege of landing an internship at KMA (Kiss My Ass) studios. The studio was located inside the Brill building, smack in the middle of Times Square. My internship would eventually come to an end here as the studio lost its lease and ultimately had to relocate South to the meatpacking district. Because of the relocation,

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K-DENCE ORIGINS: PART 4 - NEW YORK HIP HOP. This was 5Pointz in Long Island City, Queens, New York. I was lucky enough to visit months before it's sudden demolition. 5Pointz served as the "Mecca" of the global graffiti and street art movement.

5Pointz was a world famous, 200,000 sqft industrial complex, featuring over 11,000 murals and famously visible from the elevated 7 train.

The iconic, A Tribe Called Quest mural located in St. Albans, Queens (192-10 Linden Blvd). The mural is painted on the side wall of Nu-Clear Cleaners, the exact dry cleaners where the group stood on the roof to film their legendary 1991 music video for "Check the Rhime."

The Big L mural is located in the heart of Harlem, Manhattan. Big L grew up here on 140th street. The city officially co-named this exact intersection "Lamont 'Big L' Coleman Way.

Walking around Brooklyn, specifically Bed-Stuy and Fort Greene, you'll bump into these two murals of Biggie Smalls.The Commandante Biggie mural is located at: 690-694 Fulton St, Brooklyn NY 11217.

Pictured above is chocolate milk and butter crunch cookies. If you remember the nostalgia packed line in Biggie Smalls's "Sky's the Limit," he reminisces about his childhood school day snack. "So we rolled with em, stole with em. I mean loyalty: niggaz bought me milks at lunch. THE MILKS WAS CHOCOLATE, THE COOKIES, BUTTER CRUNCH. And yes, it was delicious!

This Kool Herc mural was on display at 5Pointz Long Island City, Queens, New York.

The Duck Down Music mascot made an appearance at a Boot Camp Click SummerStage appearance. I took a quick snapshot, while the group performed "Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka."

New York City SummerStage knows how to choose great summer performances for their summer stage series. This Rakim performance was legendary, where he rapped over his old and new songs.

This was another legendary encounter. I met 9th Wonder and Rhapsody at Sounds of Brazil in Manhattan. Rhapsody was friendliest in person, although she could bag any male MC on the mic.

If you know who this is, kudos to you. This is one of the best producers in the game, Illmind. I met him at a beat production seminar along with Bob Power. Not only was Illmind

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K-DENCE ORIGINS: PART 3A - New York City Residency. I was exhausted from the studio life back in Los Angeles. At the time, there was so much turbulence in my life that it was only logical I move to the East Coast and get away. Besides I had always wanted to move to New York City. The opportunity came when I met a girl from Brooklyn, in LA and we started a serious relationship. She was temporarily in LA and invited me to move back home with her. It was a no-brainer. Of course, yeah!

My New York City started in Brooklyn. Home of Notorious B.I.G., Mos Def, Masta Ace, Jay-Z, and many others. The moment you step into Brooklyn, you can feel the grittiness and energy. There's nothing like it.

I called Crown Heights, Brooklyn my home for a couple of years. The area is inhabited by West Indians, Caribbean, Hasidic Jews, and mainly Jamaicans - melting pot of cultures.

I went all in and represented Brooklyn to the fullest. Even though I was from LA, nobody I met spoke badly about Los Angeles. Everyone there showed love. I was accepted and quickly became a Brooklyn-ite. Maybe it's because spreading love is the Brooklyn way. 😉

The scenes from a subway platform, I believe the F train, were gorgeous. There's something beautiful about concrete landscapes.

Even though this is Ridgewood, Queens, it's still very close to Bushwick, Brooklyn. It had just snowed and I was on my way to visit a friend. Something about snow covered buildings makes this look like a movie set. You definitely don't see anything like this back in Los Angeles.

Of course I had to do a pose sitting on a Brooklyn brownstone. Just like in the music videos I would see on BET's Rap City.

Not all the time do you see pack subways in New York city. Sometimes you'll catch one with empty seats. Usually that's because there is a homeless person taking a dump in one of the subway cars. Fortunately that wasn't the case here, we just got lucky.

One thing I admire about New Yorkers, is there commitment to style. Just like in Los Angeles, where people are proud of the cars they drive in, New York being a pedestrian friendly city, people like to show off the clothes they're walking in. You live long enough there

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K-DENCE ORIGINS: PART 2 - Shows, shows, and more shows! I was meeting MCs, recording them at my BeatsAfterDark studio, and performing the songs all through a streamlined "assembly line" process - more on this later. I was actively performing from (2003-2012).

Picture above is a show I did at Whiskey a Go Go, off the Sunset strip. That night I performed with rap trio, Legendary Icons. It was an incredible night, filled with roaring fans, and an electric energy.

During my initial years, I came across a group from San Francisco called Illadapted. I was doing EVERYTHING to push these guys: from recording, mixing, mastering, flyer design, street promotion, show booking, and DJing for their shows. I was basically a one stop shop. This was the last show I did with them, before I burnt out.

The show went extremely well, due to my clever flyer design. When I went over to 2Mex's house to hand him a stack of flyers and upon seeing his picture, he wasn't too happy with his face on Andre the Giant's body. Lol. He said, "It's all good." With 2Mex's seal of approval, we had a huge turnout!

In college, I was friends with Nuclei from the Missing Page Crew. He introduced me to DiBia$e, Aspect One, and the production duo, Mind Giants - who were composed of James and George (RIP). Unfortunately, George passed away this year (2026).

In 2005, CULTURE CHEMISTRY was the first project I officially released. It featured a mashup of Common acapellas and popular lowrider oldies, which I chopped and rearranged. The project was unlike anything produced or published at the time. During that time, racial tensions among the Black and Hispanic communities were high and this was my way of responding to that. I followed through from production all the way to sending the project for CD pressing.

Here you can see cultural icons for both the Mexican and Black communities, as rapper Common's acapellas represented the black community. The lowrider oldies represented the Mexican community.

For CULTURE CHEMISTRY'S CD cover art, I chose the old Sixth Street bridge. The bridge symbolizes the open connection to one of the largest Mexican communities in LA. The message is that we are an open, we

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K-DENCE ORIGINS: PART 1 - My music production journey started in college, in the Digital Media Arts program. I was heavily DJing at the time, shopping for vinyl at Fat Beats and Aaron's records. I joined a Spanish alternative band called Torino, touring throughout Los Angeles. Next --->

Pictured above, was one of the many shows I DJed with Torino. The band was comprized of a lead singer, guitarist, bass player, and DJ / keyboard.

Touring with Torino gave me a glimpse of things to come. DJing during those analog days was brutal. We had the inconvenience of carrying crates of vinyl to every show along with all of our equipment and sound system.

In 2008, I had saved enough cash to start my own recording studio called, "BeatsAfterDark" studio. With my background in Digital Media Arts, my goal was to make BeatAfterDark studio a 1-stop shop for music, video, and graphic design production.

Pictured above is Top Dime (far left) from Whittier, and her friends. In 2010 Top Dime was making waves in the local LA underground Hip Hop scene, Her aggressive flow and tough persona could scare any rough neck MC. However, she was a sweetheart .

I single handedly built BeatAfterDark studio from scratch. I'd frequent the library to read up on acoustics and spent many sleepless nights researching online the best studio construction methods. But in the end, it all came together extremely well.

This piano, I had bought in college, helped me get through several music theory classes. I could spend hours here, studying J Dilla and Jazz such as Bill Evans.

This couch was host to many creatives. However, it had a secret spell on people that I never mentioned. Anyone who sat on the couch would eventually fall asleep and it never failed. I even warned people and they'd shrug it off. As I finished mixing a section of a song, I'd look back and the couch's victim would be fast asleep. 🤣

A girl I was dating at the time created this sign, which I hung across the front door of BeatsAfterDark studio. For local artists and newcomers, this was the sign that something magical was about to happen here.

BeatsAfterDark was not only my recording studio, but would eventually become my publishi

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🎉🎉🎉 Happy Birthday, Reggie! 🎉🎉🎉 #Birthday #Bar #Celebration #Party

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Nothing like friends and family. 😎💪💯

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THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN OFTEN BUT HERE'S PABLO AND ALL HIS SIBLINGS MINUS ONE...NOTICE ANYTHING WE HAVE IN COMMON...🤣🤣... #PELOPELORICO #SICKNATURELIFE

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