Kenny Dope

Born in New York in 1970, Kenny Dope, real name Carl Kenneth Gonzalez, established himself from the late 1980s in the New York underground house scene as a DJ, producer and label owner. Active since adolescence, he develops a language at the crossroads of house, hip-house, breakbeats, soul, funk and Latin rhythms, with a pronounced taste for sample-based edits and percussive grooves. Kenny Dope founded Dopewax Records in 1988, later pursuing projects under various names, including The Bucketheads, The Untouchables, Power House or Liquid Dope, and together with Louie Vega forming the duo Masters at Work, central to the history of New York house. Their work also extends toward Nuyorican Soul, where jazz, Afro-Caribbean and Latin influences take more space. Under the name The Bucketheads, Kenny Dope released the album All in the Mind in 1995, the same year as the track The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind), one of his most identifiable tracks. His personal discography also includes The Kenny Dope Unreleased Project in 1992 and Supa-Dope Classics Volume I in 2001. Parallel to his club productions, Kenny Dope has pursued significant work in reissues and digging, notably through the Kay-Dee label launched in 2002 with Keb Darge, extending an approach to dance music nourished by disco culture, rare groove and breaks.