About

Kenny “DOPE” Gonzalez is one of the most prolific artists of the modern music age. The four time Grammy nominated musical genius has been entertaining and astounding the masses alike with his fusions of house, hip-hop, Latin, jazz, funk & soul, reggae, alternative pop and broken beats for 20 years. Known as a living encyclopedia of beats and tagged with the nickname “DEBO” by his closest friends, Kenny is a purveyor of sonic masterpieces. Kenny was born in 1970 and grew up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. In the eighties around the age of 11 or 12 he was absorbing up the hip-hop beats that were being played at local block and house parties. In 1985 from the age of 15 to 21 he began his musical career as a buyer for a local record shop called WNR Music Centre in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. During this time Kenny broadened his musical knowledge and found his love for “diggin” for records. To date Kenny has a collection of over 50,000 records. In the late 80’s, along with his friend and partner Mike Delgado, Kenny organized a series of neighborhood parties under the alias “Masters at Work”. Brooklyn’s DJ-Producer Todd Terry attended these parties and the two soon became friends. Kenny would cut school to go to Todd’s house to watch him work on beats and record singers and rappers. It was during this time that between working at the store, watching how records were produced, and being around so many creative people Kenny picked up on stuff. Kenny met King Grand (Russell Cole) and the two formed a group called “KAOS”. In 1987 Kenny and Todd produced the groups album titled “Courts In Session”. In 1988 at the age of 18, Kenny’s first album was released on Greg Fore’s label BadBoy Records. The label was distributed by Idlers/Warlock Records and was home to Jungle Brothers, Royal House and others. Gonzalez working as a mobile dj decided he was ready to move on to the next level in his musical career and borrowed a drum machine from Todd. Kenny immediately began recording breaks and bea

Upcoming dates

Fri, 18 Dec 2026
Etienne de Crécy — Super Discount Festivalon the line-up
CENTQUATRE-PARIS · Paris
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Kenny Dope

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