mononymously
A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...
,
smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s.
History
Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...
singer, and
music manager
A talent manager (also known as an artist manager, band manager or music manager) is an individual who guides the professional career of artists in the entertainment industry. The responsibility of the talent manager is to oversee the day-to-day ...
from
Whittier, California
Whittier () is a city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 census figure. Whittier was incorporated in ...
. As a hip hop artist, he co-founded the underground Christian hip hop collective Tunnel Rats and the affiliated groups LPG, Footsoldiers, and The Resistance. He also co-founded the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
funk and R&B band Elé and formed The Dax Band. He has contributed vocals and songwriting to numerous jazz recordings.
Biography
In 1983, influenced by the newly emerged hip hop culture at Radiotron in
MacArthur Park
MacArthur Park (originally Westlake Park) is a park dating back to the late 19th century in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the early 1940s, it was renamed after General Douglas MacArthur, and later designated City of Los Angeles H ...
, Reynosa started
b-boying
Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...
and
battle rap
Battle rap (also known as rap battling)Edwards, Paul, 2009, p. 25. is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults and wordplay. Battle rap is often performed or freestyled spontaneously in live ...
ping. His lyrics discussed both his Christian faith and the
crack epidemic
The crack epidemic was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in a number of social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in Amer ...
he grew up amidst. He cites his formative influences as David Guzman and Soldiers for Christ. He also formed a
dance crew
The history of hip-hop dances encompasses the people and events since the late 1960s that have contributed to the development of early hip-hop dance styles, such as uprock, breaking, locking, roboting, boogaloo, and popping. African America ...
, Cousins Three, with his cousins V.Night and Jurny Big, and they would compete at both dance and rapping at Pico Rivera Park. Reynosa in 2012 recounted the fiercely competitive nature of the rap battles he engaged in: "When you lose, you change your name cuz I’m gonna iron your name on the back of my sweater. We battle for rhyme books and you can never rap those rhymes again. I would burn it in front of you."
In 1993, he formed the collective Tunnel Rats, taking inspiration for its name from his father, who served as a
tunnel rat
The tunnel rats were American, Australian, New Zealander, and South Vietnamese soldiers who performed underground search and destroy missions during the Vietnam War.
Later, similar teams were used by the Soviet Army during the Soviet–Afgha ...
in the
Vietnam war
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. Mostly finding audiences at churches, the group struggled to find acceptance from many Christians due to their lyrical braggadocio. The group also encountered racial prejudice when touring in the
Southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
because the majority of the group was of Mexican descent. Shortly after the formation of Tunnel Rats, Reynosa and Jurny Big, as LPG, released ''The Earthworm'' in 1995, a breakthrough album in Christian hip hop. The next year, Tunnel Rats released its first album, ''Experience''. LPG released a second album, ''360 Degrees'', in 1998, and Tunnel Rats released the groundbreaking ''
Tunnel Vision
Tunnel vision is the loss of peripheral vision with retention of central vision, resulting in a constricted circular tunnel-like field of vision.
Causes
Tunnel vision can be caused by:
Eyeglass users
Eyeglass users experience tunnel vision t ...
The Gadfly
''The Gadfly'' is a novel by Irish-born British writer Ethel Voynich, published in 1897 (United States, June; Great Britain, September of the same year), set in 1840s Italy under the dominance of Austria, a time of tumultuous revolt and upris ...
self-titled
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
album in 2004. In 2006, Reynosa helped organize the Tunnel Rats-affiliated group Footsoldiers, and formed the production duo The Resistance with Tunnel Rats producer Dert. Footsoldiers and the Resistance collaborated with KRS-One on his album ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
Darren Doane
Darren Doane (born September 20, 1972) is an American filmmaker, actor, and music video director. Tunnel Rats currently is on hiatus, and Reynosa currently contributes vocals to jazz recordings. In 2013, he co-founded Elé with Adelaide "Addie" Benavides, and works as the band's manager. Elé mixes together R&B, pop, funk and blues with
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
genres such as
cumbia
Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans during colonial times, and Europeans. Examples include:
...
salsa
Salsa most often refers to:
* Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments
* Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music
* Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music
Salsa or SALSA may also refer to:
...
. He also formed a self-described jazz band, The Dax Band.