Todd Ray

Personal life

Todd Ray (Married to Danielle, Daughter Asia, Son Phoenix) is the mastermind behind The Venice Beach Freakshow, a classically inspired circus sideshow with an attached museum of oddities. A 21st century P.T. Barnum with a congenital resistance to the very concept of "impossible," Todd has set out to build the world's greatest showcase for the unique, the bizarre and the wondrous.

As a teenager in South Carolina, Todd fell in love with the early hip-hop singles coming out of New York and began performing locally with friends. In 1986, he landed a record contract which led him to New York where he met Danielle, the woman whom he would end up spending his life with. Over the next decade, Todd worked with a wide range of artists, including The Beastie Boys, Nas, Mick Jagger, Santana (on the Grammy-winning "Supernatural"), and won two Grammys for his work with the innovative Latin group Ozomatli. He and Danielle ultimately moved to Los Angeles, settling in the suburbs to raise their two children, Asia and Phoenix.

Successful as he was, Todd had creative ambitions that weren’t being satisfied. "I decided I'd rather share the wonders of the world with families – kids, adults, everybody. I recalled an experience in my childhood, which ultimately changed my life forever. I had gone to a sideshow and saw a man named Otis Jordan (known as The Human Cigarette Factory). Performing without any limbs, he used only his shoulders, chin and tongue to roll a cigarette. At the end, I said to him, 'I don't think I could ever do what you did.' He said to me, 'Son, if I can do what you saw me do on stage, a young man like you can do anything you ever dreamed of.' From that moment, the world seemed different and I knew it was my call as to what life could be."

Venice Beach Freakshow opened in 2006, and since then Todd has searched the world for animal anomalies, bizarre artifacts, and people with unusual physiological traits and astounding talents. He has embraced the word "freak" as a joyous rebuttal to "normal" and the pressure of conformity. "Every single one of us, by virtue of our individuality, is an oddity. We're each a freak: a freak of the universe," he stresses. "But a 'freak' meaning the most special, the most unique, the most magical creatures in the universe." http://www.amctv.com/shows/freakshow/cast/todd-ray

Music producer

Grammy Award-winning music producer Todd Ray (T-Ray)'s career has logged a lengthy discography, which includes artists Jack Johnson, Nas, Funkdoobiest, The Whooliganz, Mick Jagger, House of Pain, Non Phixion, Bo$$, The Beastie Boys, G. Love & Special Sauce, Cypress Hill, MC Serch, Santana, 311, Audioslave, Artifacts, and Ozomatli.

Growing up in the rural South, Todd's living conditions and local entertainment options left much to be desired. After hearing a friend's copy of Soul Sonic Force's 'Planet Rock', Todd purchased a pair of turntables. He and his friends began performing locally. At this time, their group did not have a name and people would simply refer to them as 'those white boys'. Swatch Watch sponsored them, flying them to Breckenridge, Colorado for one of the first ever snowboarding events, where Converse Sneakers reps provided additional sponsorship.[1] Using his portion of the sponsorship money, T-Ray began building his record collection, which provided a solid foundation for his budding production skills. After mastering the concept of 'breaks', he quickly finished his group's first demo. A club in nearby Charlotte, NC was having a talent contest which Todd won several weeks in a row, which qualified him for the finals. The final competition was judged by representatives from Def Jam and Polygram. Although Todd did not win the final competition, a Polygram representative approached Todd with the offer of a record contract (1986)[1]

With the ink still drying on their deal, T-Ray and his group, moved straight from South Carolina to Rosedale, Queens, where they finished an album for Tin Pan Apple Records and appeared on the Fresh Fest Tour. But Polygram's rival, Def Jam, quickly became a household name and by the summer of 1987, the group broke up. Todd eventually ran out of money and had to move back to South Carolina. With no rural job opportunities, and his pre-med scholarship lost, Todd worked non-stop on music production. Unable to afford even the floppy disks to save the beats, he would just record them on cassette.

Ray helped his family build furniture out of wood- 'folk art' furniture with bark still attached. People began paying handsomely for his chairs and he was able to save enough money to make the trip back to New York. Ray got a call back on his application as an intern at Big Beat Records. Todd played a tape of his beats for Craig Kallman and informed him "All I have is music". The morning after, Kallman called Todd (about Kenny Dope's promo for Red Alert) and told him "if you know how to make this [recorded loop] into a record, you've got a job". T-Ray was the producer of Big Beat Records' first hip-hop 12-inch, 'Supa Cat' (1991- Todd is credited on the album as 'The Mad Racket'). 'Supa Cat' sold 70,000 copies and was the true beginning of T-Ray's career as a producer. He went on to produce an entire album for Double X, with 'Not Gonna Be Able To Do It" (1992) becoming his first video. T-Ray produced 'Aint Goin Out Like That' for Cypress Hill's album, Black Sunday (1993) and was nominated for a Grammy for it (Best Rap single).[2] Todd then became closely affiliated with the DJ Muggs led Soul Assassins producing for Cypress Hill and Funkdoobiest, among others.

By 1996, Todd had begun to produce rock & roll. His 1993 remix of House of Pain/ Helmet collaboration (Judgement Night soundtrack) led to his producing of the entire Helmet album, which led to more rock gigs, including 311, Korn, Snot, Hed PE, John Spencer Blues Explosion, and White Zombie. In 1999, T-Ray did production for Santana (which led to a Grammy Award in 2000 for Album of the Year) and a Latin group named Ozomatli who he won two other Grammys with, including a Latin Grammy- it was during this time that his life came full circle: "It was sort of like destiny in a way, for me to move from the woods to New York City," explains Todd Ray. "To get on as a producer, to go through turmoil, through hip-hop, and get to the point where I felt that people were doing hip-hop that I couldn't respect, so I moved to the West Coast to do rock & roll shit. I run into a group called Ozomatli who I wanted to do 'Incredible Bongo Beats' with. Their DJ just happened to be Cut Chemist, who I knew nothing about. But, as we're finishing the record he tells me this fucking story of how he was inspired by this fucking tape that he got from down South, and that tape was my fucking tape. The same tape I made in that shack, the same tape that I played for Craig when I met him at Big Beat. The same tape that I had played for the trees in Lancaster, South Carolina. I had made one copy for Eclipse (yes- that Eclipse), who originally lived in South Carolina too, who had sent it to an old friend in Rhode Island, who moved to L.A. and became one of the members of Jurassic 5, whose DJ just happened to be Cut Chemist. I felt like I had come 360 degrees!" [Elemental Magazine, Issue #62]

Discography

Production

Co-production

Remixes

Appears on

Unofficial releases

References

  1. 1 2 http://ifihavent.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/tray_elemental10041.jpg
  2. ↑ http://ifihavent.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/tray_elemental10044.jpg
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