Philly native, Tha S Ence (Shawn J.), is a Hip-Hop producer best known for his filtration and chopping techniques, choice sample material and big drums. His start in music actually began with his love of drums. He picked up the instrument with the intention of being in a band, but was soon drawn to the creative freedom of working solo. Thus, he opted for creating music himself despite the fact that he didn’t play any other instruments – and that’s where sampling came in.
Digging soon became his passion. Raised on the Golden Era of Hip-Hop he is a student of Boom Bap rap and continues the tradition by relying heavily on vinyl records and a drum machine/sampler. His soulful, gritty tracks are influenced by the styles of heavy hitters DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Just Blaze, and late, great J. Dilla to note a few. His sound can best be described as soulful and hard-hitting at the same time.
Tha S Ence cemented his name as a music producer in 2008 with the Hustle $immons project. There he teamed up with Dave Ghetto and in classic Hip-Hop format served solely as the production half of the duo for the album Hustle $immons . Since then he has participated in showcases throughout Philly including the first ever Beats & Rhymes as well as the anniversary edition. The S Ence’s music has been written up numerous times by publications like Philadelphia City Paper and The Source Magazine (Record Report, October 2008).
To date, his production credits include work with MAGr, Decay, Intense of Schoolz of Thought, Flipside Esquire, and Tone Liv, a remix featured on a mixtape for Exact Science Clothing mixed by Tommy Blak and a remix on RecordBreakin’ for Anthony Valadez. While Hip-Hop will always be the foundation his sound is constantly evolving and expanding to include different styles of music as well as production for television, commercials and movie scoring.
“S” currently resides in Brooklyn, New York where he is hard at work on new projects and diversified collaborative efforts musical and otherwise.
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