Todd Ray, known professionally as T-Ray, is an American record producer and mixing engineer, known for producing Cypress Hill 1993 single "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That" and having founded the Venice Beach Freakshow in 2006, as well as creating and executive producing the TV Series Freakshow for AMC . He has also worked with the Beastie Boys, Biz Markie, MC Serch, Double X Posse, Kool G Rap, Bo$$, Funkdoobiest, MC Thick, The Whooliganz, Artifacts, Mick Jagger, Helmet, Korn, Audioslave, (həd)pe, Snot, Ugly Americans, G. Love & Special Sauce, Dilated Peoples and Non Phixion among others. He has won two Grammy Awards and a Latin Grammy Award for his work with Santana and Ozomatli and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That".
Early life
Todd Ray was born in Lancaster, South Carolina. As a teenager, in 1982, Todd fell in love with the early hip hop singles coming out of New York and began DJing and performing locally with friends. In 1986, he landed a record contract which led him to New York where he met his future wife, Danielle. He and Danielle ultimately moved to Los Angeles, settling in the suburbs to raise their two children.
Music production
Growing up in the rural South, Ray's living conditions and local entertainment options left much to be desired. After hearing a friend's copy of Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force's "Planet Rock", Ray 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. 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, North Carolina, 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 in 1986.
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 PolygGram'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, which he dubbed 'folk art' furniture, with the tree 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 'I Aint Goin' Out Like That' for Cypress Hill's album Black Sunday (1993) and was nominated for a Grammy for it (Best Rap single). Todd then became closely affiliated with the DJ Muggs-led Soul Assassins producing for Cypress Hill and Funkdoobiest, among others.