Out now: old-school Westcoast electro from LA, in four epic mixes
U-TRAX is proud to release the L.A. Rockz EP, with remixes by Westcoast electro legend Egyptian Lover, Dynamik Bass System, and DOC Nasty.
Born and bred in downtown LA, Erik Villapando is heavily influenced by the Westcoast hiphop and electro sound. Having been an active member of the local scene since he was a youngster, he participated at (and won) multiple DJ contests. His superb timing and mixing, on full display during his legendary set at Intergalactic FM Festival 2021 last May, make all Nuklear Prophet tracks very ‘DJ friendly’.
When Erik heard Krazy Dee rap on NWA's track ‘Dopeman’, he was amazed to hear another Mexican like himself on a record along with NWA. It gave Erik the confidence to get into music: “if one Mexican can make it in, then I could. Sometime in 2004 I contacted Krazy Dee via Myspace, and it was history from there. We have worked on many tracks since then - Dee has such a good ear for production, his writing skills are also super dope."
L.A Rockz came about around 2005 when Erik was living in a garage in Whittier, CA. He was fired from his job and had a lot of time to work on beats. When he started L.A. Rockz, it was a very rough track, with no structure. When Krazy Dee came over for a session and Erik played the track for him, Dee was amazed at it and felt Erik had something going. Krazy Dee then wrote the 3rd verse and helped Erik structure the song into what it is today. It would eventually sit on Erik’s hard drive for 8 years until he finally set out to get the track done. Krazy Dee came over and he mentioned he was working with a female MC named Nasim. He played one of her tracks and Erik was blown away at the sound of her voice. They had Nasim rap the second verse Erik had written - she really brought a dope flavor to the track and they finally had the track where they wanted it. The raps on the first verse are done by Erik himself, Krazy Dee did the third verse.
L.A Rockz is a very special track to Erik, because of the many years it took to finalize. He has never put in so much work into a track as he did on L.A. Rockz.
Read more about this release on the Discography page.
All tracks have been mastered by ThEe J Johanz of Bally Hoo Mastering Studio.
Graphic design by Marieke Botterman for Botterman Ontwerp.
Available everywhere for download and streaming, like on our Bandcamp page:
