They were born and raised in Gilroy, but cousins Rudy Mireles
and Joey Garcia grew up surrounded with inspiration from European
Renaissance artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo
Buonarroti.
They were born and raised in Gilroy, but cousins Rudy Mireles and Joey Garcia grew up surrounded with inspiration from European Renaissance artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Working weekends in a family member’s San Jose picture-framing shop, the cousins learned to admire the bold creators who used life’s pain, joy, hate and love to translate often shackled human emotions into vibrant art still inspiring minds and souls 500 years later.
So it was only natural the cousins grew up to become creators themselves, combining poetry, rhythm, computer technology and musical instruments to create the Gilroy hip-hop group Devilz of Kimone.
“We just wanted to be creative,” said Mireles, a.k.a. Charlie Danger, 24, who combines with cousin Garcia, a.k.a. Joey Madness, 26, to make Devilz of Kimone. “We wanted to write, make music, sing, make people dance; and hip-hop lets you make your own rules and do it all. … There’s no better feeling than being on a stage and watching people dance to what you created from your heart.”
Adopting the name Devilz of Kimone in 1998, the two partners in rhyme have won eight local talent shows, played in front of audiences in Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Hollister, San Jose and Santa Cruz, and created their own record label, Knocoph Records.
The name Kimone is adopted from a Chinese animation cartoon in which a group of ninjas each possess a special power – or Kimone.
“We feel rhyming is our special power,” Mireles said. “The microphone is our weapon.”
DOK’s debut album released in 2000, “Sycomadness Show,” sold more than 2,5000 copies, many of which Mireles and Garcia hawked from the trunk of their cars.
Now working on their first full-length album scheduled to be released on Halloween, the cousins are determined to earn a living doing what they love – being artists.
They also wouldn’t mind breaking a few stereotypes along the way.
“I think a lot of older people around here don’t understand hip-hop – they think everyone who rhymes or listens to rap is a gangster,” said Mireles, who also plays piano and sings on DOK’s upcoming album. “But if you take time to listen, almost all rap has a message. Rap can make you feel mellow or it can make you grab you girl and dance – it’s made me feel a lot of things, but it’s never made me want to fight, and I’ve been listening since I was 11.”
Mireles says he can’t count all the nights that he, Garcia – who is living in Arizona and preparing for DOK’s next album which will be recorded near Phoenix – their producer Triple XL, engineer Tekpatl and other friends spent holed up in a Morgan Hill basement-turned-recording-studio creating music instead of finding trouble on the streets.
Mireles also credits many of his hip-hop idols for keeping him focused on his music.
In 2001, DOK got the chance to share the stage with rapping legend KRS-ONE at a talent show in Santa Cruz. Renowned for his conscious lyrics, KRS-ONE is the Bronx-bred rapper known as The Teacher, not only for his philosophical approach to music, but also for the time he spent as a visiting professor at Yale University.
“I always think about what KRS-ONE said: ‘I don’t want to be the king of rap ’cause kings lose their crowns; I want to be a teacher to pass on knowledge that never dies,” Mireles said, quoting KRS-ONE.
And if there was any question that Mireles and Garcia were destined to be rappers, it was answered during an elevator ride they shared with the late Notorious B.I.G. during a chance run-in in San Francisco.
“It was like a week before he died,” Mireles said. “We told him we were rappers and he was real positive. He said to just keep on doing our music our way, and we both took that to heart – it’s been a real inspiration ever since he died.”
Tapping on that inspiration this year to make crowds dance at Gilroy clubs like the Gaslighter, along with Polyesters and the Cactus Club in San Jose, DOK’s range of hard-hitting and laid-back hip-hop has won audiences over.
DOK’s next planned shows will be at the Gaslighter on Garlic Festival Weekend, July 25 to 27, where they plan to showcase their skills the throngs of people flocking to their hometown for the annual festival.
“The best part is after the show when you gave out so much energy and your so hoarse you can’t even talk,” Mireles said. “You let the music take you to a different world and you don’t care about anything else that was on your mind before. The audience shows you the way, and you just let it flow from inside.”
The renaissance continues.
