Transient and Transitive: house beats move and reshape, change the mood of the room. After the death of Rave culture and the exposure of the "underground" scene, how will the beat keep rolling? Who is gonna step up and ride the beat to a new direction? Meet New York's DJ
Onionz.
In 1982 with a family fractured and Hip Hop rocking the block, he dove into the b-boy scene. He picked up a couple of turntables and learned to set the party off. What else was there to do for a Queens kid who couldn't dance? Spinning records for him has always been about transformation, making the room move to where you want it to be, taking the rhythm and making it change without a seam.
Onionz' life and his art reflect this metamorphosis.
His earliest musical influence came from his dad, Victor Venegas. Victor played upright base with the kings of Latin Jazz: Mongo Santa Maria, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz.
Onionz learned to play percussion along side his father before he was ten, appearing on stage with his father and at different times with Candido, Steve Berrios and Paquito DeRivera. When his dad left the family,
Onionz took to the Queens' streets, fighting and tagging and in short – running wild. It was here that the New York street sounds caught him.
His early gigs were the legendary nights and early mornings at NYC spots like the Limelight, the Palladium and Save the Robots after hours. When, his following became nationwide thanks to parties like The Gathering and Comeunity,
Onionz still pushed for more, he developed and evolved. His time on the road cemented relationships with DJs and producers from the East Coast and the West. Out of these relationships came some groundbreaking studio work and a new label to launch a hot sound. With childhood friend Master D, Electrik Soul records was founded and talent like
Joeski and
Hipp-E and
Halo were given an outlet to create a unique sound. They were known as the 6400 Crew and DJs are still trying to recreate these Trance-Tribe rhythms that rocked the party world.
Techno, Trance, Tribal came and went and
Onionz kept finding his own voice and pushing in new directions to make the people dance. Over the past five years,
Onionz broke through overseas and in Canada. Promoters in Spain, Portugal, the U.K., Greece, Australia, Singapore and France all welcomed him and asked him back. Some of his recent work puts us back in touch with his earliest influence: the Latin music his father loved to play. His recording East River Rituals, recorded last year with Candido, Victor Venegas,
Robert Owens, Taka Boom,
Blakkat, Ian Kirkland (Simply Red) and Willie Everich fuses Techno with Latin rhythms and proves that the party doesn't have to stop, you just have to drop the needle on a new record
Onionz' newest work, "Marz Movement" has this DJ looking back again to move forward. Recalling his days as a b-boy authority, this record takes the rhythms of the `80s street scene and hurls it forward into the next phase of space travel… past the moon and on to Marz! Drop the needle and take the ride.
