Dax Reynosa, often mononymously known as Dax and by the former stage name Theory, is an American

underground hip hop Underground hip hop (also known as underground rap or simply underground) traditionally refers to hip hop music that is outside the general mainstream canon or counter-cultural in nature, usually with a heavy emphasis on emotion, lyricism, and/or ...

artist, producer, songwriter,

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to e ...

singer, and

music manager A talent manager (also known as an artist manager, band manager, or music manager) is an individual who guides the professional career of Entertainer, artists within the entertainment industry. The responsibility of a talent manager is to ove ...

from

Whittier, California Whittier () is a city in Los Angeles County, California, and is part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States census, 2010 census figure. Whittier ...

. As a hip hop artist, he co-founded the underground

Christian hip hop Christian hip-hop (originally gospel rap, also known as Christian rap, gospel hip-hop or holy hip-hop) is a cross-genre of contemporary Christian music and hip-hop. It emerged from urban contemporary music and Christian media in the United State ...

collective Tunnel Rats and the affiliated groups LPG, Footsoldiers, and The Resistance. He also co-founded the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and R&B band Elé and formed The Dax Band. He has contributed vocals and songwriting to numerous jazz recordings.

Biography

In 1983, influenced by the newly emerged

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

culture at Radiotron in

MacArthur Park MacArthur Park (originally Westlake Park) is a park dating back to the late 19th century in the Westlake, Los Angeles, Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In the early 1940s, it was renamed after General Douglas MacArthur, and la ...

, Reynosa started

b-boying Breakdancing or breaking, also called b-boying (when performed by men) or b-girling (women), is a style of street dance originated by African Americans and Nuyorican, Puerto Ricans in The Bronx borough of New York City. Breakdancing consist ...

and

battle rap Battle rap (also known as rap battling)Edwards, Paul, 2009, p. 25. is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults, wordplay and Diss (music), disses originating in the African Americans, African-Amer ...

ping. His lyrics discussed both his Christian faith and the

crack epidemic The crack epidemic was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in several social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in Americ ...

he grew up amidst. He cites his formative influences as David Guzman and Soldiers for Christ. He also formed a

dance crew The history of hip-hop dances encompasses the people and events since the late 19 60s that have contributed to the development of early hip-hop dance styles, such as uprock, b-boying, breaking, locking (dance), locking, Robot (dance), roboting, ...

, Cousins Three, with his cousins V.Night and Jurny Big, and they would compete at both dance and rapping at Pico Rivera Park. Reynosa in 2012 recounted the fiercely competitive nature of the rap battles he engaged in: "When you lose, you change your name cuz I’m gonna iron your name on the back of my sweater. We battle for rhyme books and you can never rap those rhymes again. I would burn it in front of you." In 1993, he formed the collective Tunnel Rats, taking inspiration for its name from his father, who served as a tunnel rat in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. Mostly finding audiences at churches, the group struggled to find acceptance from many Christians due to their lyrical braggadocio. The group also encountered racial prejudice when touring in the Southern United States because the majority of the group was of Mexican descent. Shortly after the formation of Tunnel Rats, Reynosa and Jurny Big, as LPG, released ''The Earthworm'' in 1995, a breakthrough album in Christian hip hop. The next year, Tunnel Rats released its first album, ''Experience''. LPG released a second album, ''360 Degrees'', in 1998, and Tunnel Rats released the groundbreaking ''

Tunnel Vision Tunnel vision is the loss of peripheral vision with retention of central vision, resulting in a constricted circular tunnel-like field of vision. Causes Tunnel vision can be caused by: Eyeglass users Eyeglass users experience tunnel vision ...

'' through Uprok Records in 2001. LPG dropped ''

The Gadfly ''The Gadfly'' is a novel by Irish-born British writer Ethel Voynich, published in 1897 (United States, June; Great Britain, September of the same year), set in 1840s Italy under the dominance of Austria, a time of tumultuous revolt and uprisi ...

'' in 2003, and Tunnel Rats led the Uprok compilation '' Underground Rise, Volume 1: Sunrise/Sunset''. Tunnel Rats released its self-titled album in 2004. In 2006, Reynosa helped organize the Tunnel Rats-affiliated group Footsoldiers, and formed the production duo The Resistance with Tunnel Rats producer Dert. Footsoldiers and the Resistance collaborated with

KRS-One Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from the Bronx. He rose to prominence as part of the ...

on his album ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'', and KRS-One in return appeared on the Footsoldiers' album ''Live This.'' Reynosa co-produced the 2003 documentary film, '' The Battle for L.A.: Footsoldiers, Vol. 1,'' with director Darren Doane. Tunnel Rats currently is on hiatus, and Reynosa currently contributes vocals to jazz recordings. In 2013, he co-founded Elé with Adelaide "Addie" Benavides, and works as the band's manager. Elé mixes together R&B, pop,

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

with

genres such as

cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans during colonial times. Cumbia is said to have com ...

, merengue, and salsa. He also formed a self-described jazz band, The Dax Band.

Discography

Tunnel Rats

LPG

As featured artist

Production discography

The Resistance production discography

Additional credits

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynosa, Dax American hip-hop record producers Rappers from California American male rappers American rappers of Mexican descent Smooth jazz singers Tunnel Rats (music group) members Hispanic and Latino American singers Christian hip-hop Songwriters from California 1970s births Hip-hop musicians from Whittier, California Jazz musicians from California American music managers Underground rappers Film producers from California Living people Year of birth missing (living people)