Where do you typically look for hip-hop greatness? It’s often found in less assuming places – such as a cluttered garage studio. And back in the day (aka mid 90’s), that’s exactly where you would have found CookBook & UNO Mas pursuing their unassuming passion: hip-hop.
Best friends since the age of 13, CookBook & UNO Mas started making music shortly after graduating high school. As students at Santa Monica College, you would have often found them passing time in the lunch area with other aspiring emcees, freestyling between classes, or skipping them all together to go to the local record shops. Highly influenced by the production styles of Prince Paul, DJ Premier, and Pete Rock, it was a given that their first piece of equipment was the legendary SP1200 sampler/drum machine. “We were young and excited back then. All we did was go to school and buy records… and sometimes work. I’m not sure how many records we’ve collected, but it’s somewhere in the thousands,” says CookBook.
Combining both of their resources, they quickly built an extensive garage studio. “We had all this equipment and we always wanted to help our friends, so we had a lot of people coming and going,” says CookBook. Their home production studio would eventually help produce some of the early works of Pigeon John, FLYNN ADAM, Log Cabin (which included young high school up and comers Murs, Eligh, and Scarub of the Living Legends) and eventually L.A.Symphony.
In 1997 Cook & UNO helped form the legendary L.A.Symphony collective, which released their first full-length album “Composition no.1" in 1999. The album is considered a bonafide underground classic in many circles. Since then L.A.Symphony has gone on to record and release four more highly acclaimed full-length albums, three EP’s and numerous pieces of vinyl. All of which Cook & UNO played a huge roll in creating. “We’re definitely proud of what our crew has accomplished, and the doors it has opened for us as individual artists,” UNO says.
With L.A.Symphony, CookBook & UNO Mas have extensively toured in the U.S. as well as abroad. They’ve gotten the opportunity to share the stage with some of the biggest artists from hip-hop, rock, and pop. CookBook & UNO Mas have also recorded with such artists and producers as will.i.am, Black Eyed Peas, Posdnous (De La Soul), Prince Paul (Handsome Boy Modeling School), Mario C (Beastie Boys), Fatlip (Pharcyde), Murs, DJ Rhettmatic, and Evidence (Dilated Peoples) (just to name a few).
While their involvement in L.A. Symphony has kept them plenty busy over the years, CookBook & UNO Mas have always made it a priority to write and record as a group. They released their first proper full-length as a duo in 2001, entitled “StereoTypes”. In March of 2006, almost five years after releasing their first album, CookBook and UNO Mas released the EP "Robertson Bullies", shortly followed by their highly anticipated second full-length album "While They Slept" through ILLECT Recordings. Both releases definitively showcased how a great hip-hop group becomes even greater. In fact, “While They Slept” is as much about perseverance and passion as it is about bomb production and the kind of microphone mastery that only comes with time and experience!
In 2008 they released a free downloadable album entitled "The Overflow". That same week they recieved the honor of being MySpace featured artists. This created a massive buzz, resulting in thousands of downloads and new fans worldwide.
Their new album "C&U Music Factory" is set for an '09 release. The album features Evidence of Dilated Peoples, Scarub of Living Legends, DJ Rhettmatic of the world famous Beat Junkies, and Pigeon John of Quannum Projects. This release boasts production by Million Watts (Tommy Lee, L.A. Symphony, F.I.L.T.H.E.E. Immigrants), DJ Shok (Busta Rhymes, Rough Ridas, Rah Diggah), JJ Brown (Gym Class Heroes, Ludacris, Louis Logic), and GRT JSN (Snoop Dogg, Daz). Clearly their best work to date, this album is sure to put Cook & UNO on track for major success in the new year!
CookBook & UNO Mas along with their crew L.A.Symphony continually strive to create innovative, original, and honest head knodding hip-hop for the world...stay tuned...the best is yet to come!
Happy 4th you guys! Have a great one and get some rest, you deserve it! Thanks again for all you do and making things so fun for me and the fam with your beats! Much love, steph :-)
wtf is up man long time sorry but i been out of commission so whats new i hear cookbook is on a solo project is that true well keep me updated y'all cats kno i got mad love 4 u so holla peace and much love and respect !!! your boy suer EAST LOS
