Fred Ones began his journey into the twin worlds of visual art and music at a very young age. In the decades that followed he has made his mark on hip hop culture, as a gifted visual artist whose work has been observed by thousands all over the world. He has also distinguished himself as a master audio engineer who has worked with KRS-1, Melle Mel, and Kool Keith as well as many other hip hop legends and independent artists.
Born with a gift for drawing, in 1990 he moved to Illinois and enrolled as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from where he co-founded the THC crew, included in 2011 by Complex magazine on their list of the 25 greatest Chicago graffiti writers. His extensive influence in graffiti culture is documented in three sections of the seminal book, The History of American Graffiti. His art has traveled the US, as part of Maker Faire in 2014, making a stop at the White House where it was viewed by President Barack Obama. He has designed public art in places as far as Russia, where in 2010, he created a mural celebrating Russian space exploration for the University of Ulyanovsk.
After graduating from Columbia College in Chicago in 1995, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Audio Arts, he founded TME Studios in the Bronx, the birthplace of hip hop. Fred Ones musical performance history includes touring the world as a member of Sonic Sum, described as “hip hop’s Radiohead”, the former DJ for Mike Ladd, “king of the hip hop concept” and current DJ for legendary MC, Just-Ice, widely considered as “the original hip hop gangster”. He currently co-hosts a weekly hip hop radio show, Guerrilla Grooves Radio and he continues to record, mix, and master for both established and emerging musicians of various genres.
Produced and Co-Edited by Fred Ones