Son of the City by Dante Ross

Son of the City goes behind the scenes of the Golden Age of Hip Hop with esteemed producer and music industry veteran, Dante Ross, one of the top-25 greatest A&Rs as named by Complex Magazine. Ross pulls no punches as he details his time growing up on the pre-gentrification Lower East Side as the child of political activists, his devotion to punk rock, and his eventual discovery of a brand new art form, which landed him at Tommy Boy Records, where he signed and handled the careers of such artists as De La Soul, Queen Latifah, and Digital Underground. Ross would go on on to work for Elektra records, where he signed Brand Nubian, Grand Puba, Pete Rock & C. L Smooth, KMD, Busta Rhymes, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. He is currently a SVP of A&R at Warner Music Group where he recently helped unearth Macklemore to the world.

As a producer, Ross has produced records for artists such as 3rd Bass, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Run-DMC, Santana, Everlast (working on both the multi-platinum album Whitey Ford Sings The Blues and the gold follow-up, Eat At Whitey’s), plus many others. Ross earned a Grammy in 1998 for his production work on Carlos Santana’s Supernatural. Ross’ production work has also appeared on Eminem’s 8 Mile soundtrack, where he produced and co-wrote two songs that featured Macy Grey and Young Z. Ross has worked with artists as diverse as Korn, Incubus, Mobb Deep, Ice Cube, ODB, as well as a plethora of others.