After 20 Years of Blaps, The Mekanix Are Driven by Willpower — and Alignment

The computer screen displays photos of rap luminaries. On a nearby wall hang news articles, vinyl records and memorabilia from the likes of Shock G and Tupac Shakur.

This is the East Oakland studio of Kenny Tweed and 4Rax, who during a recent visit sat in office chairs around a large, custom-made rug bearing the name of their production duo: The Mekanix.

It may seem like a humble setting for such an influential duo. For more than 20 years, The Mekanix have made blap after blap after blap, casting their name into the debate over the most prolific production team from the Bay Area.

Summarizing their winning formula, 4rAx says, simply, “Everything is about alignment.”

Throughout their career, despite health concerns, technological shifts and the ups-and-downs of the music industry, The Mekanix have maintained their sound and honed their craft. Driven by an ambition to see the Bay properly represented, they consistently show what can be done with the bare essentials of 808s and willpower.

“We’ve been together for more than 20 years,” says 4rAx, laughing as he adds that such a milestone is rare for people in “regular relationships,” he says, “let alone business.”

Tweed and 4rax may have come into the game from different angles, but they complimented one another immediately.

Tweed is the son of jazz musician Kenny “Big Kenny” Tullis. A multitalented instrumentalist who focused mainly on the saxophone, he would gig around the Bay, and even did shows with Tower of Power. “He instilled music in me,” says Tweed of his father, who encouraged him to play the drums, piano and trumpet.

Tweed was also childhood friends with Keak Da Sneak, and gravitated toward hip-hop. Spice 1 and RBL Posse spoke to his heart, but it was Too Short who really left his mark — until one day, when Tweed forgot to take a Short tape out of his dad’s cassette player.

“[Pops] fully supported me in being a musician,” says Tweed, “but he just didn’t want that playing in his house.”

Years later, Tweed’s residence would become a hit factory.

“If you pulled up to High Street and Fairfax,” 4rAx says of Kenny’s home studio, “you would’ve thought somebody was out there selling bricks.” There were all kinds of cars and walks of life, a who’s-who of the Bay Area hip-hop scene, he says.

“When me and Tweed hooked up,” 4rAx reflects, “I had the door open to the industry through Shock G and Money B,” the two Digital Underground founders he refers to as “ambassadors of hip-hop.” 4rAx, who came from a family of auto mechanics in Chicago, fell in love with hip-hop before moving to the Bay as a young teen.

Once he touched the soil, he explored every aspect of the culture. A visual artist and barber, he was also part of a duo named Funky From Birth. They soon crossed paths fellow dance duo Razzle Dazzle (who’d appeared in Digital Underground’s “Humpty Dance” video), and 4rAx became a backup dancer for the late actor, rapper and former Digital Underground member Saafir.

Around the same time, 4rax befriended the late East Oakland rapper Plan B and legendary graffiti artist Mike “Dream” Francisco. They’d all hang out at the Shirtique store in the Hilltop Mall, where Dream airbrushed shirts. And “once or twice,” 4rAx recalls, “they had me DJ a backyard party for them, off cassettes.”

Matriculating through “the crazy labyrinth” that led to a career in music, 4rAx held tight to his ambition of becoming a DJ. Through Digital Underground, he was introduced to producers and audio equipment. “And now I’m around turntables,” he says, “and I’m nice!”

Sure enough, when D.U.’s DJ Fuze took some time away from the crew, 4rAx stepped up.

Kenny Tweed and 4rAx first combined forces at the turn of the millennium, working on a project for an artist named IRS and then later for the collective Hittaz on the Payroll. But it was the debut project for an artist from West Oakland that solidified them as a production duo.

“One day,” says 4rAx, recalling a studio session at The Grill Studios in Emeryville, “we were mixing on some shit, and then J. Stalin came in and heard us playing some beats.” Young, brash, still one foot in the streets and fresh off of a record deal that had fallen through, Stalin started rapping. “We stopped the session,” 4rAx exclaims. They left the studio where they were mixing, went to a different studio and made the song “So Cold,” the first track for Stalin’s standout 2006 project, On Behalf of The Streets.

“It was a Toys R Us commercial,” says 4rAx of Stalin’s innocent-sounding tone that masked malicious lyrics. “He turned it into some street shit.”

In addition to creating a staple sound with West Oakland’s Stalin, The Mekanix have produced tracks for local stars like Philthy Rich and Lil Blood, as well as Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. Their latest project Under The Hood 2, which dropped earlier this year, features Keak Da Sneak, Nef The Pharaoh, Kamaiyah and E-40, in addition to Devin The Dude, Icewear Vezzo, Suga Free, Mozzy and Scarface. (Years after his dad banned Too Short’s music from Tweed’s childhood home, the album also has — you guessed it — Too Short.)

It’s this mix of names, nationally known artists and local hood legends alike, that exemplifies The Mekanix.

“It’s intentional,” says Tweed. “We want to put together dope collaborations that haven’t been done before,” he says, “and we just want to keep making it better and better, and bigger and bigger.”

That urgency is rooted in something that happened in 2019. Their most recent project, a follow-up to their 2016 album Under the Hood, almost didn’t happen at all.

“Everything that went on with me,” 4rAx reflects, “they can’t even find it in my body no more. It was fucking the weirdest shit ever, bro.”

In 2019 4rAx found himself experiencing headaches and dizziness. Six months of doctor’s visits and lab tests yielded no results. “Then,” he says, “one day I was watching TV and my eyes… everything got blurry.” At the emergency room, medics found an immense amount of pressure on his brain. He wound up getting surgery — if he hadn’t, doctors told him, there was a chance he would have gone blind.

The following year, as COVID-19 spread across the globe and 4rAx was reeling from his medical condition, Kenny Tweed’s father was diagnosed with cancer. Soon after, in spring of 2021, 4rAx’s mentor from Digital Underground Shock G passed.

A dark cloud fell over the production duo, recalls 4rAx. Then his immune system was compromised, and things only got worse. “I had to be intubated,” says 4rAx, who was subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs.

He spent 26 days in a coma. When he emerged, he learned that Tweed’s father had succumbed to cancer. 4rAx left the hospital in shambles. “I lost all my muscle mass,” he recalls. “I couldn’t walk, so I’m on a walker, plus a breathing apparatus.”

Worst of all, he says, is that through the whole ordeal, he never got a conclusive answer as to what caused his initial ailment.

“It’s 2026, and now I barely have any doctor appointments,” says 4rAx. “I’m not on any medicine. But they don’t know what the fuck happened, bro. And it doesn’t sit well with me because it could happen again.”

4rAx credits his workout routine for still being alive today, plus his belief in “staying ready before you have to get ready.” Both 4rAx and Tweed are brawny guys with regular workout schedules. Their devotion to health, making music and supporting the culture is almost spiritual.

“I was a Christian Youth Fellowship president,” 4rAx says with a laugh, noting that it didn’t last long. Kenny Tweed adds that his father was also “heavy into The Word.”

Whatever seeds were sown in those early years, both producers took the morality of scripture and applied it to what they’re doing with music.

Giving praise to the powers that be, 4rAx says, “It’s a bigger play going on that we have no idea about. … You just got to keep showing up, and trying to be your best self in the moment, so that eventually it grows and becomes exactly what it’s supposed to be.”

The duo are currently at work on a documentary about the rich lineage of music producers from the Bay, in which they’ll be included. In addition to making more music, selling merch and beat kits, they’re also keen on teaching and mentoring the Bay Area’s next generation of music makers.

“I’m gonna go ahead and say it,” declares 4rAx, tipping his hand and showing the production duo’s cards. “One of our next projects is called Alignment,” he says, noting how much of his life has been kismet. “I can’t make this shit up.”