Kashaka is the stage name of Eli Evnen, a music producer, DJ, and drummer based in Brooklyn, New York.
Growing up in the quiet midwestern college town of Lincoln, Nebraska, Eli started playing drums in various jazz and rock bands at an early age, while listening to a steady supply of hip hop and reggae. In high school he started producing hip hop albums for local rappers. At 18 he moved to New York to attend NYU’s Clive Davis Recorded Music program.
While in college he threw and DJed parties for his peers while also becoming involved in the the New York underground hip hop scene via an internship at Duck Down Music. He DJed listening parties for Talib Kweli and Random Axe and shared stages with Young Guru and Just Blaze. He also began recording and producing Brooklyn soul band Phony Ppl.
After finishing work on Phony Ppl’s album Phonyland, he moved to Ghana for 6 months to study West African music, history, and sociology. It was there where his music professor gave him a kashaka, a shaker consisting of two small gourds filled with beans that’s thrown back and forth in your hand to create polyrhythms. He began taking long walks around Accra learning to catch the kashaka, meeting a lot of Ghanaians along the way who would school him on the various ways to catch and play the shaker.
He began DJing around various clubs and parties in Accra, as well as teaching beat making at an after school program in Chokor, Accra for at-risk youth. Eventually, with the help of funding by the Australian government, Eli and his students built a fully functioning recording studio out of the old academic center.
Traveling to Ghana fundamentally changed perspective on music and rhythm, thus the stage name Kashaka was born.
Since moving back to New York and graduating college, Kashaka has become known in the Brooklyn music scene and beyond through a 2015 collaborative EP with Wati Heru called Dystopia FM. He’s also worked as a composer for TV, with 9 songs featured in the Comedy Central show, Broad City. As a DJ he’s also quickly becoming a regular at Brooklyn’s premier nightclub, Output, co-organizing and DJing massive rooftop parties with Okayafrica and Everyday People as well as and opening for Afrika Bambaataa, Bonobo, Les Sins, Gorgon City, and more.
Moving forward, Kashaka is focused on finishing a solo EP, a follow up EP with Wati Heru, as well as an upcoming release on Branko’s Lisbon-based label, Enchufada.
