Artist You Should Know: Emcee Kooleidoscope making Fresno splash

Ronnie Taylor didn’t start off in hip-hop. The 25-year old emcee started as a drummer and sound engineer. She didn’t rap. She recorded rappers, though the experience inspired her current work under the moniker Kooleidoscope.

The basics: The indie hip-hop emcee has made a splash on the local scene with an electrifying set at this year’s Catacomb Party music festival and opening slots for everyone from Andre Nickatina to Smif N Wessun. Her production work (both on her own tracks and working for others) is marked by its simplicity.

“I don’t try to act like I’m an amazing producer who does all this crazy stuff,” says Taylor, who admits she’s inspired by the likes of Kid Cudi. “I take a sample. I’ll flip it. I’ll put a bunch of guitar effects on it and put a drum kit on it.”

Affiliations: Taylor plays drums in several local indie-rock acts including Santa Mira and Austeros en el Exilio.

Releases: As Kooleidoscope, Taylor has released two albums: “Expressing My Whatever” in 2014 and “Eclipse,” which was released in May and includes the single “Shots Fired.”

Find out more: You can follow Kooleidsoscope on YouTube (youtube.com/kooleidoscope), Twitter (@ronnie_taylor), Instragram (@ronnietaylor), Soundcloud (soundcloud.com/kooleidoscope) and Bandcamp (kooleidoscope.bandcamp.com).

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Artist You Should Know: Emcee Kooleidoscope making Fresno splash."