The Spot Welcomes the Ced Hawkins!!

Born in Brooklyn, and raised between New York City and Atlanta, Georgia, Cedric was blessed to have the influences of southern funk and gospel coupled with the emerging sounds of hip hop in the mid eighties. "As a kid growing up in New York, my mother took me to see Broadway plays, musicals and dance companies all the time." "This lead to me becoming interested in the arts early, and with all of the resources available in the city, she was able to push me in various directions." Cedric showed musical abilities at an early age, playing drums at four, and by seven picking up the piano and guitar. He was also a member of the prestigious Billie Holiday Theatre Company, performing in several off-Broadway productions including "The Bed-Stuy Story", and "And the sun god said that's hip". "The music that I was exposed to in New York was a mixture of the classic records in my mother’s collection (Ray Charles, Sinatra, Odetta, Wes Montgomery, and Quincy Jones), to dance, pop, and rock which included Queen, Billie Joel, and obviously Jimi Hendrix, and Zeppelin”. "Living in Atlanta allowed me to get into funk, soul, gospel, and rock through my discovery of Parliament, Earth Wind and Fire, Al Green, and my biggest influence, Prince... "All of these artists including Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, and Sly Stone, have all served as the blueprint for how I learned to write and produce songs." In particular, artists like Prince, Stevie, and Rick James, who all produced and played the majority of the instruments on their albums, which I still do today." Cedric has worked as an engineer, and/or producer on projects with Parliament, Silk, and the Ying Yang Twins, as well as artists that he is developing for his own Trifacta Entertainment, Inc. imprint. As a music executive, Cedric is CEO of the Trifacta label, and one of its chief creative forces. "As a label, my goal is to restore some of the luster associated with hip hop and R&B."