KOVAS | Music Composer & Producer

Art that moves culture wins. Chase truth, impact, and innovation, love when the recognition happens. Celebrating the anniversary of this win. Constant evolution. Constant elevation. Relentless pursuit of greatness. @artschoolrebellion @clioawards @nicemanagement #ClioAwards #ArtSchoolRebellion #KOVAS #SoundIsStory #MusicbyKOVAS #dunkindonuts

🔥 Major Announcement! Lil Kev is officially out now—all episodes are streaming today exclusively on @BETplus ! I’m beyond thrilled to share that I scored the music for this brand-new animated adult series starring the legendary @Kevinhart4real ! Set in the ‘90s, Lil Kev brings that iconic era to life, and to keep it authentic, I crafted the sound using real drum machines like the @akai_pro MPC 60, SP-1200, TR-808, and TR-909, along with classic keyboards like the @rolandglobal Roland JV-1080 to transport you straight back. 🎹🔥 I also created some original ‘90s-inspired songs for the show—see if you can catch them in the mix! This show isn’t just hilarious—it’s raw, real, and definitely not for the kiddos, but it’s guaranteed to have you cracking up. With an all-star voice cast featuring Kevin Hart, Wanda Sykes, Deon Cole, Cree Summer, and so many more, plus the brilliant minds of showrunners @mattclaybrooks and Michael Price, this has been an absolute dream to be part of. Huge shoutout to @therealhartbeat , @Shadowmachine_official , and Supervising Director @MoosayBrooker for bringing this vision to life. And big love to Qiana Conley (@CuetheGoldenCoast ), our music supervisor, for dropping in those classic ‘90s songs! Go stream Lil Kev now on @BETplus @BetNetworks —trust me, you won’t want to miss this wild ride! Get ready to laugh, reminisce, and vibe to the beats of the ‘90s! 🚀🎶. 🙏🏼🙏🏼 Steve @nicemanagement #LilKev #KevinHart #BETPlus #90sVibes #DrumMachines #MPC60 #SP1200 #TR808 #TR909 #RolandJV1080 #ComposerLife #FilmScore #Hartbeat #ShadowMachine #NowStreaming

We won!!! The Crossover @thecrossoverseries Emmy Winner for Young Teen Series. Salute to @kwamealexander @damaniojohnson and the whole team!! It was an absolute honor to score the music for this series @madonnawadereed thank you ❤️❤️🙏🏽🙏🏽 @dereksyverud my Bro. to the wonderful actors. The writers directors Producers editors and the whole team. What a nice Christmas Present @nicemanagement Steve Plinio 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽❤️❤️❤️

My wife @ronamercado and I are DJing a set together at @the_artform_studio for Record Store Day. Saturday, April 18. 9A–6P. 5611 N. Figueroa St. #2, LA. Full day of DJs. Lovesteady pop-up. Walk-ins welcome for express cuts and hairstyling. Come through if you area. 🎛️ shouts out to @sherryyounge #theartformstudio #keepinylalive Love,Roko #Rona&KOVAS #ArtSchoolRebellion

Stepped into @obeygiant ’s “Modular Frequency” Tuesday night at @subliminalprojects , private preview. There’s a rare power in art that organizes chaos into command. That’s what Shepard does. He takes noise, history, resistance, iconography, and distills it into signal. Same way a composer shapes raw emotion into structure. Different medium, same frequency. Biggie crowned, gripping a vintage mic. Basquiat energy, visual jazz in motion. Angela Davis torn at the edges, still unbreakable. Each piece feels like a dialogue with the past, remixed for now. This one moved differently. 📍 Subliminal Projects, Echo Park Feb 28 to Apr 11. Show up. #ShepardFairey #ModularFrequency #SubliminalProjects #OBEY EchoPark ArtLA #ArtSchoolRebellion

KOVAS’ SOUND CHECK Issue #002 just dropped. Grammy week. Velvet blazers. Timelines full of “we always believed.” Quick reminder: the trophy is not the point. The work is. What’s inside: ✨
🧨 Against The Grain: Virality is a sugar rush. Replay value is the real win.
🎧 Westside Gunn’s “Mandela” - museum-grade grime
📖 Jon Bellion: “I’m a product guy” (and why that matters)
💡 Russ on The Vault workflow
🔧 Your taste outlives your tools (creative resilience > gear fear)
📊 7.2 writers per Top 10 hit—many hands, one taste
🗒️ Notes From The Field: Grammy House breakdown The Leon Thomas move everyone should steal: “He fought to keep live drums on ‘Mutt’ even though it felt like the ‘wrong’ move for a single. He backed his taste, argued for the choice, and it paid dividends. Takeaway: If your record, product, show, marketing campaign looks or sounds like it could’ve been made by anybody, you just followed the trend. The unfair advantage is the thing you’re willing to defend in the room when everyone’s telling you to play it safe.” Full issue + Spotify playlist:
KOVASsoundcheck.Substack.com #grammys2026 #KOVAS #Creators #newsletter Biweekly culture, craft, and creative leverage for builders who make things that matter.

Every frame, a chapter. Every glance, a spark. Still writing this love story, one moment at a time. You’re my heart, my peace, my thriller. Happy Birthday, Love my wife Rona. @ronamercado

I composed music for the new Adobe Acrobat @Adobe @AdobeAcrobat spot starring @ChanceTheRapper 🙌 The ad leans all the way into Chance’s comedic timing and my job was to build the sonic bed that made the punchlines land even harder. Cheap Vintage Casio keyboards lion roar and record scratch on deck!! The toughest part was trying to not make it sound good. The sloppier the better. Grateful to have worked with the wonderful director @TimWilkime , @RuckusFilms , @benjamincanfly & @thepamrobison on this one. @ArtSchoolRebellion @nicemanagement And yes… the new Chance album is fire. 🔥. #artschoolrebellion #musicbyKOVAS #composition #musicproduction #KOVAS

My feed is full of BeeHive energy (including my wife 👀), but with all the buzz around Taylor Swift’s engagement…. I had to pause. Because low-key, Taylor was my entry point into scoring for film + TV. In 2012, I was asked to create an original music bed for the opening of Taylor’s I Knew You Were Trouble video, directed by Anthony Mandler. She was set to deliver a spoken-word intro, freestyled in the back of a van on set, and they needed music that captured her emotional headspace. No time to overthink. Tight turnaround. Emotional precision. I locked in and delivered. She loved it. Anthony loved it. Jeff Selis the amazing editor of the video and legend loved it! Jeff, You changed my life brother! By the way, he also edited Beyonce’s Formation video.
 The video went on to win a VMA the following year. That was the first time I ever scored to picture. Before that, I had over 270 syncs as an artist and producer… but this was different.
This was story through sound. And it lit the spark. Since then, I’ve been blessed to:
• Score 4 seasons of On My Block (Netflix)
• Star in and score a CLIO-winning Dunkin’ spot with Odell Beckham Jr.
• Score Disney’s Emmy-winning The Crossover
• Score Kevin Hart’s animated series Lil Kev And that VMA? It was held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, around the corner from my house.
The Moonman statue was reimagined by KAWS, one of my favorite artist/designers. Brooklyn. Taylor. KAWS. Score.
Checked every creative box. So yeah, it started with Taylor. Still BeeHive for life. But Swifties, I’m with you too. 💐 #ComposerLife #StoryThroughSound #TaylorSwift #ScoringToPicture #BrooklynToHollywood #ArtSchoolRebellion #KOVAS

🎂🎶 BIRTHDAY TRANSMISSION: LOADING… Another year around the sun and I’m still blending 808s with orchestral strings, still dodging bland vibes like Neo in the Matrix. Every scar, every score, every sound—All Heart. 💥❤️ this journey’s been wild, but the mission’s the same: 🎯 Dream your dreams. ⚔️ Disrupt the norm. 🎛️ Create what doesn’t exist yet. Grateful for the love. Inspired by the journey. Ready for the next chapter. Let’s level up. 🚀 #AllHeart #BirthdayReel #DreamYourDreams #ArtSchoolRebellion

The body of work… working. 📀💥 Came from the bottom. Years in the shadows -no shortcuts, just sound, sweat, and stubborn belief. We stitched it all together. Now it’s platinum certified + 7 million streams deep. From Camp Rock to On My Block to my own rebel records… this catalog been shaping soundtracks, even when the lights weren’t on us. This one’s for the builders. The believers. The ones who kept going when no one was clapping. They didn’t invite us to the party - so we threw our own. And trust… we just getting warmed up. ⚡️ We built the foundation. Now we’re building the future - with sound, stories, and no ceilings. #ArtSchoolRebellion #KOVAS #LetTheWorkSpeak #WhatWeDoInTheShadows #PlatinumProof #SoundtrackToRealOnes

London, London.