Chicago Raised · Indiana Grounded · Walking in Ma'at
DJ Kokumo Productions
𓂀 𓆑 𓅓
"This one will not die — life is sweet." Music. Stories. Games. Worlds. Where ancient African wisdom meets digital creation.
Music ProductionDJAuthorGame DeveloperFilm ScoringAnimationWorldbuilding
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01
The Story Behind the Sound
Kokumo Aiyedun — Yoruba for "this one will not die, life is sweet." A name given to an Abiku spirit called back by the prayers of the living. It is not a stage name. It is a declaration of survival — and the philosophy behind everything DJ Kokumo Productions creates.
I have a name. The one my mother gave me stays with me. But the world knows me as Kokumo — and DJ Kokumo Aiyedun is the truest expression of my creative identity and production efforts. It is not an escape from who I am. It is the fullest version of who I am meant to be.
I am a father of six. A husband. A homeowner. A martial artist. A lifelong gamer. A Vodun practitioner walking the path of Ma'at. Chicago raised. Indiana grounded. I have lived with acute synesthesia my entire life — I see sound as color, I feel texture in music, I experience creative visions that most people will never perceive. Nobody ever understood it. I did not fully understand it myself for most of my life. But it became the engine behind everything I build — every beat, every chapter, every world I imagine into existence.
None of this exists without my wife. She is the foundation beneath the foundation. The one who held it down when the money was short, when the vision made no sense to anyone else, when I was up at 3AM chasing sounds and she still had to get the kids ready by 7. She did not marry a finished product — she married the process. She believed in what I was building before there was anything to show for it. She is my partner, my balance, my anchor. I do not just love her. I owe her the honesty of saying out loud that DJ Kokumo Productions would not exist without the woman who kept this household breathing while I learned how to create. My children — all six of them — are the reason the work carries weight. Four of them are under this roof right now. They watch me build. They see the late nights. They hear the music coming through the walls. I am not just making things for the world — I am showing them that a man can dream with his hands and still be present. Everything I build, I build so they know it is possible.
15 years making music. 20+ years writing stories that never left the notebook. No fame. No shortcuts. Just faith, family, and the work. The books are finally coming. The beats never stopped. Now the games, the philosophy, and the creations follow.
And I need you to understand something. I am doing this alone.
Not alone in the sense that nobody exists around me — but alone in the sense that there is no team. No investors. No label. No studio full of engineers. No manager picking up the phone. My wife and children are my reason and my foundation — but creatively, professionally, every beat, every chapter, every line of code comes from one person. And in this house, even the animals carry purpose. A small orange tabby named Ochosi — named after the Orisha of the hunt, the tracker, the spirit of justice and precision in the wilderness. Every living thing in my home carries purpose. Even the cat.
We had a Siberian Husky. His name was Shango — named after the Orisha of thunder, lightning, fire, and war. One of the most powerful forces in Yoruba cosmology. Shango was our protector. He carried that name with the weight it deserved. He passed from an intestinal obstruction before I could get him the medical services he needed in time. That loss stays with me. I honor him by keeping his name spoken. The names I give are not decorations. They are prayers. They are ancestral honors. They are deliberate acts of remembrance — because in Vodun and in the traditions of our ancestors, to name something is to call its spirit into being. Ochosi hunts. Shango thunders. Even in absence, they serve.
𓃭 𓇯 𓃭
02
The Craft
I produce across Cubase 15 Elements, Ableton Live 12 Suite, Bitwig Studio Producer, Reaper, MPC 2, Cakewalk Sonar, n-Track Studio Suite, BandLab, DefleMask, and DRC on PC — with FL Studio Mobile, Cubasis 3, Audio Evolution Mobile Studio, n-Track Studio, BandLab, G-Stomper Studio, G-Stomper Producer, Koala Sampler, DefleMask, FamiStudio, PixiTracker, DRC, Elastic OSC, OctanaSynth, SynthBridge, and Caustic 3 on Android. I play the Arturia KeyLab Essential 49 and the AKAI Pro MPK Mini IV with a sustain pedal, run a deep library of VSTs including Analog Lab V, Kontakt 8, and the MPC Studio instrument collection, and perform live on Serato DJ Pro. The ASUS ROG Ally Z1E runs full desktop DAWs on the go as a portable production station. The studio is wherever I am. The tools serve the vision, not the other way around.
I am a MIDI junkie. I create custom MIDI files — melodies, chord progressions, drum patterns, full arrangements — for my own productions and for those who are still learning how to start a song or struggle with where a melody should go. MIDI is the skeleton of music before it wears its skin, and I love building those bones by hand. I also work heavily with vocoding and DSP synthesis — manipulating audio through digital signal processing, spectral analysis, frequency-domain tools, and voice-through-synth techniques that turn a single vocal into a full harmonic instrument. These are not side hobbies. They are core to how I produce.
My sound goes beyond rap, R&B, and drill. I am building my own form of Afro trance — blending ancestral African rhythms with electro trance, goa trance, and psytrance. Inspired by Shpongle, Juno Reactor, Infected Mushroom, and Atari Teenage Riot — the raw digital hardcore energy that proved machines could riot just as hard as guitars. Rooted in chiptune, jazz like Masego, tribal African percussion, ancient didgeridoo music, and above all reggae — because it is in my blood. Vaughn Benjamin through his work with Akae Beka and Midnite fuels my spirit into unbelievable flow states. Sizzla, Jah9, Hempress Sativa, and Prince Far I — that is where my reggae heart lives. Every track I lay carries a Kemetic Egyptian flavor — the sound of the Nile before the invasions, when Egypt was the crown of Africa. Not exclusion. Heritage. I honor where we come from while building something the entire world can experience. I love hypnotic music like it is a Vodun's spell — and it is why I want to bring my own style to the Afro trance scene.
I sit with film scores and imagine myself inside my own worlds. Marilyn Manson's contributions to the Resident Evil soundtrack shaped me growing up. That desire to score the unseen — to compose the feeling of a world that does not yet exist — has never left me. I do not just make music. I build the worlds that music lives inside.
Portable DAW Station:ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme — Windows handheld running full desktop DAWs (Cubase, Bitwig, Reaper, MPC 2, n-Track Suite) on the go. Doubles as a second screen in the studio.
Gaming: Xbox Series X 1TB Digital Edition (white) · PlayStation 5 Disc Edition 1TB + DualSense Edge Controller · ASUS ROG Ally Z1E
Keyboard:Redragon K503 — Wireless RGB Gaming Keyboard with Wrist Rest
My Music
How I Catch Sounds
I don't sit down and say "I'm about to make a beat." That ain't how it works for me. I catch sounds. They come through everything I do — and synesthesia is the engine behind all of it. I see sound as color. I feel texture in frequencies. A chord isn't just a chord — it's a temperature, a weight, a visual. That's been my reality since I was young and it's the reason my production process doesn't look like anybody else's.
The Body Clock
When I'm training — martial arts, working out, moving at my actual pace — my body locks into a rhythm. That rhythm becomes a BPM. The cadence of my footwork becomes a hi-hat pattern. The power of a strike becomes a kick drum velocity. My rap beats and drill beats come from my physical tempo. The beat matches MY body. I don't pick a BPM from a list — I live it first, then I translate it to the DAW.
The Screen
Horror movies hit different when you see sound. Dark action shows like The Boys — the actors' emotions, their movements, the choreography of a fight scene, the tension between two characters before violence breaks out — all of that translates directly into beats through synesthesia. A slow menacing walk becomes a bass line tempo. A quick camera cut becomes a snare fill. The color grading of a scene becomes a chord palette. I'm not just watching — I'm hearing what the screen is showing me, and my hands are itching to program it into Ableton or Cubase before the credits roll.
The Controller
When I'm deep in a video game — really locked into the flow of gameplay — I start humming. Action tunes, rap hooks, drill patterns, melodies that sync up with what's happening on screen. Boss fights. Chase sequences. Stealth moments. The game's rhythm becomes my rhythm and I catch sounds in real time. I'll pause a game, open FL Mobile or Koala on my phone, and record the idea before it disappears. Some of my hardest beats started as a hum during a gaming session. Don't sleep on the nerd in me — the nerd is the weapon.
The Stories
Thinking about scenes from Path of Kokumo and Dead Earth Survival unlocks sounds I wouldn't find any other way. A Kemetic ritual scene calls for specific tones — ancient, golden, heavy with reverence. A Dead Earth zombie siege calls for tension, grit, and controlled chaos. I'll be testing patches in Analog Lab V, scrolling through Kontakt 8 libraries, or tweaking sounds on the MPC instrument collection, and a scene from one of my books will flash in my mind — and suddenly I know exactly what the beat needs. The story feeds the sound. The sound feeds the story back.
The Roots
Kemetic. West African. Caribbean. Those rhythmic traditions live in my ear and my body. They show up in how I program drums, what scales feel right, what textures resonate, what percussion patterns I reach for instinctively. Video game sounds — chiptune, retro console tones, 8-bit melodies — sit right next to djembe patterns and Afrobeat polyrhythms in my head. That collision is the sound. The ancient and the digital aren't separate lanes for me — they're the same highway.
The Signal — DSP Synthesis
I work heavily with digital signal processing — manipulating audio at the frequency level. Spectral analysis, frequency-domain tools, waveform shaping, granular deconstruction, additive and subtractive synthesis from raw oscillators. DSP is where I go when I want a sound that doesn't exist yet. I'm not loading a preset and tweaking a knob — I'm building the waveform from mathematics, sculpting harmonics by hand, and listening for the moment the frequency becomes a feeling. This is sound design at the atomic level. The n-Track Spectrum 3D Sonogram is one of my favorite tools for this — watching frequencies move in three dimensions while I shape them in real time. DSP synthesis isn't a side technique for me. It's one of the core engines.
The Voice Through the Machine — Vocoding
I vocode. My voice goes through a synthesizer and comes out as a harmonic instrument — chords, leads, pads, textures, all driven by the shape of my speech and the pitch of my throat. A single vocal becomes a full choir. A whisper becomes an ambient wash. A shout becomes a distorted brass section. Vocoding turns the human voice into something between organic and synthetic — and that in-between space is where some of my most interesting production ideas live. It's not about hiding the voice. It's about extending it into frequencies and harmonics that a throat alone can't reach.
The Bones — Custom MIDI
I am a MIDI junkie. I create custom MIDI files from scratch — melodies, chord progressions, drum patterns, full arrangements — note by note, by hand. MIDI is the skeleton of music before it wears its skin. Before a beat has a kick sound, before a melody has a synth patch, before a chord has a texture — there are the notes. The structure. The bones. I build those bones manually because that's where the musical idea actually lives. I also create MIDI for other producers and for people who are still learning how to start a song — how to find a melody, how to build a progression, how to get from silence to structure. If the music is the weapon, MIDI is the blueprint.
Synesthesia Ties It All Together
Every source I just described — the body, the screen, the controller, the stories, the roots, the signal, the voice, the bones — passes through synesthesia before it becomes music. Sound is color. Movement is rhythm. Emotion is frequency. A fight scene doesn't just look intense — it sounds dark red and metallic. A Kemetic sunrise doesn't just look golden — it sounds like a sustained open fifth with warm saturation. A vocoded whisper doesn't just sound synthetic — it looks like blue glass folding into itself. This isn't a technique I learned. It's how I'm wired. It's why my process is mine and why no two producers hear the world the same way. The music is the ultimate weapon — and synesthesia is how I forge it.
Gaming is not a hobby for me — it is part of my DNA. I have been gaming since I was four years old and it has never stopped. From consoles to PC, from RPGs to survival horror, from competitive to cooperative — gaming shaped how I think, how I build worlds, and how I approach every creative project. This is where I share that side of the production.
I stepped into MMA. I actually did it. Win or lose, I followed a dream that most people only talk about from their couches. I trained. I fought. I bled for it. And I still train to this day — not because the spotlight is on me, but because the discipline is part of who I am.
I had to step back. Not because the fire went out, but because life demanded it. My twenties were not kind financially. I did not have the resources to chase every dream at once while raising a family, keeping a home, and becoming the man my wife and children needed me to be. A lot of what I am able to do today was halted by the reality of not having it all figured out at 22. But stepping back is not the same as quitting. I am still here. I am still training. And the warrior spirit I carry in the cage is the same spirit I carry into every studio session, every chapter I write, and every line of code I put down.
𓂀 𓆑 𓅓
04
The Spirit
I am a Vodun practitioner. An animist. A spiritualist. I walk in Ma'at. And I smoke — not recreationally, but spiritually. For me, the plant is not an escape. It is a bonding mechanism with nature. A doorway into deeper meditation. A tool that African and indigenous cultures have used for thousands of years to commune with the earth and the unseen. Through that stillness I have learned more about meditation — its true meaning and its actual purpose — than any book or sermon ever taught me. My cultural history showed me what Western religion could not.
My search for God led me past the boundaries of organized religion and into deeper waters. The Eye of Horus. The Ori. The laws that Kemet and the broader African world followed before invasion, before blending, before the original knowledge was buried under conquest. What I found was not a man on a throne in the clouds. What I found was the Source — the original creative intelligence that our ancestors understood before any foreign theology arrived on African soil. I give thanks and praise to the Source. I give thanks and praise to my ancestors. Every morning. Every session. Every breath that carries purpose. That is not ritual for show. That is the foundation of my life.
I believe in the higher consciousness. I study Amenti — the hidden realm, the Egyptian afterlife, the place where the heart is weighed against the feather of Ma'at. I do not fear it. I prepare for it. Understanding Amenti does not change how I see life — it deepens it. It makes every day more urgent and more sacred at the same time. It teaches me that what I build here matters beyond here. That the work I leave behind speaks for me when my mouth no longer can. That is not morbid. That is African. That is the way our people have always understood existence — as a continuum, not an ending.
I use the Eye of Horus and the Ori in my Path of Kokumo novels because they are not fiction to me. They are living principles. The Ori — your higher self, your divine head, the seat of your destiny in Yoruba cosmology — is something I honor in practice, not just in pages. Every character I write, every realm I construct, every energy system I design comes from a place of genuine spiritual relationship. This is not worldbuilding for entertainment. This is testimony dressed in fantasy.
I do not encourage anyone to follow my beliefs. Vodun is my path, not a recruitment tool. But I am who I am. I walk openly in it. And I can do nothing but love the world and guide my family with the knowledge I have been given.
𓃭 𓇯 𓃭
05
The Stories
Path of Kokumo — Dark Fantasy Series
20+ years in the making. Inspired by Star Wars, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, Yu Yu Hakusho, Fist of the North Star, Inuyasha, Naruto, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure — and American comics like the X-Men, Blade, and Black Panther. But this is not a retelling of someone else's mythology. This is mine. Built entirely on Kemetic history, Vodunism, and the full depth of Africa's ancient tribal traditions — rooted in my own spiritual practice and my own ancestry.
The world of Path of Kokumo draws its energy systems from real African spiritual science and its gods from the Neteru, the Nommo, the Orisha — and other African deities reimagined as living forces within a dark fantasy universe. This is not worldbuilding borrowed from European mythology. This is Africa's ancient cosmology given the epic narrative it has always deserved — told through the lens of anime storytelling and spiritual testimony. My spirituality made into narrative. My journey to spiritual integration.
I
Path of Kokumo
Book One · Currently in Development
+
Sequels to Follow
The journey continues after Book One
Dead Earth — Survival Horror Series
Born from a different part of my imagination — the part shaped by George Romero's Living Dead films, Dario Argento's horror cinema, The Thing, the Resident Evil movies, and a lifetime of supernatural and survival horror across film, television, and video games. Dead Earth is a world where survival is not guaranteed and the horrors run deeper than what you can see. Details on the series will emerge as the project develops. What I can tell you now is this — it is coming, and it will not be gentle.
𓆎 𓀭 𓆎
06
Dead Earth Survival — The Game
At 37, apart from my day job, I have been gaming since I was four years old. That lifelong love is what drives Dead Earth Survival — a video game born from the same universe as the Dead Earth novel series. The game is currently in development and draws inspiration from the survival horror and extraction RPG genres that have shaped me as a gamer for decades.
What I can say is this: Dead Earth Survival is being designed as a cooperative experience that puts players in a world where survival is earned, not given. The full scope of the game — its mechanics, its enemies, its structure — will be revealed as development progresses. RPG is my top genre and Dead Earth is built to honor that. The game is a work in progress, but the ideas are never ending. Stay connected for updates.
𓂀 𓆑 𓅓
07
The Art — Transparency
I want to be upfront about something. I use AI-assisted art. No shame. No apology.
I am an entry-level drawer. I do not have an illustrator on staff. I do not have a team. What I do have is vision — and the willingness to use every tool available to bring that vision to life. I use my own real face as the foundation for Kokumo's appearance — then reshape it through AI into an original character that still carries my likeness but stands on its own as something new. For Dead Earth, I photograph myself and generate dozens of facial variations — different features, different builds, different expressions — turning one face into an entire cast of original characters. No stolen likenesses. No copying other artists. Just my own image as the seed for every character I create.
About 80 percent of the visual work you see from this production company is AI-assisted. The other 20 percent I draw by hand — using a drawing pad on PC to trace, refine, and bring my own line work into projects and animations after AI helps me bridge the gap between what I see in my head and what my hands can currently produce on paper. I am learning. I am growing. But I refuse to let the gap between my skill level and my imagination stop me from creating.
I believe AI can be used for far more good than the drama and the chaos people wrap it in. My goal is balance — the same Ma'at I live by in every other area of my life. I do not use machines to harm others, to steal from others, or to replace the sacred work of artists who have spent their lives mastering their craft. I use them to boost my own creative details — to take what is already mine and push it further than my hands alone can carry it right now. That is not exploitation. That is evolution. And I want people to see that — to see that AI in the hands of someone walking in Ma'at can produce beauty, not Isfet.
So when you see the art attached to these projects, know what you are looking at. Know that a real person's face is behind every character. Know that intention lives in every image. And know that as my drawing skills grow, the balance between hand and machine will shift — but the honesty will never change.
𓃭 𓇯 𓃭
08
For the People
DJ Kokumo Productions is not just about me. It is for the people, to the people, by the people. Half personal vision, half gift to the culture. Rooted in Afro cultures around the world — because all people of African descent are related. Scattered across continents but connected by blood, rhythm, and ancestral memory.
My mission is to show that anybody can do what they dream — whether it makes them rich and famous or not. The work itself is the proof. I want to inspire not just my Black people but every human being on this earth who has ever felt unseen, unheard, or counted out. Balance is not optional — it is the law of the universe. All people must come together in the end to make this world truly evolve. No race above another. No soul left behind. Ma'at does not discriminate. She weighs every heart the same.
Everything I create — every beat, every book, every game, every world — is built on that truth. A culturally invested Black man is behind these projects. And he is not asking for permission.
To the Mother of Order. The Feather that weighs the heart. The stillness at the center of all things.
I give thanks to the Source — the original creative intelligence that breathed life into everything that exists. I give thanks to my ancestors — those whose names I carry, those whose names I have never known, and those who walked so that I could stand. I give praise not because I am commanded to, but because gratitude is the first law of a life worth living.
May every soul who reads these words find their balance. May the chaos that surrounds you reveal the path beneath it. May your hands build what your spirit already knows is yours. May your children see in you what the world refused to see. May truth outlast every lie told about you and every lie you told yourself.
To every dreamer working in silence — your time is coming. To every father holding it together with nothing but faith — you are enough. To every mother carrying the weight of a household on her spirit — you are seen. To every creator who never got the spotlight — the light was always inside you. To every soul who lost something precious before they could save it — your love was not wasted. It echoes.
Peace. Love. Prosperity. For all people. In all lands. Under one sky.
Ma'at endures. And so do we.
𓂀 Hotep. 𓂀
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