Stro (short for Maestro) was born in Russia on a cold night in December. His parents both of Armenian heritage moved the family to the United States as the Soviet Union collapsed. Stro was 8 at the time and being used to poverty his family and him adjusted well in the streets of “Little Armenia”, Los Angeles. His loving parents worked their fingers to the bone to give him and his sister everything they needed.
By the 3rd grade Stro was taking piano lessons and performing in annual community recitals. Stro Had fallen in love with hip-hop back in his home country of Armenia, in fact hip-hop was his first english teacher. “I was 16 years old the first time I ever set foot in a studio.
I expressed so many creative opinions so fast that the engineer stopped and said ‘Calm down Maestro, one thing at a time.’ Since that day everyone I know has been calling me Maestro.” By his junior year of high school, he had taught himself numerous music production softwares and began composing his first instrumentals. “It all started with Reason, I made beats flipped em then copped a Korg Triton 88Key. Made more beats, sold those, bought a MPC4000. Now I’m on a Protools LE Set Up perfecting pre-production for professional mixing.” He pursued his music career and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. “My Boston family(Mall G/Up North Records) shortened my name to Stro and I added an east coast style to my international swaggerizm. They don’t play a lot of east coast joints out here in the West and its a damn shame because there is so much good music out there people don’t even know of.”
After four years of intense musical training, he returned to California and attended the Los Angeles Recording School where he perfected his art of audio recording and mixing. With these new acquired skills, Stro became the in-house producer and engineer for Ya U Wack Entertainment. He has produced and engineered 3 mixtapes for his company; Chapter 1, Art of Hustlin, & Ya U Wack Radio. Stro best describes his musical style as “having no style.” His hip-hop compositions range from west-coast funk to down south bounce music and east coast beats. Rap is not the only genre of music Stro works with. He has a wide range of R&B, Raggae, Dance, Pop, Techno, even made for TV instrumentals.
“People usually ask who is your favorite producer, and I honestly can’t answer that question. My style comes from learning and mixing different techniques I inherit from all the different producers I listen to and study, and this ranges from Mozart and Tchaikovski to Dr. Dre and Timbaland. How can someone call themselves a musician and limit themselves to one type of music. I definately listen to some more than others, but I study and respect all.”

Professional Experience

MTV Shows – Bully Beatdown - April 2009
Produced original music for episode 5
Performed audio engineering responsibilities during live filming

Interscope/Geffen – Urban Rap Dept - May 2008
Assisted in coordinating Lady Gaga’s introduction party
Delivered music videos, master mixes of singles, and albums from studio to promotions
Organized and created RSVP’s for Interscope/Geffen events

Appearances

MTV’s Bully Beatdown
The Source Magazine
Hype Magazine
Power 106 (KPWR)
UCLA Radio
Happy Hour by Tha Vill (Music Video)
Hood News DVD

Production & Engineering
Live Events

Provided original music at the 2009 NBA Finals Game 1 on Lakers Radio KLAC 570AM with DJ ADM1
Key Club: Fat Joe Concert
Grove of Anaheim: Dj Quik/Warren G concert,
Grove of Anaheim: Game Concert
The Knitting Factory: Ya Boy Concert
The Knitting Factory: Bishop Lamont Concert
Club Aura: Westcoast Regional Hip Hop Awards After Party
Club Aura: 50 Cent “Curtis” Album Release Party
House of Blues
King Kedar Comedy Hour
Beyond The Stars Palace
Club Vangaurd
Club Minx
Club Red Square
Club Hypnotic
Club Forbidden city

People Stro has worked with
production/engineering/mixing/mastering

H.I.T.T.M.A.N., Glasses Malone, Crooked I, Hoodrat Miguel (Power106/The Beat), Jazzy D (Jazzy Management), The Warzone (MC Eiht, Kam, Goldie Loc), Max B, Big Fase100, Yung Bruh, Young Keno, Eastwood, Problem, Mall G, DJ ADM1(Lakers Radio), UCLA Radio, Up North Records, BlackJack(Warner Bros), Trecherous Records, Bruce Hathcock (Thug Line Ent), Tha Vill, Larceny Ent, One-2, R-Mean, Pentagon Records, MastaMinds, Musically Challenged, Gino Slik, Giancarlo Lino (Engineer on the new THE DREAM, and J HOLIDAY albums), 3 Stripe Gangstaz (Raw Dealz Records), King Kedar, Bob Smoke TV, Not Rated Productions, Nuzik Ent, Boston George, E-Dub, Human (H1), Vicious, Shake da Mayor

CD’s with Stro’s music/production/engineering

Ya U Wack - Chapter 1
Ya U Wack - Art of Hustlin
Ya U Wack - Ya U Wack Radio
Max B - Life After ByrdGang
Max B - Quarantine
Big Mike DJ Thoro - 4th Quarter Pressure Pt3
Gino Slik - The Appetizer
Big Mike & Mall G - Street Campaign
One2 - New Day New Money
Sonja Blade - Back 2 Business
H1 - NightCrawler
3 Stripe Gangstaz - The More You Sweat the Less you Bleed
Heavy Hittaz - Long Days Slow Money
R-Mean - The Rising Son