When things like hard drives get stolen, it’s not even possible to put an estimate on its value but one can imagine the massive worth a hard drive belonging to MixedByAli would be.
Hawthorne police have successfully recovered a hard drive belonging to the GRAMMY winning and Platinum selling TDE engineer/producer that was stolen recently from his car. The theft took place on Dec. 7 when two men broke into Ali’s BMW i8 and two other vehicles parked outside the Equinox gym on Rosecrans Avenue in Hawthorne. Along other things, they were able to take away a hard drive which contained unreleased/original music.
Derek “MixedByAli” Ali is TDE’s in house engineer and producer who has worked on really almost all those albums you love from the TDE roster. He is nominated for two GRAMMYs in 2018 — “Album of the Year” for producing Lamar’s DAMN. and “Record of the Year” for contributing to ‘HUMBLE’. He’s also worked with other artists such as Snoop Dogg, YG, ASAP Rocky, Jhene Aiko, Ty Dolla Sign and many more.
Hawthorne police Lt. James Royer told L.A. Daily News that he was “very, very happy” that the hard drive has been recovered but another copy of the same stays missing. The good news is that the the device is encrypted so whoever has it, it isn’t of much use to them. It has not been revealed what all music the hard drive contained.
Jonjairo Espinoza, 23, of Los Angeles who left his fingerprint on Ali’s car door during a break-in a day earlier, has been arrested. Him and another man have been involved with other thefts and burglaries in the past. “Basically these guys are serial car burglars,” Royer said. “They prey upon victims who leave items viewable from the outside.” The also found a lot of other stuff in his possession. “We found gift cards, video recorders, Luis Vuitton bags, golf clubs,” Royer said. “We are up to 14 different victims.” As per Los Angeles County Superior Court records, Espinoza is charged with eight counts of burglary in another case and is scheduled to appear in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday.