by Stanton SwihartWestchester-bred, Queens-based rap artist J-Zone (né J. Mumford) began his musical quest when he picked up and mastered a variety of instruments before he even made it out of elementary school. Growing up in suburbia, he specifically dreamed of a career playing bass guitar in a raw urban funk band and would scour record stores for hours to dig up old funk LPs just to mimic the bass lines. Surrounded by hip-hop culture and a now-significant vinyl collection, inspired by "Yo! MTV Raps," and influenced by the likes of the Bomb Squad, Marley Marl, DJ Premier, and local beatsmith-made-good Pete Rock, however, J-Zone had mostly put his funk fantasies on hold by the time he reached high school--where he also earned his pseudonym due to the same zany, zoned-out personality that would eventually manifest itself on his recordings--to concentrate on his emerging skills as a rap producer and DJ, while also occasionally dabbling as an MC...