Beginning with inspiration to own a label amidst the explosive growth of 90’s hip-hop culture, he did not mobilize his ideals until moving to the state of Maryland from Pasadena, California in 2001, where he joined efforts with an old friend. In Unison James and Romar (known by his pseudonym Felon-E) began the recruitment of local artists in order to build a roster. In short notice the search extended virtually with the use of the internet as a promotional research, and a tool for further recruitment.
Goldminded Records early roster included several underground hip-hop artists including IQ, The Number 1 Goon, Felon-E, Ohno, Dank, Jaymacc CK and Unknown. Many smaller musical projects were done, and as the team worked in attempt to polish their abilities.
In 2006, new members joined the roster including Yac, Oaces, Mic Angelo, Understand, Cash Dniro, Internal Mental, Plague Plenty, Absoulut Karnage, Cyentific, Dubsack Jae Diamondz in between others, eventually replacing all of the original members of Goldminded Records. In this era The Goldminded Records Mixtape was born, a series which showcased the abilities of each member of Goldminded Records individually, meanwhile James worked on all of the artwork for the series following a consistent theme.
Much progress was done in this period of time including publishing a full digital album entitled “Genesis to Exodus”, having IQ become the first place winner of the HHTVT1 Hip Hop topic contest and becoming the host of his own personal radio show entitled “Groovin wit da Goon” James was leading up to an era of voluminous amounts of projects being released , new team members and brand expansion.
In between 2009 James changed his alias to Klive Kraven, a combination of the names Clive Barker and Wes Craven, showcasing his passion and interest for horror films. In this period of time numerous amounts of projects were released including, The Classics (2004 -2008 ), Battle Tactics Vol.1 ( 2008 ), From The Vault Instrumentals Vol 1-8 (2008 ) , The Goldminded Mixtape series, The Collabs Vol 1 ( 2009 ), Lost Legends (2009 ) and unreleased projects such as the Lost Chapter 1, Quantum Leap and As the Village Burns.
In 2010 several albums were also released, including The Adventures Of Mountain Man, Menacing Masterpieces, History Lesson: Rare and Unreleased (2004-2009) and The Return Of Mountain Man.
In 2010 Klive Graduated from the Phoenix Axia School for business management with an associate’s degree. In this time, he also became a handpicked member of the Anno Domini Beats team and had many roster changes for Goldminded Records occur including signing Anonamix, Donnie Menace, La Dog, Pikk, One-take, Anitek, Alzymerz, Wyze Mindz – Unknown, Apacalypze, Symphonic, Pryme Prolifik, Tre-L, Rich Mahogany, Fiswat, Keko, and True Grit. This began the Goldminded Records International movement highlighting artists outside of the United states.
From 2011-2013 many other modifications occurred to Goldminded records and to Klive Kravens career. Klive Kraven released several projects solo and in collaboration with other artists as well including
- Death Comes in the Dusk (2011 )
- Hobo With A Shotgun ( 2011 )
- The Last Days of Mountain Man ( 2012 )
- Klive Kraven & Dark Arts: Hopeless
- Lost at the Opera: Rare and Unreleased (2010-2012)
- Collaborations Vol. 2: The Dead Still Rise (2012)
- Natural Selection
- Klive Kraven and One-take: The Diary of a Boss (2013)
- Klive Kraven and A-Wall: SuspenStories (2013)
In 2012 Klive Kraven signed to Vherbal Industries as a producer to the label belonging to Vherbal , And did a fundraiser with the American Humane Association.
From 2014 to 2016 James worked fulltime at the school for Liberal Arts at Chespeake College, eventually releasing over 10 more projects in 2014 and 2015. With further roster chages occurring including the addition of Lu Chin Chen, Eisenheur and Rated R.
In 2017 Klive Kraven is continuing to work on a large selection of projects with Guttermunk and Queen Kaotic being added to the Goldminded Records roster, over 16 albums planned for the future and many services under the Goldminded Records umbrella in efforts to have Goldminded Records grow as much as possible