Buy Beats

“Now that I have a Grammy under my belt and Late Registration is finished, I am ready to launch my clothing line next spring.”

The producer/beat maker/rapper/political activist named Kanye Omari West was born on June 8, 1977 in Atlanta, GA. Kanye West then made it to Chicago at age three. Kanye West’s early production and beat making was mostly for small time artists in chicago and his hometown area. After dibble dabbling around for a while, kanye west made his first big collaboration called “Turn It Up” with Jermaine Dupri and Nas, this was a breakthrough for him and it featured on JD’s Life… In 1472 movie soundtrack. The song unlike most of his other beats relied on a sample-free style, basically the opposite of Kanye West’s diced drum-programming and sample-heavy tunes. Kanye honed and perfected his production skills under the training of Derrick “D-Dot” Angeletti. Continue reading »

Interview, May, 2001 by Jonathan Moskowitz

TWO OF MUSIC’S FAVORITE PRODUCERS SLIP INTO THE SPOTLIGHT

“I grew up around all types of music,” says Chad Hugo, who along with his partner, Pharrell Williams, comprises the red-hot hip-hop production team the Neptunes. “I used to listen to Rush, the Who, classic rock. But also hip-hop when it hit the scene. So everything that we do now is influenced by all that music.”

Having produced Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass,” and Jay-Z’s “I Just Wanna Love U [Give it 2 Me],” the Neptunes have unassailable hip-hop credibility, and with so much buzz around them as producers, it was a natural progression for them to make the jump from behind the mixing board and into the spotlight. The two recently recorded In Search of … (Virgin) their debut as artists, which they released under the acronym N.E.R.D. (No one Ever Really Dies). “Dying is a doorway,” explains Williams. “And you don’t die in a doorway. You go somewhere else.” Continue reading »

Scott Spencer Storch (born December 16 or December 15, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York), is an American Jewish entertainment mogul, hip-hop record producer, arranger and keyboardist. He plays the piano, clavinet, violin, bagpipes and he is also an avid horse back rider.

After moving to Cherry Hill, New Jersey where he became the keyboard player for the Philadelphia hip-hop band The Roots, he played keyboards for other Philly artists including Schoolly D and G. Love.

Storch began experimenting with his own productions by making beats for The Roots. He then left the band and learned more about the art of making beats from Dr. Dre and Timbaland. Storch is now one of the most in-demand hip-hop producers today, working on beats for a wide variety of artists. Unlike many of his contemporaries (Kanye West, Pharrell), Storch rarely uses samples in his beats, preferring to create his own music. Continue reading »