Today's guest is the name behind a decade of names you already know by heart. Eight weeks at #1 with Drake. Over a billion streams off a single Travis Scott beat. A top-six Hot 100 record with Migos, Nicki Minaj, and Cardi B — all on one song. Nipsey Hussle. French Montana. A whole generation of trap and rap that doesn't sound the way it sounds without him. And here's the part that should annoy every producer alive: he made most of it in under 20 minutes, by himself.

And The Writer Is... Murda Beatz!

In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:

- Why doubt is important

- The principal who told him being a producer was "unrealistic" — and what he'd say to him now

- Making "Nice For What" in 20 minutes — and why it was never actually mixed

- Selling beats over Western Union for $50–$200 — until working with the Migos got him flagged for fraud

- DMing his way from a Canadian bedroom to Chief Keef, the Migos, and Nipsey Hussle

- The Migos teaching him to cook beats in 10 minutes: "you gotta be faster"

Losing his dad at 21 — and how he handles grief while the machine keeps running

and his new mixtape, 'Bando'

And much more...

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Chapters:

0:00 Intro

1:45 The best producer tag that isn't yours

2:32 The songs: "Nice For What," "Butterfly Effect," "MotorSport"

3:03 The plaque wall — and the one with "some crazy number"

4:29 When the label wouldn't put a producer's name on the plaque

7:00 Born in Niagara Falls, a town of 3,000 on the Buffalo border

8:33 A dad who played guitar, a left-handed kid on the drums

11:36 Why so many great musicians come from Canada

13:08 Trading the drum kit for trap beats

14:29 Digging for Lex Luger drum kits in Skype groups

16:25 "Murda Beatz on the track" — building a fanbase on Facebook and YouTube

19:38 The principal who said being a producer was "unrealistic"

21:51 "The doubt is important" — Michael Jordan and manufacturing motivation

24:50 How you go from YouTube to a $20,000 check

26:33 Learning his value — refusing to be a "sound producer"

27:26 Selling beats on Western Union, and getting flagged for fraud

33:00 Being a white kid making rap on Chicago's South Side

35:02 How he met the Migos on the internet

40:36 Making "Pipe It Up" — and learning to cook beats in 10 minutes

42:32 World #1s in 15–20 minutes: "Butterfly Effect" and "Nice For What"

45:35 Curating a beat pack — and remembering every beat by name

51:24 The crazy fact about "Butterfly Effect": it was never mixed

52:13 "MotorSport" hits #6 — sitting on it for four months

53:24 Making Nipsey Hussle's beat his first day in LA

56:55 "Nice For What" — made in Canada, #1 for eight weeks

62:10 Adjusting as hip-hop changes: "I made rap because I wanted to make rap"

63:42 Producer vs. featured artist — why go solo

68:17 Simplicity: 8–10 stems and nothing wasted

69:27 Losing his dad at 21, and how he deals with grief

70:14 The alone time that built everything

71:15 What's next: the "Bando" project, ten years after his first mixtape

73:02 Rapid fire: signature beat, Mount Rushmore of producers

77:25 Murda Melodies — the plugin that landed on a Bad Bunny record

80:28 Advice for upcoming producers

80:31 A message to his mom — and what he'd tell his dad

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Edited by Jad Saad

Post-Production VFX by Pratik Karki

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.