Can you walk us through your typical session when you’re making a beat from scratch?

A typical session really depends on how I’m feeling—the mood or vibe I’m in that day. Just the other day, I was in the studio going through samples and loops a lot of producers had sent me. I work closely with certain producers, but honestly, my email is pretty much full these days, so it can be hard to decide what to even click on.

Usually, I’ll run through samples and download whatever stands out to me—whatever fits my vibe in that moment. Then I’ll start flipping the sample and doing my thing with it. After that, I go straight into building the drums, the structure, and all of that.

But if I’m cooking up completely from scratch, I’ll open up a plugin I’ve been using or one I’m really into at the time. I’ll scroll through sounds until I find something that hits—something that grabs me—and I’ll start building a melody around that. Then I’ll drop in the drums, add my sauce, and bring everything together.

When do you know the beat is finished?

For me personally, I like to leave a lot of space for the artist. I don’t like to overload the track with too many melodic elements. I’ll usually stick to three or four melody sounds and a bassline, then add the drums. I try to keep it simple.

One thing I’ve been doing more lately is post-production. I’ll start a beat with a simple idea, keep it stripped down, and then once someone records vocals on it, I’ll go back in and build around the artist’s vocals—just to enhance it and fill it out in the right places.

But overall, I keep it limited to a few key melodic elements, a bassline, and drums. I structure it, and sometimes I might go back and restructure depending on how the vocals land. But, when it comes to finishing a beat, simplicity is key for me.

Can you share the backstory of working on Tory Lanez’s album PETERSON, where you had multiple productions?

That all came together through Uno Season, who’s an executive producer and A&R. He’s been really close with Tory Lanez since the beginning of Tory’s career. I connected with Uno on Instagram—I DM’d him, and we started talking. I’ve been sending him beats for years. Sometimes he’d hit me up asking for beats for different artists.

A couple years ago, I went out to Miami and linked up with him in person. We did a few sessions with some writers, and he also brought me into a session with Hitmaka.

One day, he hit me up randomly asking for some beats. I sent them over, and not long after, he sent me back a song Tory had recorded. He told me, “Yo, Tory just cut this—we’re trying to figure out how he can keep recording from jail. Keep sending more.” Then, out of nowhere, he added me to this group chat with a bunch of big-name producers—and Tory Lanez was in it too.

From there, he let us know they were working on the album. It turned into this collaborative process with a ton of amazing producers. Being part of that was wild—especially seeing what Tory was able to create from prison. He literally recorded the whole thing on his phone, which was incredible.

The album ended up going number one, and I was fortunate to be part of a few records on there. It was a special project and a great experience all around.