Focus is someone whose skill is only matched by heart and passion for the music he makes. He proved his chops by producing for the likes of Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Lopez, Lil Wayne, Christina Aguilera, not to mention his father was the renowned bassist and co-founder of the funk band “Chic”. Focus eventually signed to work with Dr.Dre as a producer among others like Hi-tek & Mr.Porter. He shares stories about the downtimes too and how he made lemons into lemonade, when he first came to California he was locked in a studio for 3 days and he decided to make the most of it by making 15 beats. He also shared the importance of protecting your mental health, he created a group called “Kings Quarters” to accomplish exactly that. All in all, Focus wants to continue to build for legacy, not for fame or money all while doing what he loves: making music. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

There are some who are lucky enough to grow up in a city that has a musical revolution, Nascent was one of the few in Chicago that had enough smarts, skills and humility to actually rise with that revolution. Surprisingly though, his first big break didn’t come from Chicago but rather a trip he made to New York. After building a relationship with Kay Slay, he flew to New York only to not get the meeting he was promised but instead of getting down he paid G Unit’s office a visit. That visit turned into his first major placement with 50 Cent, he expected that one moment to turn his whole life around which didn’t end up happening. He still worked a 9 to 5 while still grinding away at getting better as his craft and working with artists around Chicago. He ended up getting the chance to move to LA which he took and instead of chasing big artists he decided to help build and grow with up and coming artists, like himself which lead to him working with Chance The Rapper, Cam Obi, Noname, Brent Faiyaz, A Boogie and many more. He also gets real about how to actually handle your business and not just the stereotypical fluff you usually hear. He dives into publishing deals, how you should go about creative marketing ideas, releasing your own music and where you should put your money. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Tiffany Miranda is someone who has always taken matters into her own hands, learned the ropes of the business and given everything back to help those coming after her. She got her start in music in her late teens, she even had a meeting with the Miami legend Uncle Luke’s record label. A few years in she realized she wanted more control of her destiny in music and began to learn everything about production and engineering. She was able to achieve success working with everyone from French Montana, Cool & Dre, Rick Ross to Lil Uzi Vert but saw how few women worked in the industry and how poorly the industry treated women. She then decided to apply that same hustle she used in her own music career to start “Girls Make Beats”, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping young girls learned how to produce and make it in the music industry. The organization has now grown to operate in Miami and Los Angeles and is even now helping young girls internationally realize their dream of making it in music. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

This show is all about turning lemons into lemonade, taking a bad situation and flipping it so it works for you. Few have done this better than our next guest, Chi Town’s own Vic Spencer. In middle school Vic entered the group home system and when his schedule was restricted so he couldn’t play basketball anymore, he picked up the pen. The staff running the group homes took notice and decided to sponsor Vic to make music and tour other group homes, foster care events and the like sharing his positive message of turning a bad situation into a great one. Fast forward years after that and after dropping many mixtapes he dropped the critical acclaimed “Cost of Victory” in 2015 which had the biggest buzz of any of his work to date. Despite being older than most of his contemporaries, he was not only able to make it in music but make it with his sound which is very different to his peers, but true to him. He also shared some inspiring and hilarious stories about meeting Sean Price and getting to work with someone he looked up to as well as eating weed brownies with Heltah Skeltah. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

There was a time not too long ago where people weren’t checking for Buffalo when it came to hip hop. Still, our next guest DJ Shay was grinding his way through and is the man that is responsible for helping put it on the map. He started DJ’ing when he was just 10 years old and played gigs all throughout his childhood. After he came of age he started making beats as well and dove into that world along with DJ’ing. Eventually, he founded Buff City Records and became in every aspect of the music business from signing artists, managing doing shows, etc. During that time he got introduced to a young and hungry Benny The Butcher and started working with him. After he saw how talented he was he decided to go all in on helping him (and eventually Conway and Westside Gunn) and do whatever he could do to help them in their career. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

The internet has completely changed the music industry and as a producer you have to create your own path and not rely on gatekeepers. Our next guest, BankRollGotIt did exactly that. The producer group is comprised of brothers Joel and Taylor Banks (hence their producer name) and created their own path to making a living off of music. Joel had been producing since he was in school and after his old producer group fell apart him and his brother decided to create a group together. After all, if you can’t trust family who can you trust. They both had day jobs in the Bay Area and they learned a valuable lesson from doing sales: you must provide value first. They started booking studios for the weekend around conference and festivals where rappers would show up and DM them offering a free session. Eventually, they had a big break when Asian Doll took them up on their offer for free studio time and they got placements on her first project after she signed to a label. Despite the success they kept building they stayed in their day jobs working day and night until they were losing money because of all the opportunities in music. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Decap cut his teeth in the rap game joining a 9-person rap group, he was the only producer and had a make the beats for all their tracks. That was in junior high, by the time he got to his school he had built some buzz for himself and started selling beats. He eventually left to make it in New York but ended up hitting a wall and getting into debt, he decided to study spirituality and meditation instead. That cleared his mind and helped him become conscious of what he really wanted and he entered the music industry a changed man. He quit chasing major placements and began to diversify his efforts and knowledge launching things like his production masterclasses and infamous drum kit, “Drums That Knock”. He also share how he has dealt with depression, books that changed his life and even how Redman randomly walked into his apartment to use the bathroom. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Creating a beat with a sample can be hard enough, today’s guest would recreate samples from scratch ever since he started making music. Our guest this episode, Antman Wonder, hails from Philly and when he started making beats he didn’t even realize sampling existed so he would remake them from scratch which built his beat making chops quickly. He caught a big break after being interviewed by DJ Premier from a project called “An Ode to Reasonable Doubt”, he started working with Premier and Royce Da 5’9 among others. He also started composing and shared how the music industry should pay producers their worth and on time like they do in film. Despite achieving more success like a Grammy with Anderson.Paak, he remains fulfilled by the process of making good music, working with people he loves and focusing on legacy. Even with his success, Antman shared a mental breakdown he had in 2017 and not only how he was able to get out of it but how you can too. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

When Charity entered her first beat battle ever she made an ultimatum, if I don’t do well in this beat battle I won’t pursue music as a career. Thankfully, she got 3rd place and that gave her the confidence to keep going. She started producing more around Houston (her hometown) and worked closely with people like Nate Coupe to develop her sound and brand. She eventually founded her own production company, GOD LVL to continue building her career in music. She kept networking and listening to feedback from producers like Focus to keep improving. She eventually was able to get placements with Cyhi The Prince, Big Krit and shares the story of meeting Dre and working in the studio with him. Not to mention the time where she worked with Aftermath artist, Candice Pillay, and the beats were so hot Candice’s hair literally caught on fire! Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

In today’s world, we producers often have many creative skills they learn that helps fulfill them and pay the bills. That is definitely the case for our next guest, Billy Martin who is a guitarist and keyboardist for the punk rock band, “Good Charlotte”. He shared his journey joining “Good Charlotte” as a senior in High School then having the commercial success of a platinum record a few years after Billy joined. He eventually decided to get back into another love of his, illustration, and despite having the brand behind him he did have to work really hard on his skills to compete with those who had been doing it as a career. He shares that being focused and disciplined with his work, schedule and making sure he was always learning helped him achieve success in music and illustration. He also eventually started making beats for artists and on BeatStars, once again despite having a name in the industry he ran into all kinds of problems including an artist never paying him for an entire album he produced. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Please find ways to support here: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ In light of the tragic murder of George Floyd we wanted to have an open discussion on the podcast about what we can do to help and how we can heal ourselves and help others heal around us. To help us do that we had Christopher Scott, M.S.W., C.S.W.A. (aka Hip Hop Social Worker) on the show. Chris shared about his work in Portland as a social worker, working with youth and how he is growing his brand as Hip Hop Social worker to make content for everyone to consume for free (including the Hip Hop Social Worker Podcast). As hard as it is, we had the conversation to try and see what we can do and how we can heal. On what we can do; voting for legislation against police brutality, checking in and supporting our black friends, showing up and listening to what we can do. On healing from this tragedy, Chris mentioned allowing yourself to take time off, talk to your boss and lean on your support network. Being creative not just in making music but drawing, journaling, writing and even coloring! Taking time to learn new skills and being able to give your self time to focus on other things. Most importantly, set aside time to log off of social media, meditate, center yourself and recharge so you can come back to help with a clear mind. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Today’s guest doesn’t hail from the usual hip hop mecca’s like New York, LA or Chicago… she’s from Estonia. Our next guest Ms.Madli came to the US without much of a plan other than to make it in the music industry. She was classically trained on piano but knew the reading music wasn’t her passion, hip hop was. She made beats on the side for 7 years and entered in a beat battle one fateful day in 2014 where she placed third. She came back the next year and won. That got people to start taking notice, people like Sway Calloway who ended up having her on “Sway in the Morning”. She is also a composer and has made compositions for VH1, CBS, ABC and other major networks. She shares her story as a first-generation immigrant making it not just in America but the music industry. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Every producer has to make this decision, do I go all in or keep doing it making music on the side? Our next guest’s decision ultimately led to his placement with Kanye West. Today’s guest, Cameone, was forced to make that decision after he got fired from his job at a sneaker store and had to decide if he should get a full-time job or go full time into his own work. He decided to bet on himself. Making music isn’t his only passion, he’s also a designer. He shares his story doing little logo projects to a branding deal that paid his rent and then some. He also discovered he could make samples with his unique synth-style he loves and make money that way. That ended up earning him a credit for “On God” from “Jesus is King” by Kanye West. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Not every producer finds success and creative fulfillment after they decide to give up on making it in the music industry. Our next guest, MTK, did. MTK started making beats during a graveyard shift then while he traveled around Europe, his big break came at a Seattle beat battle where he met Macklemore, Eric G, Jake One, and others. While he definitely had success, he wasn’t where he hoped to be after a discussion with his wife decided to leave the music business. After that, he just started making music for fun again and he started making compositions that he loved creating the most. He started messaging people like Statik Selektah and soon enough he was getting credits with people like Royce Da’ 5’9, Boi1da, Logic, !llmind, Trippie Red. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Most producers are lucky to make a record considered a classic in their career, our next guest’s second beat he ever sold became the cult classic “Thieves in the Night” by Black Star (Talib Kweli & Mos Def). 88-keys has 20+ years in the game and has produced for Kanye West, Jay Z, Big Sean and more. He got his start cleaning records for John Carerro where he rubbed shoulders with people like Q-Tip, Pete Rock, Busta Rhymes, Funk Master Flex and more. He used his deep record collection and developed a formula for making records that allowed him to get the placements he has. Later he made his own album “The Death of Adam” which was executive produced by Kanye West. 88 shares the story of filming the “Stay Up!” music video with Kanye where they dressed up as old men and tore up the town. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Mr.Porter grew up in a musical family, his grandfather was in “The Original 5 Blind Boys of Alabama” and his father who started off as their driver and Popular gospel singer himself, he spent much of his childhood on the road and surrounded by music. His life changed when at the age of 15 he was shot in his hometown of Detriot and wasn’t able to pursue sports the way he was before. He later turned to producing and after only 3 months he linked up with Eminem and helped produce his first album, Infinite. Mr.Porter shares how later he started composing for films and executive producing albums like “Hell: The Sequel”. Even as he grew as an artist he still faced hardships and obstacles he had to overcome. There was a dark time for him after Proof of D12 died and where Denaun was diagnosed with a heart condition. He started focusing on his physical and mental health with things like therapy, meditation and exercise which he talks about in-depth, he’s currently working on a pamphlet for producers around health in the studio. He also dives into the business side of things, detailing his leaving EMI and what he’s seeing artists should be doing in today’s world of streaming and how to command their worth. Even touching on the legendary queen’s Jill Scott and Erykah Badu Instagram Live. His focus now is to stay centered mentally, physically and spiritually and help others achieve their dreams in the music world, as well as his new solo project he describes as “a hip-hop version of ‘What’s Going On’”. Listen to these stories and more on this episode of Beat The Block, powered by BeatStars. If you’re a producer trying to make a living doing what you love, head over to BeatStars.com and start making money, for free. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

Beat The Block will be releasing our first 3 episodes on May 14th at 8AM EST. Our first episode is with legendary Detroit producer and right-hand man for Eminem, Mr.Porter. He will share his incredible journey diving into music after he was shot and producing Eminem’s first album to now, we’ll talk about the albums, records and films he’s worked on as well as his best advice for producers from his time in the game. Our guests for episodes 2 and 3 are a surprise, tune in to find out who they are on May 14th! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support

We're thrilled to announce the Beat The Block Podcast! This is a show where we go way deeper than the surface and talk to the best producers and artists in the game about not just their success but the dark times and how they bounced back (so you can too). Since we are making this for the Beatstars community we wanted to include you in the process! You have the chance to have your beat featured on the show, to enter submit at beatstars.world/btbcontest by April 29th to enter. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beattheblockpodcast/support