Last year, CL had the pleasure of sitting in on panel featuring Orlando-based producer Henry Daher, who spoke with young Bay area producers about the perils and plus sides of being a beatmaker in this new music ecosystem. Daher told an interesting story about G-Eazy's 2015 hit single, "Sad Boy," which he produced. He explained how that song (plus other collabs with artists like Wifisfuneral and NIKO IS) turned into even more work (Daher's music also appears on G-Eazy's 2017 album The Beautiful & Damned).
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Inaugural Tampa Beat Weekend drops into Ybor City — here's everything you need to know
Every ear in the room ate up each morsel of advice from the young, up-and-coming producer.
From June 1-3, Tampa Beat Weekend will return and up the ante on its commitment to the beat man.
"In recent years we’ve seen a growing tension between the artist and their producers. This isn’t always the case, but it’s hard to ignore the horror stories of producers being paid as little as $500 (or nothing at all) for their work on platinum singles," organizers wrote in a press release. "Whether it’s stealing beats on the local level, or record labels labeling projects as 'mixtapes' instead of 'albums' to shortchange producers in the industry, its safe to assume that producers generally receive the short end of the stick."
The Bricks Ybor — home of monthly producers meet up, [beatsnchill] — will once again play host to Tampa Beat Weekend's June 1 pop-up. Registration is on Friday, and Saturday's beat battle at First Chance Last Chance boasts a $1,000 prize. A Sunday masterclass at The Attic at Rock Brothers features Miami producer Y Diz, a certified Ableton trainer, and Chase N. Cashe, a Grammy-winning, quadruple-platinum producer who has worked with Lil' Wayne and Eminem ("Drop The World"), Drake ("Look What You've Done") and even Dom Kennedy and Kendrick Lamar ("We Ball").
A Sunday evening closing concert at The Attic at Rock Brothers will feature Los Angeles producer Iman Omari, Atlanta's STLNDRMS (who was here in March 2017) and Tampa's own JXPVTTY.
MC Kenna, a co-organizer of the event says that the beat battle is currently limited to 16 participants, but he's open to expanding the field to 32 producers if first-week registration demands it.
All-access passes — which include entry to the beat battle, masterclass and concert — are now on sale for $100. Those wishing to buy a la carte admission to the masterclass and beat battle will pay $60 for entry to each. A stand alone ticket for the concert is $20.
More information on Tampa Beat Weekend is available below. Buy tickets via tampabeatweekend.com.
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 3, 2018.