Murda Beatz has crafted bangers for numerous heavy hitters in the industry, including Drake, Travis Scott, Gucci Mane and Migos — and he’s just 26 years old.
Originally from Toronto, the Grammy Award-winning producer eventually connected with Takeoff, Quavo and Offset for the 2015 song “Pipe It Up” after years of grinding, and he’s been going full force ever since. He credits Migos with putting him on.
“I definitely built my brand with the Migos, those are my boys,” he tells HipHopDX. “2016 was a great time because that’s when they started. They had their breakout single ‘Bad and Boujee’ and they became the biggest thing in rap. And 2016, ’17, ’18, that was when I had my big run and became one of the top producers in rap as well. So it’s crazy how after them, I had my own come up with Drake, Travis, a bunch of people, and then they had theirs and then we both ended up at top together. It’s just amazing.
“It took a lot of dedication and sacrifice and really being hungry and knowing what you want at a young age. It was a grind. At the beginning, it was more just making beats, getting better, networking, meeting people through the internet and then to get to the next level, it was more of a travel thing, meeting people in person and building those relationships in person. That’s what took me to the next level.”
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Like the rest of the world, Murda Beatz — real name Shane Lindstrom — is currently under a stay-at-home order in California as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the globe, but he’s been staying busy.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Murda says. “It’s definitely unfortunate times for the world. People are dying and stuff. My heart goes out to the families. I’ve had a bunch of shows canceled, obviously studio sessions and stuff. But it doesn’t really change my day-to-day that much, because I’m still making beats and playing video games.”
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Earlier this week, he dropped the first ever Slice beat pack, the simply titled Quarantine Pack.
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“It was actually one of the first days I started quarantining,” he says. “I forget what day I’m on now, but one of the first days I was like, ‘Man, I never dropped a drum kit. I feel like this would be a dope time, just to drop something for all the producers staying home working on music.’
“It’s a memorable drum kit. It’ll always be remembered like, ‘Oh that’s that drum kit that Murda dropped when corona was happening, you know? So, I put it together.”
The Quarantine Pack has already garnered the attention of Timbaland, Boi1da, Sevn Thomas, Hitmaka, Scott Storch, Tay Keith, OG Parker, Wondagurl who have all shown love to Murda on social media.
On Friday (March 27), he also unveiled the new single “Banana Split” featuring Lil Durk and YNW Melly who is behind bars facing murder charges for his alleged role in a double homicide.
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“I linked with Melly in 2018 for the first time and we made that in the studio our first session,” he explains. “Then, I was sitting on the record for a couple of years and just recently decided to put Lil Durk on it. I felt like they’d compliment each other. I feel like it’d be dope if they had a song together. I didn’t know if they had in the past, so I just made it happen.”
Despite Melly’s predicament, Murda believes “he’s supposed to get out” and spoke with conviction when he said, “Free Melly.” However, he refused to say whether he believed Melly was guilty or not. That’s up to a jury to decide.
While Melly awaits trial, check out the “Banana Split” lyric video below and find the beat pack here.
