Hip Hop Production

I was surprised by how the resilience and self-reliance I learned from Jiu-Jitsu helped me creatively. In late 2020, I challenged myself to make hip-hop instrumentals: a spontaneous hobby that consumes my life to this day. Here I learned to take a piece-by-piece approach towards honing new skills. Beat-making is completely different from playing an instrument. It’s the creation of structured music with infinite sounds, tools, and plugins at your disposal. I remember loading up FL Studio for the first time and feeling paralyzed by the variety of options: “How can anyone make music like this? There are 10 different ways just to lower the volume!” As with Jiu Jitsu, I was thrown into the deep end. I couldn’t learn about music theory, sound selection, drum patterns, mixing, and mastering all at once, so I decided to pick one tool at a time and sharpen it. Each week I’d pick a skill to focus on and make at least one beat a day, every day, no matter what. This approach added a level of intentionality to my learning process. By setting small, realistic goals and consistently achieving them, I improved long-term as a beat-maker. 

I eventually started a business selling my instrumentals and quickly realized that I needed to develop my skills to find customers and market my product. In the Fall of ‘23 I apprenticed under Dansonn, a professional producer and sync licenser, who taught me the basics of beat composition, sound design, artist collaboration, personal branding. He taught me to carve out my own niche in sound and stay true to my creative vision: a principle that extends beyond music production.

From my trip to Tokyo, Summer 2024