In December of 2015, a relatively unknown Brooklyn artist by the name of Desiigner exploded on the scene with a smash hit titled “Panda” Panda was such a huge record that in 2016 it was Grammy nominated, and the genius musical mind that is Kanye West used the sample on his album, “The Life Of Pablo”. The thing that stood out on the hit record was its menacing beat. The man behind that beat, is Manchester’s Menace Got Beats a young producer out of the UK.
I was afforded an opportunity to speak with Menace and learn more about the creation of “Panda” and all his future endeavors check it out below.
Tell those who may not know who you are a little about yourself and where you’re from?
My name is Adnan, I’m from Manchester, England born and bred.
What was the day you realized you would pursue a career in producing?
I started music production when I was 13 years old. I used to have a PlayStation portable console that I used as an MP3 player by loading it up with instrumentals I was on kidney dialysis and I used to be bored on what to do in my spare time & was intrigued by how beats were made. So, I downloaded a program called Fruity Loops which I stumbled across. it was then my music career was born
Coming from the UK, who would you say influenced your style as a producer the most?
My influences were Timbaland, Scott Storch and Dr. Dre that got me to start making beats.
Back in 2016, you produced one of the biggest tracks to come out of NYC in a while with Desiigner’s “Panda” what was the process in making that beat?
I did music for non-profit at first but found out that I can generate a decent income by selling beats on a website called Sound Click and the rest was history. Late 2014, Desiigner bought the beat for Panda & one year later his management reached out and wanted to purchase the full exclusive rights. I only learned about Panda when somebody tagged me on Twitter saying “Yo Menace check this guy kill your beat” So I checked and then I realized we have made something special. The views were raking in fast, I had to get my business in order because there was a lot of talks that Desiigner was about to sign a deal with the record which he eventually landed with GOOD Music.
Panda was so huge that Kanye West one of the best producers in hip-hop sampled it for his 2016 album “The Life of Pablo” when you heard it on the album what was your reaction?
I got a phone call by manager one evening saying Kanye was about to wrap up TLOP & wanted to use Panda on his album. The moment when I heard the news I was overwhelmed thinking, I’ve got a Kanye placement! There’s so much I can say about the success of Panda, but unfortunately, I developed kidney failure again ended on Dialysis which caused me extreme limitations to travel. I’ve just recently got the all clear from the doctors to travel & have my treatment in the states.
Panda was such a smash hit, it became Grammy nominated, how was having your breakout beat be nominated for a Grammy open doors in your career?
After Panda, I produced a record (Love 2 The Game) with a huge artist who’s making noise in the UK called Nines on his album called One Foot Out which did big numbers & was charted #1 on the UK charts. In 2018 I produced (Forever) on Blac Youngsta’s debut album 223. This year I’ve got a placement with Skinny From The 9 and Fetty Wap which will be dropping very soon. Me and Skinny have a bunch of records on the way.
Producer tags seem to be all the hype these days, you have a pretty nice tag yourself. How important is a hot tag in separating yourself from other producers?
Producers tags are very important in today’s rap music because there are so many beat makers out there, & you need a tag to stand out.
If you could collaborate on a tape for any artist the same way Metro collaborated with 21 & Future or Pierre collabs with Young Nudy, who would it be & why?
I always wanted to do a tape with Kevin Gates. I can see we can do some really dope work together and I’m a big fan of his work.
Are there any artist or projects in the future that you or working on that maybe you can give us a sneak preview on?
I’m always working and got very big projects that i can’t say much about, but be on the look out!
Lastly, who would you shout out if you could give a shout out to anyone?
Lastly, I want to shout out my manager Cosmo Barron for mentoring me and making sure my business goes smoothly & Kelsey who works at SONY ATV has been helping me tremendously with my works.
Menace Got Beats is definitely a producer who has hit making ability, keep up to date with all he does by following him on Instagram.
