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The apex of this sound was realized in Clams Casino’s only major label release, 32 Levels. Following the success of $AP, Clams Casino went from sending unanswered emails into the ether to fielding requests from Mac Miller, The Weeknd, FKA twigs, and Vince Staples to work. The emerging genre grabbed ahold and firmly steered the musical direction of the 2010s every rapper wanted a beat that played like it was enshrouded in a thick fog of Purple Kush and unfathomable depression. Together, the two would create five tracks for $AP, A$AP Rocky’s 2011 mixtape that pushed the cloud rap sound to the forefront of hip hop.

A murky new style was born dubbed “cloud rap,” Clams Casino’s beats of this time were permeated by classic coastal hip hop, moody lo-fi textures, and the endlessly branching growth of Internet culture.Ī young rapper from New York took note of the ghostly aura around Clams Casino’s output, rapping over the hypnotic instrumentals before the producer ever reached out to collaborate.

Samples of Imogen Heap and Adele were warped and woven into the fabric of tracks like “I’m God” and “Realist Alive,” muddled by textural ephemera and zany flows from the Based God. Eventually, lightning struck with the most inscrutable seer of the skinny jeans era, Lil B. The cloud rap pioneer born Michael Volpe recounts his early career hustle where he would send “20 beats to every email I had,” pulling contact information off artists’ MySpace pages in the hopes a placement might land. Soft-spoken and unassuming, Clams Casino ruminates on the song he’s had stuck in his head-the Lin-Manuel Miranda-penned Disney hit, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” is “the number one right now at our house.” One might not immediately imagine one of the most influential producers in hip hop as a dad driving on the New Jersey turnpike to the Encanto soundtrack, but the family man’s humble demeanor and passion for his craft belie his notoriety as a defining beatmaker of a generation.

Staley Sharples is a talented DJ and a generous tipper. Please support our efforts to give you the best writing about the world’s best music by subscribing to Passion of the Weiss on Patreon. Photo courtesy of Clams Casino on Instagram

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