You may have heard Lil Wayne shouting out his name (“Kane on the beat”) on the Kane Beatz-Produced “We Be Steady Mobbin,” but we doubt you know the whole story behind this Orlando beatmaker. Luckily, OZONE persuaded Kane to step away from Fruity Loops and Pro Tools for a second to tell us how he went from selling beats on Soundclick. com to producing for rap’s biggest names. I was making beats in high school and selling them on Soundclick.com. I started getting a lot of buzz on there. I ended up doing my [publishing] deal with Warner/Chappell and Mike Caren. That happened in like 2006. So, really since 2006, my first placement was [Trick Daddy] “Tuck Your Ice.” That was my first single. It didn’t really go huge, but it was big for me. From there I was just working, building my name, constantly getting placements. I was getting placements every year, just working trying to get singles, and in the process building my name, getting to know people. People spend so much time complaining about wanting to get on, and for me, I didn’t understand music that much. I just knew I was good at making beats. I was just working, man. I sold beats on Soundclick, and the hustle from it, I realized I was getting real good. And then, just the idea of branding myself, just working so hard on Soundclick ‘til I was #1. Then, I was giving beats
away for free for the longest time. At the time, I wasn’t getting crazy money for beats, but the shit was everywhere. At one time on Soundclick, your shit could be all over the country. People everywhere were talking. I didn’t know who [Mike Caren] was. I didn’t know nothing about it. He was like, “I’m Mike Caren,” and he was telling me about [the publishing deal]. I was like, “Cool, that sounds tight.” I didn’t realize how big it was at the time. When he first contacted me I was in high school. I looked him up on the internet, and I was like, “Whoa, that’s crazy.” I told my partners all the things we were about to do, but it actually didn’t happen for a year and a half after that. It took awhile for it to happen. But when it happened, it happened. [Publishing] deals are a good opportunity where you get to work on a lot of projects. Being with a publisher, in a little bit of time, he was able to get my records to a lot of artists. I wouldn’t have been able to do that myself. It really got my sound in a lot of people’s ears fast. ‘Cause sometimes, when you’re a producer or anything new, you gotta be local first, then this person has to hear you, versus me just working, working, working. I was already going straight to album placements. So, it gave me that opportunity. I started working with Wayne, then [we] did “S On My Chest” with Birdman, on Khaled’s album. I did like four [songs] on Chamillionaire’s [album]. After that I worked with Birdman, Flo Rida, and Plies. I did a couple on his second [album].
I was getting album placements fast, but the singles didn’t come fast. “Tuck Your Ice” was my first single. Since then, “We Be Steady Mobbin” is going good. Tity Boi had the song, then Wayne had the song. I’m not exactly positive how it went, but I know they both had the song. I know Wayne kept the record and got Gucci on it. He called me and was like, “We wanna put it out.”It kinda caught on its own. And now everybody’s talking about it, everybody’s playing it. But it wasn’t intended for that. It kinda was a record that just caught. Now, I’m working on a lot of Young Money shit. I just came back from Canada, where I was fucking with Drake. Working on Wayne’s new album. I did some crazy shit with T-Pain. Birdman, he should be dropping soon. Chamillionaire, I just did some crazy shit on his album. Juelz [Santana], they just leaked that record, I don’t know how it leaked. I had a record on [Gorilla] Zoe’s last CD. Some kid leaked the track, so Zoe didn’t want to put it on his album no more. It pissed me off ‘cause it messed up the money for everybody. Now, [leaks are] never going to stop. You can’t do nothing about it, you’ve just got to be as careful as possible. But when it leaks, you just got to make the best of it. When a song leaks, for me, all you can do is push it. Push it to the point where it’s still forced to be on their album. ‘Cause it depends on the intention of the leak is. It’s different now, ‘cause when “Bedrock” leaked, it didn’t kill the record. But it depends on what the artist originally had intended for the song. Now when it leaks, I just use it to blow myself up. //
//Production Credits Trick Daddy “Tuck Your Ice,” Lil Wayne f/Gucci Mane “We Steady Mobbin,” Young Money “Bedrock”
30 // OZONE MAG