N
asty Beatmakers, an Orlando, Florida-based production team who are steadily gaining credibility in the industry, are made up of two brothers. They both bring an equal and unique aspect of making music to create the perfect two sides of a coin. There’s LVM (right) and DJ Nasty (left), brothers who have both created careers in music. LVM is a musical genius who has toured across the world with artists like the Backstreet Boys and LFO, playing guitar. His experience in the art of live acoustics has helped lend a great diversity to Nasty Beatmakers’ personal sound. LVM is also the silent one, the one who only speaks when something important needs to be said. Even though he’s laid-back and non-descript, he’s been in the industry for a minute and has been involved with album sales in excess of ten million.
THE HIT LIST Ludacris f/ 8Ball & MJG Chicken & Beer “Chicken & Beer” “Hard Times” Disturbing Tha Peace The Gold Grain “Smoking Dro” Smilez & Southstar Crash the Party “Tell Me”
right time, and thus began Nasty Beatmakers. LVM, who is responsible for playing live instruments for their tracks, began using his free time to developing tracks on a regular basis. Through his club nights and radio show, Nasty had access to artists and was able to play his beats for them. Their tracks caught the ear of respected networking guru Chaka Zulu, whose Ebony Son Management team is responsible for the careers of artists like Ludacris, DTP, and David Banner. With Chaka co-signing, Nasty Beatmakers were official. The duo found themselves laying down tracks for Orlando’s own Smilez & Southstar, Fat Joe, Bounty Killer, Ludacris and the entire DTP crew, and Camron.
As “new” producers to the game, laying tracks down for platinum and multi-platinum artists was phenomenal. LVM and Nasty can only call their situation “a blessing.” Many of their tracks have also been singles, so the exposure is even greater. Their sound is live, energetic, and reaching Bone Thugs N Harmony beyond the bounds of “hip-hop.” Their artistic ideas go Thug Mentality 1999 “Thug Alwayz” far beyond one genre. Their tracks can compete with the Just Blazes and the Kanye Wests, so Nasty Beatmakers Fat Joe f/ Xzibit & Prospect seem to have a promising future in the production game. Jealous Ones Still Envy And it doesn’t stop there. Now, as well as producing tracks “The Wild Life” for many of the big names in the business, Nasty himself is getting ready to raise the bar. He plans to begin developCam’Ron ing his own artists. Slowly but surely, the Nasty BeatmakPurple Haze ers are working their way onto everybody’s checklist for “Long Time Coming” production. They might not be the most visible faces in Pitbull f/ Lil Jon the game, but they certainly deserve to be. Rest assured “That’s Nasty” Nasty Beatmakers was formed a couple years ago, when that you’ll be bumping at least one of their tracks in your DJ Nasty did some production work on the side for smaller system this summer. The combination of live instruments, projects. After seeing the response from the artists he networking skills, and knowing what people want to hear was working with, he reached out to his brother, who was off tour at the in the club and on the radio; these are the elements that have blended time. Both heads came together to put people in the right places at the together to make Nasty Beatmakers a success. On the flipside, there’s LVM’s brother, DJ Nasty, who is known all throughout Florida as one of the top DJs in the state. DJ Nasty took a different musical route than his brother, exploring what two turntables could do to crowds of people. Along with his DJ partner Prostyle, Nasty has become closely tied to the hip-hop industry as one of Orlando’s key mixers. He was chosen to join Funkmaster Flex’s elite DJ crew, Big Dawg Pitbulls. Along with his nightly gig on Orlando’s 102 Jamz and DJing the hottest parties in the city, Nasty & Prostyle have locked down the ears of Orlando hip-hop listeners. With this combination, it’s easy to see why Nasty Beatmakers have been able to produce tracks for some of the hottest artists in the game.
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OZONE MAGAZINE JUNE 2004
Bounty Killer The Art of War “War Lady”