A unique production presence in an over-saturated scene, the MASTERCARDBOYZ founder has been working incredibly hard over the last six months to put his crew on the map.
It’s great to have you on the blog mate. Can you start by telling us a little about yourself, how old are you, where are you from and what inspired you to start making music in the way that you do?
What’s up man, thanks so much for having me. I’m 20 years old and I’m a producer from New York. I started making my own music in January and since then have been dropping pretty consistently. Originally, I actually thought I’d be doing fashion design instead of music, but alas both communities have proven to be just as superficial. My dad put me on rap music as a kid and I discovered hardcore EDM myself so I’d say my music is a fusion of those genres. My brother Sadboygoth discovered me and is the one who got me involved with the deep underground music scene.
MASTERCARDBOYZ are nine members strong, and it seems like each of you bring something really strong to the table. How did you go about recruiting producers for the collective?
MasterCardBoyz is crazy diverse, but we’re all able to create a sound that sounds uniquely ours. Unlike a lot of collectives that exist right now, we are all genuinely friends and most of us know each other in real life. Thus, most of our recruitment has been pretty organic. We spent most of our time as just the original 4 members (me, Cash, Mitch, Jay), but adding more talent was a good move for our sound. Yomontop was the first artist we recruited and since he’s joined he went from doing basic beats to being one of the most talented producers in the group.
MASTERCARDBOYZ Vol. 5 just dropped, it’s a nearly two hour long selection of incredibly diverse beats featuring contributions from each member. How did you guys put together such a monolithic set of tracks?
We typically work for 3-4 weeks on each MCB Volume that we release. All of us are constantly making beats anyway, so it’s not really a tough process to get beats together – which is why the albums tend to always have a crazy amount of tracks on it. Regardless, each volume is entirely different and you can hear us getting better each time. We probably fucked up by putting 47 tracks on the last project but the music is meant for the true fans anyway.
In just over four months, your musical output has been immense. How many beats do you make a day and in one environment is most of your work done?
We drop a shit ton of music, me especially. There was a point at the beginning of the year where I was dropping a full-length mixtape every 2-3 days, and each time I’d feel like the last project was my best yet. On a regular day, I’ll make between 1-4 beats. Despite the quantity at which I release my music, I spend an incredible amount of time on each track. I have to be high to focus on/finish a beat so an environment where weed is present is mandatory. My mind is only capable of making music in the early morning and late night.
Where can people go to purchase your beats and those of your group?
The best and quickest way to buy beats from us is through hitting one of us up on Instagram. Buying beats is the most effective way to support us – thank you to everyone who shops with us.
What are some of your favourite tracks that people have made over your beats?
I honestly have a lot of favorites, and most of them are unreleased, so I’ll give my top 3 choices (no order). Me and FeddiVVS got a hit in the vault called “No Hook” that’s probably going to be on his next album, so I’m hyped about that. We also got a SoEvilBoyz x MCB collaboration tape coming with Xhris2eazy, Acid Souljah, Fivestarquise, and Seepy that I rapped on and produced. Lastly, me and h3artcrush dropped “Check My Face” a few weeks back which is my most popular song.
Where does your aesthetic come from? And why did you choose the name Mastercard?
To describe the aesthetic of my music, I guess I would describe it as bass-boosted, illegally downloaded bootleg EDM music mixed with 2013 Chief Keef. I don’t know if that really helps, but that’s really what it is. Honestly, I don’t really think about the visual aesthetics of what I’m making, I just try to focus on the sound. My feed on Instagram is pretty lame – I just try to make colorful animations so people actually listen to the music. For the name Mastercard, I used to be on some fraud shit so it’s pretty self-explanatory.
Are there any other avenues that you aim to explore in the rest of 2020, be they music or otherwise?
2020 has been a fucked up year but I guess I’m grateful that being in quarantine has allowed me to spend a lot of time creating. As of right now, I have a shit ton of goals, but all of them are music-related. My biggest goal is to create a sound that people recognize as mine right off the bat. Another goal is to make music production my full time job so I don’t have to be a wage slave my whole life. Also I want people to get MasterCardBoyz tattoos.
Do you have any final thoughts or shout outs to give to the people?
Shout out the Gothmann, Lil Kashin Mane, and Fivestarquise (Soiceysorcererboyz), DirtMobb, MCB, Drift Team, EvilPlug, AKVK, etc. Shout out the mixing god Kid Oliver. Shout out Smooks for the incredible artwork and support. Thanks to Sebastian from DEM PASSWORDS and Raised By Internet for letting us perform at y’alls festivals too.
Hopefully this has been an enjoyable interview my friend!
Thanks Chris, shoutout 108Mics, y’all are the best!
Check out MASTERCARDBOYZ Vol. 5 here.
Follow Mastercard2k on Twitter.
– Chris (@108mics)
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