Clams Casino

By creating dreamy, atmospheric beats in his bedroom in New Jersey, producer Clams Casino (real name Michael Volpe) has helped popularise a slower, syrupy, more hypnotic style of hip-hop and crafted backing beats for a new generation of rap stars. Inspired by listening to the likes of Mobb Deep, Cam'ron, The Prodigy and Wu Tang Clan, he started experimenting with samplers when he was 14 and later began sending his instrumentals to his favourite artists through MySpace. He was still a college student studying Physical Therapy when Lil B took an interest in his experimental style, and the California rapper's use of his work on the track I'm God made other artists sit up and take notice. ASAP Rocky featured extensively on Clams Casino's debut album Live.Love.ASAP in 2011 and Mac Miller, Soulja Boy and The Weeknd also used his work, which the media coined 'cloud rap' to describe the trend for more psychedelic and ethereal sounds within the hip-hop world. He compiled his backing tracks into the albums Instrumentals 1, 2 and 3, and without the vocals and raps they stood out as ambient sound collages and impressed more esoteric critics. He brought back old friends ASAP Rocky, Lil B and Vince Staples to appear on the 2016 album 32 Levels, an album of original material that also featured collaborations with R&B singer Kelela, Joe Newman from Alt-J and Samuel T. Herring from synth-pop act Future Islands. It showed a diversifying of Volpe's sound and officially cemented his rise from bedroom beat-maker to an established, influential young producer.