MP3: Clams Casino: "Motivation"
Hip-hop producer Clams Casino-- aka 23-year-old physical therapy student Mike Volpe-- just released his first beats tape for free online. But he's been chopping drums for about 10 years, first for fun and then for an increasingly high-profile group of rappers including web sensation Lil B and Soulja Boy. The recent mixtape highlights his signature style, which combines thick, East Coast snare and bass hits with blurry, almost-new-age-y samples. It's an intoxicating sound that recalls singer-producer How to Dress Well's Xanex'd approach to R&B (though Volpe has never heard HTDW's music).
Currently residing in Nutley, New Jersey, Volpe is the son of a musician father and started playing drums at six. After making beats in his spare time in high school, he started messaging MCs on MySpace in 2007 and simply "sent beats to whomever answered." He's currently interning at a hospital full-time and doesn't have any big rap-producer dreams. "I just do it for a hobby," he told me in a recent phone interview.
Even so, his self-titled tape is now being released on vinyl by experimental label Type (Grouper, J�hann J�hannsson), and he's got more than 200 in-progress instrumentals taking up space on his hard drive. Some of those will end up on another beat tape he plans to release in the coming months.
Click on to read our Q&A with Volpe and listen to more of his music:
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