The Canadian producer is churning out chart-topping hits for today's biggest artists. But now, he's about to do it for himself.

Photography by Ryan Shorosky&nbsp;

Fashion by Julia Ehrlich

It&rsquo;s safe to say there&rsquo;s a Murda Beatz song on the radio somewhere right now. I would put money on it. The 24-year-old producer, born Shane Lindstrom in Fort Erie, Ontario, is responsible for monster hits like Drake&rsquo;s recent &ldquo;Nice for What&rdquo;; Migos, Nicki Minaj, and Cardi B&rsquo;s &ldquo;MotorSport&rdquo;; and 2 Chainz &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a Vibe&rdquo; (featuring Ty Dolla $ign, Trey Songz, and Jhen&eacute; Aiko).

He&rsquo;s in the photo studio in Silver Lake, leaning back in his chair in a black tank, a diamond encrusted chain around his neck, saying &ldquo;Murda.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s got the confidence of someone who makes producing #1 hits look as easy as cracking an egg. It&rsquo;s not true, though, he says.&nbsp;&ldquo;Hardest work ethic in the game,&rdquo; he tells me, leaning back even further in the chair to the point where I fear he might slouch out of it onto the floor. &ldquo;I work crazy hours, and I&rsquo;m never satisfied, right? So I&rsquo;m always trying to beat what I do. We&rsquo;re at, what, seven weeks number-one right now with &lsquo;Nice for What.&rsquo; I&rsquo;m always looking at how I can get a bigger record or what I can do better.

"I work crazy hours, and I’m never satisfied."

&ldquo;I&rsquo;m from Canada, so my production style is a mixture of the ambience and sounds of Toronto and the bounce of down South,&rdquo; he tells me. &ldquo;I feel like I have hard-hitting drums from Toronto, and the ambience of the music, and I get the bounce in my drums from down South. The &lsquo;Murder sauce&rsquo; contains a simple kind of melody, or a dark, dark trap melody, or now a sample with just a nice bounce and good drums, you know? I have the hardest drums in the game, so, I&rsquo;ve gotta stamp it as a Murda song.&rdquo;&nbsp;Growing up a Leafs fan in small-town Ontario, across the river from Buffalo, New York, Murda Beatz was exposed to East Coast hip-hop at an early age.&nbsp;&ldquo;My introduction to music was, like, 50 Cent and Wu-Tang,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The first rap video I fell in love with was &lsquo;Hate It or Love It&rsquo;&mdash;The Game and 50 Cent. That really made me get into beats. But my introduction to me producing was definitely trap music.&rdquo;

“I want to start break[ing] my own new artists. Sign my own people and stuff. So look out for that.”

In the three years since producing two tracks on Migos&rsquo;s debut album, Yung Rich Nation, Murda Beatz has worked with nearly everyone&mdash;his discography features a veritable who&rsquo;s on top list of names. But there&rsquo;s still a few people he deigns to work with.&nbsp;&ldquo;Everything now is reality,&rdquo; he says when I ask him about his dream collab. &ldquo;We turned dreams into reality, but definitely Beyonc&eacute;, Rihanna, gotta get some stuff with Justin [Bieber] in. And just a bunch of new artists&mdash;I love all the new artists coming up. I want to work with all them, and just start to break my own new artists. Sign my own people and stuff. So look out for that.&rdquo;&nbsp;For now, he&rsquo;s working on his debut album, tentatively titled Keep God First II, a follow-up to the mixtape he released of the same name. That, and he&rsquo;s been mashing buttons.&nbsp;&ldquo;I play a lot of video games,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s my vice, because it distracts me a lot of the time. I was in a [celebrity Fortnite] tournament. I finished 11th. All proceeds went to the charity First Book Canada [an early education organization working with kids in need], so that was good.&rdquo;

Hoping for an exclusive, I ask him what his next hit is going to be.

&ldquo;A lot of the time, you don&rsquo;t know, but there&rsquo;s those rare occasions like when I made the &lsquo;MotorSport&rsquo; beat, I was like, &lsquo;Yo, this beat&rsquo;s fire. I know it&rsquo;s gonna be big,&rsquo;&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And then there&rsquo;s times when I made beats like &lsquo;Portland&rsquo;&mdash;I think I knew it was a dope beat, but I didn&rsquo;t know it could be a hit. So, when me and Quavo made &lsquo;MotorSport,&rsquo; I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;Yo, this is a fire song. I love this song. It&rsquo;s my favorite song.&rsquo; And then when he sent it to me with Cardi B and Nicki Minaj on it, I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;Hey, this is gonna impact the culture like crazy,&rsquo; right? Same with &lsquo;Nice for What.&rsquo; When I made the beat, I was like, &lsquo;Yo, this beat is fire.&rsquo; And then when he did his thing to it, too, we both knew. He told me, &lsquo;Yo, this is a very special record. It&rsquo;s gonna be a huge record.&rsquo; In certain ways, you can tell it&rsquo;s going to be a hit, but a lot of times, you can&rsquo;t tell.&rdquo;

Hair:&nbsp;Vernon Francois

Makeup:&nbsp;Charlotte Prevel

Photo Assistant:&nbsp;Julian Berman

Stylist Assistant:&nbsp;Grace Lynch

Makeup Assistant:&nbsp;Keely Maroney

Production Coordinator:&nbsp;Tim Oliver

Murda Beatz Turns Musical Dreams into Reality

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