“Hey, I’m trabbey, 22 years old and from Germany. I started uploading beats in 2018 and released my first tape on Spotify early 2019. I’m the creator of some of Spotify’s biggest rap beats playlists and have gained more than 25 million streams across all platforms so far.”
Was there a pivotal moment when you decided to follow your path?
“I always loved music as a child and when I was like 12 years old I saw a Martin Garrix video in which he used FL Studio to make his music. I looked it up and wanted to try it myself and eventually I got it for christmas from my dad. After trying out some different EDM inspired music for fun I didn’t touch the programm until I stumbled across a Chuki Beats tutorial on how to make rap beats. I recognized the software and instantly knew that this is something I really want to try out and learn so I spent hours every day watching tutorials and making my first beats. This is how I got into producing beats.”
What drives and inspires you?
“To keep it short: The passion of creating something. I’ve always created content wether it be video edits, graphics designs or music and having that creative output is just something that keeps me going.”
What are you thankful for?
“I’m thankful for my parents, where I was born and how I was raised. Everybody should be if they had a decent childhood. And I’m thankful that people enjoy and appreciate my work and art every single day.”
Do you have a favourite book?
“I typically don’t read a lot of books but I found It’s All In Your Head by Russ pretty inspiring and motivating.”
How does your daily routine look like?
“I try to wake up between 7 and 8 in the morning and then make a cup of coffee. My days aren’t usually very structured but I make a To-Do list the evening for the next day or early in the morning. Mostly I check mails and answer all DMs, then edit beat videos for youtube and upload files to beatstars. The music production itself usually happens in the evening and afternoon but I usually don’t stay up until the middle of the night unless I have a great session with an artist.”
What advice would you give to your younger self following your steps?
“Don’t do anything different. Everything worked out perfectly in my life so far. But an advice for other people is that you can and should focus on your passion. If you want to spend weekends working on this cool hobby that you got, just do it and don’t be afraid that you’re missing out on something. If that truly makes you motivated to spend those late evenings alone in your room it really is something you should follow and try to become successful at it.”
How did you get into curating playlists and what’s the story behind your greatest one?
“A few years ago me and some friends used to do freestyle sessions and I was bored of having to download beats from youtube to have them on the phone at any time so I started looking up instrumentals on Spotify and adding them to a playlist so that I could always play them with the download feature of Spotify Premium. This is how my most successful playlist “Rap Beats & Freestyle Instrumentals” was created (September 2021: 67.200 followers).”
What’s your method for discovering new music?
Since the playlist got so popular I get a lot of submissions so that is already a ton of input to find new gems. Besides that I follow a lot of other producers and always listen to new releases as soon as they’re out.
What makes an artist or song standout?
“Since there are so many producers releasing beats on streaming services now one key thing that will make your music stand out already is good mixing. I get so many submission for beats that are just mixed very poorly and are not meeting my quality standards for my playlists. The rest is just my personal preferences that a lot of people seem to share as well.”
What tips do you have for growing playlists?
“Song selection is the first and most important step when trying to build a big playlist. Some people just add all their own songs in it and don’t figure out why they don’t get new followers. You should have a great variety in there with multiple artists and of course good music. After that you should think of a nice cover art for your playlist and please note that you need the rights to the image you’re using or Spotify may take your playlist down. When you’re done you should find people that would actually listen to the playlist - either by paying for advertisements or by promoting them using your own audience and the ones of your collaborators.”
What should people be ready for in the future?
You can submit music to trabbeys playlists here.