Apollo Brown & Friends

Originally from Grand Rapids, West Michigan, Apollo Brown is a Detroit-based hip-hop producer. In the tradition of beatmakers like the great J Dilla and Madlib, Brown is a man of many influences, with a sound that owes as much to the yacht rock of Seals & Crofts as it does to classic R&B. He draws from all corners of the music world to create beats that are as musically interesting as they are rhythmically. His extensive discography includes projects with guest appearances, instrumental albums and full collaborations with MCs such as Big Pooh, Che' Noir, Guilty Simpson, Joell Ortiz, Locksmith, O.C., Philmore Greene, Planet Asia, Raheem DeVaughn, Ras Kass, Stalley, Skyzoo and many others. Brown has also participated in the hip-hop groups The Left and Ugly Heroes. Brown began producing beats in his bedroom in 1996, but it wasn't until he moved to Detroit and became part of the hip-hop scene there that he began to make a name for himself with his production skills on his first beat albums.

In 2009, Brown won the Detroit Red Bull Big Tune Championships, and that same year the producer signed with the Mello Music Group. Under the label, Apollo Brown released a body of work that lives up to the legacy of Primo and Pete Rock, J Dilla and Large Professor, Mobb Deep and DJ Muggs, bobbing their heads, shrinking their faces and reviving soul. This is the tradition that Apollo Brown triumphantly upholds, creating beat after beat of an East Coast sound with a Midwest mentality, hard and nasty drums that combine sadness, depression and tenderness. It's fall music, gritty, relatable music, gray-sky music that offers the unvarnished truth. These are not beats that are impersonally emailed from producer to producer across the continent. On every album that bears the Apollo Brown name, the artists create their songs in the same room, exchanging ideas and concepts until the final product is a masterpiece. Everyone from Danny Brown to Chance The Rapper, from Freddie Gibbs to Masta Ace, from Black Milk to Oddisee and Westside Gun, has shouted over his beats. The explanation for this is pretty simple. If you still have any doubts, all you have to do is press play.