That was at the time I was sending Lil B a bunch of stuff. I had all this other stuff of hers on my hard drive. Then I started to download more of her music to try to use it.

“I tried, and I couldn't do anything with it. “One of my friends had sent me a different song of Imogen’s, and was like, ‘Hey, you should check this out, try to sample it,’” he tells Complex. It became Clams’ most iconic beat, and one that would cause a heap of legal confusion in the coming years.Ĭlams had been toying with the idea of sampling Imogen Heap for some time before Lil B convinced him “I’m God” was worth releasing. On “I’m God,” he takes Imogen Heap’s 2005 “Just For Now” and turns it into a swirling, circular, almost suffocating cacophony of beauty and distortion, with just enough room for Lil B’s infectious flow to shine atop it.

Two years earlier, though, Clams had begun making waves with an equally gargantuan beat provided for Lil B. One of the best examples of this is “Palace,” the opener to A$AP Rocky’s $AP, which served as an introduction to a dominating force in New York.

He’s one of the originators of the cloud rap aesthetic, but his best beats aim for chest-caving enormity rather than ethereal calm. The New Jersey producer, born Michael Volpe, splices anthemic choirs with ambient rumblings, pummeling 808s with delicate melodies, and pop samples with trap arrangements. Clams Casino’s music functions on two levels: He makes beats with enough space for artists to comfortably rap over, while still retaining a melodicism that makes his instrumentals standalone gems.

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