BK Beats
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BK Beats

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
EDM Hip Hop

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Cheap Tunes: Deniro Farrar's 'The Patriarch'"

Cheap Tunes is an ongoing series about new music available for free or a small fee. Today’s spin: Deniro Farrar’s The Patriarch.
North Carolina rapper Deniro Farrar is one of the latest artists unrestricted by physical boundaries. The 25-year-old MC spits about the struggles happening in a nearby gutter while using beats from producers who don’t call the Tar Heel state home: Farrar recently teamed up with west coast duo Blue Sky Black Death (who produced two of the best free albums of 2012) for a 7-track EP called Cliff of Death, and his new solo effort, The Patriarch, includes beats from Ryan Hemsworth (who hails from Canada), Keyboard Kid (from Seattle), Friendzone (a duo from the Bay Area), Black Noi$e (Detroit), BK Beats (Albuquerque), and Different Sleep (Chicago).
The Patriarch maintains a cohesive sound despite the fact that the beatmakers who constructed its music are spread out across North America. Most of Farrar’s collaborators offer their own distinct take on the ethereal and resplendent hip-hop sound known as cloud rap, and the MC’s hard, gritty rhymes fit well atop the comforting and sometimes hazy beats: The warped vocal cries on “Good Girl” and what sounds like slightly stuttering samples of bells on “Big Tookie” highlight the raw emotion behind Farrar’s raunchy rhymes and gritty raps. Some of the tracks on The Patriarch sound so lush and dreamlike they could soundtrack a lazy afternoon nap, but Farrar mixes things up with tracks such as the sinister “Snitches,” which includes an unsettling sample of a rapturous choir, and the dark “Kill Your Idol,” which features beats that approximate the sound of 80s video games that have been ever so slightly chopped and screwed. - Forbes.com


"The 5 Best Things We Saw at SXSW Wednesday: Paramore, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Earl's Return"


Paramore / Photo by Rebecca Smeyne
WRITTEN BY
SPIN Staff
March 14 2013, 11:40 AM ET
See all our best live photos from SXSW 2013 here

5. DENIRO FARRAR
119 Club, 9:45 p.m.
Wednesday night's rap show at 119 Club was running so far behind schedule that it's possible that headliner ScHoolboy Q just got off stage as you read this. An early bright spot amongst a sea of anonymous faces was North Carolinian rapper Deniro Farrar, who was commanding and charismatic. Shirtless and sporting a blunt cadence, he shares the same appeal of trap stars like Alley Boy and Plies — which makes it interesting that, on record, he raps mostly over beats from cloud-rap weirdos like Friendzone and Ryan Hemsworth. But his set at SXSW was gruff and uncompromising — he spent the majority of it lashing out at rappers for not actually selling coke. JORDAN SARGENT - Spin.com Spin Staff


"WAKA FLOCKA FLAME – HARD IN THE PAINT (BK BEATS REMIX)"

. - www.whutupdoe.com


"MS MR – “DARK DOO WOP” (BK BEATS REMIX)"

Remember BK Beats’ killer Waka remix from a few weeks back? Well, the Potholes producer is back at it with his rendition of indie pop outfit Ms Mr’s “Dark Doo Wop”. Spanning the infectious vocals with lush synthesizers and rolling hi-hats, BK captures the grim essence of the original piece quite wonderfully.

Luckily, this isn’t where BK’s string of remixes will end. We have many more to look forward to in the coming months, as well as many other notable collaborations and solo projects in the works. Stay tuned for more and give BK Beats’ “Dark Doo Wop” remix a spin below. - PotholesInMyBlog.com


"Rapper Weed (Black Noi$e/BK Beats Remix)"

An official remix of Curren$y's "Rapper Weed," brought to you by Black Noi$e and BK Beats. The track is included on the new "Dubbed Potholes In My Sessions Vol. 1" EP, a collaboration between Closed Sessions and Potholes Music. Thoughts? - HotNewHipHop.com


"Deniro Farrar Is The Truth For Nonbelievers"

Anyone who follows up-and-coming North Carolina artist Deniro Farrar knows he’s no stranger to darkness. The rapper’s recent tapes have all thrived off of Farrar’s ability to balance dark with light in order to paint an incredibly moving picture of himself as an artist. Contrast the Hemsworth-produced “Separate” to “Social Status” (featuring a very promising verse from fellow cult rapper Du Ru Tha King). The two tracks, off of Farrar’s latest The Patriarch II, exemplify the universal tug-of-war between good and evil that Farrar embodies so uniquely and so humanly. Taken as a whole, his other recent releases (Cliff of Death, a collaboration with Seattle producers Blue Sky Black Death, and The Patriarch I) inevitably pull listeners through the dark times and into the light. They leave us with hope.

No so with his latest, “Nonbelievers.” The track is a deeper, more menacing follow-up to the artist’s first collaboration with producers Black Noi$e and BK Beats, The Patriarch’s “Can’t Get Sleep.” Here we see Farrar at his darkest, spitting lines about chasing vodka with whiskey and feeling left out in the cold at church. Perhaps it is just Black Noi$e and BK Beats’ truly incredible production; it always seems to pull the most intense, most thrilling lyricism out of Farrar. Perhaps the artist is truly in a dark, dark place and unable to climb out. At which point we say: Keep ya head up, Deniro. We love you. - http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin


"Deniro Farrar – Nonbelievers (Prod by Black Noi$e & BK Beats )"

Here’s a new loosie from Farrar, produced by Black Noi$e and BK Beats for an upcoming project from Potholes In My Blog. - nahright.com


"Black Noi$e & BK Beats – Nonbelievers f. Deniro Farrar"

This guy Deniro drops more music per week than hours I sleep. This track will land on production duo Black Noi$e and BK Beats’ upcoming EP, Nonbelievers. - www.2dopeboyz.com


"BK Beats interview"

I got to have a candid discussion with Shey Mertz AKA BK Beats about his musical endeavors past, present, and future. Interviewing BK was a blast; he was down-to-earth, honest, and pretty fucking hilarious. Above is a link to “My Only Wonder”, a single off of his upcoming EP that he was kind enough to drop with this interview.
When did you start making your own music?

I got Fruity Loops my Sophomore year of high school and started messing around with it, nothing serious though.

What does the “BK” in BK Beats stand for?

(Laughs) That’s everybody’s favorite question. I used to roll a LOT of blunts when I was a teenager so they would always call me “Blunt King” or “Blunt Kid”, so it came from being a big smoker back in the day.

Back in the day?

(Laughs) Naw it’s still the same thing. Blunts forever man.

Who has been the biggest inspiration to you musically?

My mom, not just musically of course. She would play that cool 90’s shit, always bumping Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blind Melon. She played guitar and always kept music in the house; she was really into different stuff, like Depeche Mode and stuff like that.

When did you get introduced to hip-hop?

I always liked hip-hop as a kid; I can remember watching the old Wu-Tang videos on MTV and buggin out, but it really came to me when my cousin in Chicago started putting me onto Tribe Called Quest and Mobb Deep. We would pump the Hell on Earth instrumental back to back to back to back. This was probably 2001, so I was 11 when I fully got into hip-hop.

Who inspired you to start producing?

J Dilla was the one who really got me into it, R.I.P. Dilla. I got rough draft when it was first re-released in 2007. My mind was blown; I had been making beats for awhile, but the shit I heard on that CD really punched me. Then I started seeing people who could do it all themselves; Prince, who can make a drum machine sound like a whole band. I was definitely big on the whole Detroit scene when I first got into making beats.

There has been a noticeable shift in your style from more traditional beats to newer age beats. What inspired this change?

When people started giving me love for the weirder shit I would make. I always thought that stuff was too weird so I would never put it out, but then the stuff with Greenova and the stuff with Zach G started generating interest, which was getting more trippy and more spacey. Basically just seeing the response. I had been making drum break beats for awhile and the response for that wasn’t there; I don’t think I was getting to the right audience. The people who I wanted to hear my shit was the younger, diverse crowd.

What do you do when you aren’t making beats?

I work and I’m going to school at UNM trying to finish up my undergrad. I’m doing business marketing, so that works with music.



Have you met the artists you work with or is it mainly internet/phone collaborations?

The latter for the most part. I finally met Deniro Farrar though. I was up in New York for you a few weeks and he had some shows booked; we did the KittyPride show which was our live debut. We raged like crazy, dude can party.

What can we expect from your EP?

It’ll be ten songs. The first four are from me and my keyboard and guitar player PBZ. He’s a good child hood friend and we finally got together and started making beats with no real aim or anything. So that’ll be like four joints with some crazy strings, keyboard, and live guitars on em; we went up to Denver and recorded that shit. Deniro jumped on one of them. I got some bonus tracks with emcees going over them. I don’t want to say too much, but I got a couple guests on there. It’ll be on iTunes and bandcamp with my label PotHoles Music.

Do you think advances in Internet technology have been beneficial or detrimental to the music industry?

It’s definitely both. All my music is released for free, so as far as my shit goes it has been hugely beneficial. I’m not too concerned about leaking or pirating. I haven’t met most of the rappers I’ve worked with; Main Attrakionz, Mo Green, Shady Blaze. The Internet let me reach out to those guys and they liked my shit. Technology makes artists way more accessible, which has been awesome. There’s also the marketing side, like building excitement and keeping people informed of what you’re doing. People see me in New York who have read about the Kiddy Pride show and know who I am, shit like that.

How important are music blogs to you personally?

Blogs are huge to me now. I wasn’t as into them about a year or two ago, but I was always on 2dopeboyz to hear all the cool shit. It’s changed now, I’m gunning to get on the big blogs; I find myself happy if somebody mentions my name.

What rappers would you like to work with in the near future?

Danny Brown is up there. My shit isn’t good enough, I want to be better before I try to work with Danny. More shit with Deniro, I would love for that to happen. - Music Miner


"Meet BK Beats, the winner of The Solution Beat Battle & our featured producer for The Solution Showcase #5 on 4/28"

Normally we feature a Colorado producer at The Solution Showcase, but this month we’re making an exception to feature the surprise winner of last month’s Solution Beat Battle, Albuquerque ’s own BK Beats. BK beat out an insanely talented group of producers to take the title and we’re excited to feature him on Saturday, 4/28 on at The Solution Showcase #5, along with Median (NC///Foreign Exchange Music///JAMLA Records), Whygee w/DJ Brik-Abrak, DJ Low Key, Lazy Eyez & more at the Meadowlark (2701 Larimer St). Stay tuned to @DenverSolution for more info, a chance to win free tickets & more. 21+ /// $5 Pre-sales available at Family Affair downtown (plus get 15% your entire purchase when you buy a Solution Showcase ticket) /// $8 at the door. - www.denversolution.com


"MAIN ATTRAKIONZ TEAM UP WITH BK BEATS AND PBZ ON ‘MY ONLY WONDER’"

For those who’ve let the cloud rap phenomenon drift by them, Main Attrakionz are probably the scene’s most committed practitioners.

Across their best records (808s and Dark Grapes) and their more varied solo tapes (see their recent Rhythm & Zone/Tag Champz Bundle tapes), Squadda B and MondreM.A.N have made an art form out of mealy-mouthed mumbling over eerie beats and unlikely sample sources. Even if their technique isn’t exactly scintillating, nobody is doing ennui and introspection quite as effectively as the Oakland pair.

They’re particularly world-weary on new cut ‘My Only Wonder’, produced by BK Beats and PBZ. Juxtaposing adolescent angst (MondreM.A.N: “Stay in school, that’s cool – but what we doing after?”) with ruminations on mortality (Squadda B: “I wonder how much I’m going to make before I die”), the pair put in a suitably disorientating performance. The instrumental, meanwhile, plays like a ersatz, diluted Mobb Deep beat – it’s slight, but Main Attrakionz can work with slight.

The track is taken from the BK Beats and PBZ’s Time Is Of The Essence tape. The ten-track collection comes out of Albuquerque, but its lustrous synth palette and church hall reverb have a distinctly Scandinavian feel. Head over to Bandcamp to grab the EP for free. Main Attrakionz, meanwhile, are set to release new album Bossalinis & Fooliyones in October. - FactMag


"Deniro Farrar f. Boldy James, “Soul Fly” MP3"

Charlotte rapper Deniro Farrar‘s latest single features breezy, angelic production from BK Beats and PBZ, as well as a guest spot from Detroit’s Boldy James. It’s an unexpected pairing, but the two rappers have a nice chemistry. Deniro’s enunciated flow has an anguished desperation, while Boldy’s subtle, laid-back approach adds echoes of deeper purpose to each lyric.

Read more: http://www.thefader.com/2012/07/09/deniro-farrar-f-boldy-james-soul-fly-mp3/#ixzz286L6Ocyh - The Fader


"Main Attrakionz: "My Only Wonder""

"My Only Wonder" is the latest single from Oakland's MondreM.A.N and Squadda B, together rapping as Main Attrakionz . Its rolling beat and rippled synths come courtesy of producers BK Beats and PBZ. You can find the track on the producers' recent EP Time Is Of the Essence, which is available for free download here. It's a mix of beats and tracks featuring guest rappers, and if you dig "Wonder"--which you can hear below--you don't want to sleep on this EP. - PrefixMag.com


"Potholes Music Presents: BK Beats & PBZ’s “Time Is Of The Essence” EP"

You already know the guys at Potholes In My Blog can curate the hell out of some mixes, and they aggregate the motherfuck out some content. Several of my favorite music discoveries have resulted through visiting their portal. “Time Is Of The Essence” is the latest release from the Potholes Music imprint, starring Albuquerque producer BK Beats & his cohort PBZ. The 10 track EP is a great introduction to BK Beats & PBZ, featuring verses from Boldy James, Main Attraktionz & more. Stream & download below: - MostlyJunkFood.com


"Listen: Main Attrakionz "My Only Wonder""

North Oakland’s Main Attrakionz are backed by producers BK Beats and PBZ for the woozy single, “My Only Wonder.” The duo provides soft horns and ominous tones as the two rappers reflect on their troubled past. “My Only Wonder” lives on BK Beats and PBZ’s free EP, Time is of the Essence, which you can download here. - Complex.com


"BK Beats Is Focused On Time. Essentially."

I am a huge fan of BK Beats. Can’t lie about that. No reason I should either, and no reason you shouldn’t understand why you don’t have to lie about that either. On his latest release “Time Is Of The Essence” he teams up with his homie PBZ who is a rather talented guitar player. Together they’ve created a roughly 25 minute journey into the sounds of perpetual chill, but also into the possibilities of music today. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who are using live instrumentation to accentuate their beats, but BK is unique for his.

This isn’t about adding to his beats, it’s about building with someone else. This is a freshly re-imagined interpretation of the concept of a band. And unlike a lot of folks who tend to tread rather stalely through such potentiated territories, BK and PBZ have cranked out something where the concept doesn’t get in the way of the music. Joined by a short list of rappers that includes Oakland legend Shady Blaze, and the greatest duo ever Main Attrakionz there’s a whole lot of essential time on this one. - Mishka NYC Bloglin


"POTHOLES MUSIC RELEASES BK BEATS & PBZ’S ‘TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE’ EP"

September is a big month for us at Potholes Music and it rolls on with another strong release from our roster. This time, it’s from Albuquerque, N.M.-based producer BK Beats and his close friend/frequent collaborator PBZ. Together, they have crafted a cohesive, 10-track release in the Time Is Of The Essence EP. In addition to showcasing their ever-evolving talents as producers—particularly on cloud-rap jam “HOME” and vibrant opener “Carlton Dance”—the project features guest vocals from some choices MCs.

On “Soul Fly”, which rides out on its own, you’ll hear a collage of rhymes from Charlotte, N.C.’s Deniro Farrar, Detroit’s Boldy James, and Oakland’s Shady Blaze. Together, they bring complementary and rugged verses across BK and PBZ’s trunk-rattlin’, guitar-laden canvas. Elsewhere, Bay Area rap duo Main Attrakionz keep it languid and introspective on the ethereal “My Only Wonder”. - Potholes In My Blog


Discography

Still working on that hot first release.

Photos

Bio

Called by many “BK Beats”, Shey Mertz is a 22-year-old producer and DJ. He was born, raised and still resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He’s been producing music and DJ’ing professionally for the past five years, while being a full time student at the University of New Mexico majoring in Business Marketing. His specialties are instrumental Hip Hop, Bass, Cloudrap and Electronic music, but he is always eager to branch into other genres and certainly does so. Being proficient in a variety of musical instruments as well doesn’t hurt either, such as the guitar, drums, bass and keys. BK is now signed to Potholes In My Blog's new label imprint, 'Potholes Music' and wasted no time releasing music. His first EP 'Time Is Of The Essence' was praised heavily by blogs such as Fader, Complex, Spin, Prefix and more for its raw blend of Hip Hop, Cloudrap and live instrumentation, much of which was recorded at Denver CO’s legendary Side 3 Studios.
BK Beats has contributed production to artists such as, Metro Zu, Main Attrakionz, Haleek Maul, Deniro Farrar, Louie Knuxx, World's Fair, ZelooperZ (of Bruiser Bridgade), Shady Blaze, Squadda B, Boldy James, Black Zheep, Moe Green, Fat Ray, Ro Spit, Cambatta and more. He has done remixes for artists such as Curren$y, MS Mr and Waka Flocka Flame. He has also leant his production efforts to indie labels such as Closed Sessions (Chicago) and Mishka (New York). Being fully engaged in this passion, it’s not hard to see the immense quality in his work.

He is currently finishing his first album, a collaborative effort with Detroit producer and friend, Black Noi$e (who has worked with Worlds Fair, Death Grips and Bruiser Brigade) to be released by Potholes Music this upcoming fall.
BK Beats has Dj'd and performed in cities such as his hometown of Albuquerque, Austin (at last years SXSW as Deniro Farrar's official DJ), Denver, New York City alongside Deniro Farrar on multiple tour dates. He has opened for Kitty Pryde, Exile, The Pharcyde, Druid Cloak, D33J, Lushlife, Grown Folk, Schoolboy Q, Kendrick Lamar, and many others.

As official DJ and opener for Deniro Farrar at SXSW 2013, Spin magazine published an article describing their live set as "The 5 Best Things We Saw at SXSW" listed alongside with major label artists, Paramore, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Earl Sweatshirt. They also performed at an official SXSW showcase, as well as showcases for the likes of, The Source Magazine, XXL, 2dopeboyz and TDE.
Shey 'BK Beats' Mertz’s work has since been praised by a plethora of publications such as PotholesInMyBlog, MTVHive, Complex, XXL, Forbes, Spin, Pitchfork, Fader, FactMag, Impose, Nahright, 2dopeboyz, Mishka, HotNewHipHop and Prefix to name a few.
With his production and DJing BK Beats continues to blur genres with his atmospheric, dreamy and often melodic blend of trap, hip-hop, grime, bass and electronic music.

BK Beats recently took over the monthly mixes over at PotholesInMyBlog.com's #potholespodcast