Clarence Gaines

Clarence L. Gaines IV was born in Cleveland, Ohio on September 15, 1983. His musical background is compiled with five years of Music Theory and six years of playing the saxophone.
While growing up in Cleveland, education greeted him early in The Music Settlement Preschool and he later continued on to such schools as Joseph Landis, Miles Standish, and Newton D. Baker. Given the opportunity at Newton D. Baker, Clarence took part in the grade school choir. Here he learned at an early age how to extensively use his many talents. Those talents included his voice, the clarinet and the saxophone. While undergoing this extensive training, Clarence was rewarded with solos in musical productions, landed a solo in the opera “Carmen”, was a cast member of the Cleveland Opera Company’s production of the classic opera “Porgy and Bess”, and also a spot in Newton D. Baker’s band. With Clarence’s love of music growing so intensely he later became a member of the 93.1 FM WZAK Youth Choir.
With his talents growing visually, Clarence was then accepted into the Cleveland School of Arts where he later participated in the Jazz band. Clarence graduated high school from University School and is currently attending Ohio University pursuing a BSS concentrating on Music Production/Songwriting. He has already scored six films by Velocity Productions, which include “HipHopBattle.Com: Hip Hop 4 Life”, “HipHopBattle.com: Detroit vs. Cleveland”, “HipHopBattle.com: Hip Hop is a Throwback”, “A Good Day for a Killing”, “Faith”, and “Equilibrium”. In addition to scoring the movie “Hip Hop 4 Life”, Clarence also served as Executive Producer of the movie’s soundtrack. This very movie was also accepted into the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 2001 and the Sundance Film Festival in 2002.
Being a young and gifted producer, Clarence has managed and produced two local rap groups. His vision as a producer is to change the ways of the music industry and to open new doors for the next generation of artists, including himself. In 1999, Clarence wrote, produced and recorded his first solo R&B debut album entitled Black Rhapsody and in July of 2004, he followed up with a self-titled album.
Clarence’s latest projects include the post production of Iyan Anomolie’s album Book of I, original music compositions for dance majors attending Ohio University as well as independent documentaries including “HipHopBattle.com: Detroit vs. Cleveland – The Rematch” and “HipHopBattle.com: New York vs. Detroit” He has also produced and engineered the debut albums for upcoming rap artists Complex, Instru/Mentalz, and the Texas native, L.I.F.E; it is entitled, L.I.F.E: Chapter One.