walking upstream…
benny blanco
photo: nickrewind · cc by 3.0 ↗benny blanco
Benjamin Joseph Levin was born in 1988 in Reston, Virginia, where he made hip-hop beats in his bedroom as a kid and talked his way into an apprenticeship with producer Disco D, commuting to New York on weekends to learn the studio. Signed to Dr. Luke's Kasz Money Productions, he became one of the defining pop hitmakers of the 2010s, co-producing Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream,' Kesha's 'TiK ToK,' and Britney Spears's 'Circus,' and co-writing Rihanna's 'Diamonds' before stepping out front with his own singles 'Eastside' and 'Lonely.' His signature is a producer's-ear approach to pop: hip-hop-rooted beat construction, big clean hooks, and a chameleon ability to build a record around whoever is singing on it.
the sound in question
2012
Diamondsbenny blanco
walk the tributaries ↓
Nas1990s · Hip hop / East Coast hip hop
Blanco has said his first serious musical obsession was Nas — he traces getting hooked on music, and on making beats, to hearing Nas as a child and being floored by 'Illmatic' and 'The World Is Yours,' after which he taped songs off the radio and tried to recreate the sounds. His pop records are built by a producer whose instincts were formed on sample-based New York hip-hop: a beat-first, loop-and-drums architecture underneath the singing.
listen: upstream & here
1994
The World Is YoursNas
2018
Eastsidebenny blanco
listen forCue up 'The World Is Yours' and sit with that woozy, looped piano and the knocking boom-bap drums. Then drop into 'Eastside': the way Blanco frames Halsey and Khalid over a spare, looped acoustic figure and a hard, patient beat is that same loop-plus-drums construction, just relocated to radio pop.
Disco D2000s · Ghettotech / Electro / Hip hop
As a teenager Blanco apprenticed under Disco D, commuting from Virginia to New York to learn studio technique and beat-making from him — a hands-on mentor whose own world was ghettotech and hard, club-oriented, synthetic production. That grounding in machine-made, dancefloor-first beats shows up in Blanco's early electro-pop smashes.
listen: upstream & here
2005
The Ski Mask WayDisco D
2010
TiK ToKbenny blanco
listen forDisco D's productions live on hard, programmed drum-machine hits and cold synth stabs built for a club — hear it in the stark beat of 'The Ski Mask Way.' Then put on 'TiK ToK': the four-on-the-floor synth thump, the talk-rapped verses, the whole thing engineered for dancefloor lift, is that same electro-club, beat-first instinct pushed into pop.
Pharrell Williams2000s · R&B / Hip-hop / Funk
Blanco has named Pharrell and The Neptunes among the producers he idolized growing up, telling Variety that mentors like Luke and Max Martin 'paved the way for me' the way 'a Timbaland and a Pharrell' had, and citing the way those producers could shape an entire record. At ear-level, the Neptunes' pop-crossover blueprint — a spare, snapping, syncopated funk built from a few bold, clean sounds with lots of air between them — is a mode Blanco works in.
listen: upstream & here
2003
Frontin'Pharrell Williams
2008
Circusbenny blanco
listen forPlay 'Frontin'' and lock into that clipped, finger-snap-and-Rhodes bounce, all space and swing. Then put on 'Circus': the stomping, minimal, syncopated verse groove leaves the same kind of gap between hits, a handful of hard sounds doing the work instead of a wall of production.