Cloud Control is a collaboration between the Nashville Scene and music news, events and promotions platform 2 L’s on a Cloud.
Nashville’s hip-hop scene has taken a distinct silhouette over the past few years, and it has become progressively harder to ignore the talent thriving in the city. While on one side you have the innate musicality of up-and-coming artists and songwriters, we now also have a commanding lineup of producers with unwavering work ethics who are ready to magnify the city’s talent.
One of the top producers who has bloomed out of Nashville is Bandplay, best known for his work with Paper Route Empire, the collective headed by luminary Memphis rapper Young Dolph. Bandplay’s incomparable sound — with memorable melodies and bass-heavy beats — has helped him navigate the music industry. It earned him a gold certification plaque for Dolph’s hit single “Major.” It shapes the 20 tracks Bandplay produced or co-produced on Dolph and Key Glock’s collaborative project Dum and Dummer, and it’s landed him placements with many other notable artists.
Growing up in Columbia, Tenn., Krishon “Bandplay” Gaines knew at an early age that he wanted to pursue music. He had a deep respect for the challenges of becoming a music producer, and he recognized he had limited resources and opportunities in Columbia. Aspiring to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Chris, he began making the 50-minute drive up I-65 to Nashville, where he studied audio engineering, music business and music theory at SAE Institute. Known to most at the time as KG ON THE TRACK, Bandplay built his clientele in both Columbia and Nashville by dishing out beats to artists he met in passing. Strategically implanting himself into the Nashville music scene through engineering, beat battles and studio sessions, Bandplay realized how much of a powerful entity he could be in Music City if he were there full time. He relocated to Nashville with hopes of connecting with artists around the city to continue building his name and brand. One of his first key connections was with well-known rapper Starlito, whom he met in the studio in 2013.
“He picked out, like, 13 of my beats,” Bandplay recalls from a seat in his Nashville studio. “It was natural chemistry from the first time I met him. He would always reach back and reach out. Till this day, we can knock out a whole mixtape in a week.”
Bandplay highlights many Tennessee artists, including Starlito, Trapperman Dale, DStrap and Key Glock, whom he has grown with from his early years. Fast-forward to now, and he has a well-calculated game plan to elevate talented producers and artists around him. Bandplay discusses how he envisioned his label Street Orchestra acting as a way for him to amplify talent both in and around Nashville.
“When I really got serious about producing, I looked at Mike WiLL Made-It and how he had his own artists and production team, and he had his guys going up,” explains Bandplay. “I always wanted to do that. Me, being a producer, getting in position to put other producers on. It’s something I knew I was going to do, but it’s being in position to really be able to do it now. It’s five signed now, but I would love for it to be more — some of everyone that represents different states.”
Street Orchestra’s roster consists of TriplegTy, CLDHRT, Hurricane, DJ Cyreen and Chino, who are all from Nashville. Bandplay quarterbacked for each producer, helping them all land placements with PRE’s Dolph or Key Glock.
“Chino Dollas was the first artist I started sending beats to,” says Bandplay. “He used to rap. Now he’s signed to me as a producer. It’s so crazy how things work out over time.”
Bandplay is more than optimistic when it comes to the growth and development of Nashville’s hip-hop scene. Like many other power players in Nashville, he sees the lack of powerful labels as placing limits on the resources available to Music City’s hip-hop ecosystem.
“I feel like what is lacking is structure,” he says. “When we look at the other major cities with independent labels, it’s structured for independent artists to go to labels to be pushed. I feel like we are lacking the ‘big homie’ factor that other cities have, where you reach back and people go on to be able to do what’s needed to be done for the city. There is so much talent in Nashville, but we have to work much harder than other genres.”
There are many active entities that have taken artists under their wings to tear down the walls that once separated the legendary Music Row from the hip-hop and R&B scenes. BMI executive Shannon Sanders, Nashville Is Not Just Country Music’s Thalia “Muziqueen” Ewing and Mimi McCarley, collectives like Lacman Records and D$O Crew and events like Creatives Day all play pivotal roles in amplifying artists and placing them in a position to elevate their careers.
Bandplay aspires to do his part in uplifting the artists and producers in Nashville, while also seeking to potentially develop a label for artists just as he did with producers. He’s bursting with ideas for conversations with his peers around the city to support indie artists on the come-up. Bandplay also has high hopes of building bridges with rising Memphis talent, noting a good relationship with producer Tay Keith — who’s made beats for Travis Scott and Drake, among many others — and teases the thought of collaborative efforts in the future.
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