“That’s what I thought you said. Now let me offer this as a rebuttal...” Those words, spoken by SpongeBob Squarepants, are Swedish producer Izak’s producer tag and the first thing the listener hears when YBN Nahmir’s breakthrough “Rubbin’ Off the Paint” plays. Izak’s instrumental, categorized as a “type beat,” imitates the airy sound producer Pi’erre Bourne made his calling card on songs like Playboi Carti’s “Magnolia.” “Rubbin’ Off the Paint” put Nahmir and Izak on the map, but its success—it peaked at No. 46 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and its video is at 132 million plays on YouTube—also proved that type beats producers are more than just a YouTube community with a few scattered success stories like Menace’s “Panda” beat and Murda Beatz’s ascent from obscure type beats producer to hitmaker for Drake and Migos. As more artists and A&Rs turn to this community for production, type beats producers are changing the hip-hop production marketplace for good.

Twenty-three-year-old Guadeloupe-bred producer CashMoneyAp was first introduced to the concept of “type beats” in 2010. “A Jason Derulo type beat, was the first type beat I ever listened to,” CashMoneyAp says over the phone from Los Angeles. “The video had like 5 million views and I was like, ‘What is this?’ They put the name of the rappers on the video like a title, like it’s an actual song, but it’s just a beat.” This video introduced him to type beats, instrumentals that attempt to replicate the sound of a scene that are labeled to grab the attention of aspiring rappers trying to catch the wave. Eight years after his initial exposure to the type beats community Cash has become one of rap’s most prolific producers and savviest businessmen, producing hits for YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Lil Skies, and Migos, helping to transform this movement, originally rooted in mimicry, into a hip-hop production market that could turn anyone with access to FruityLoops into a star overnight.

The emergence of the type beats community as a legitimate force in rap music was initially met with resistance from veteran producers like 9th Wonder, who, in a since-deleted tweet from 2016, said, “Note to producers; don’t be a ‘type beat’ style producer.” Type beats critics felt the scene was comprised of copycats who merely regurgitated popular sounds and profited from it—“biters.” But rap has always been about bending and breaking rules set by previous generations and coming up with clever means to get your music heard. Labeling a production a “type beat” is simply a marketing ploy to get that beat noticed. Producers use the “type beat” label to attract clicks and purchases from aspiring rappers. When the Chicago drill scene exploded in the early 2010s, the rap world went into a frenzy, attempting to find production with a sound similar to the beats of drill architects DJ L and Young Chop. Inspired by their production early on, CashMoneyAp imitated their production styles before developing his own. “From 2012 to 2015 I was trying to get to rappers from Chicago, like Chief Keef.”

CashMoneyAp started to create music inspired by the sound of Chicago, hoping to fill rappers’ growing demand for beats in that genre. To get their attention, he posted them on SoundClick, a marketplace for beats. “I’d say I was probably making a thousand [dollars] to two thousand a month at most. Being like 16, 17 years old and already making $1,000 to $2,000 a month was good.” He kept his prices low in an effort to establish himself and make his music accessible to artists with small budgets but high potential. Cash also benefited from leasing beats. The concept of leasing beats is built on non-exclusivity; an artist can use the beat and treat it as their own but if they want to ensure that they are the only rapper who can use it and release it they must purchase it outright. “My lease prices started at $20 [USD] but I used Euros in Guadeloupe, so $20 wasn’t as much. I had to increase my price to $30.”