Louis Den Beat Cypher 12 Spotlight - GiftedMusic

Back from a short hiatus of these joints (dont think we did them for Cypher 11), we're hittin you with a batch of Spotlight blogs in preperation for tomorrow's beat cypher, first up is Gifted Music a dope producer from Birmingham (also the home of Louis Den) who came to our attention back in Beat Cypher 8 (Dec 2009), he blessed the open beats round with some bangers and stayed in touch since then.

Get the low down on him right here.



1) Hey!! Please introduce yourself to everybody; let us know who you are what you do and how long you've been doing it!
Greetings! Gifted's the alias, you can call me GiftedMusic if you like! I'm a 21 year old, Birmingham born & bred Producer/Composer, Songwriter & Engineer. I've been doing this since 6th grade! It became serious about 3-4 years ago, haven't looked back since! (I don't intend to either)

2) Was there a defining moment (event / hearing a record etc) that led you into making beats / becoming a producer?
I'd say that "defining moment", was when i bought, "Kanye West - The College Dropout". It was pretty much a wrap after that! I just knew from then, this is what i want to do for the rest of my life.

3) What was your first peice of equipment and what were those beats like? Any interesting stories about things were doing to begin with / finding your feet?
My first equipment was what nearly everyone started on, a cracked version on FL Studio (LOL). The beats were influenced heavily by UK Garage/Grime, but as i started to learn my way around FL more i learnt about structure and really began making more Hip-Hop/R&B. One of the interesting things about my early producing days is that, i didn't actually know about time signatures/keeping in time or anything. I had no music knowledge at all, it was terrible. I just knew how i wanted it sound and i used to go by the grid patterns on the FL drum sequencer to gauge how it would sound, and after developing familiarity with FL - I learnt what drum loop i was creating just by how it looked. I ultimately was seeing sound.

4) Whats the one bit of advice youd give to anyone starting out today?
Acquire as much musical knowledge as possible, then practise everything you learn. Learn piano theory, study music and then most importantly go and study the greats (not just musical greats, any & every great) - You have to stay inspired. It can't work otherwise!

5) What can heads expect from you at LOUIS DEN BEAT CYPHER?
Eargasms galore! Nah, i just want to play great music to a crowd of great people. I'm all about the energy!

Follow @Gifted_Music on Twitter

Brand new Swiss (So Solid) single produced by Gifted, "Bad Boys". On all major UK radio stations/shows now