I’m finally back in business now,” says Volpe when we ask how he’s doing as he has a few busy months ahead of him – a few months that will probably spent without collaborators in the studio. “I’m good, I was having some major technical difficulties in my studio so the beats were on hold for a few weeks.

The release inadvertently alerted everyone who previously had been oblivious to his biggest productions, such as Lil B’s “I’m God”, Soulja Boy’s “All I Need” and Main Attrakionz’ “Illest Alive”, to the talents of Volpe and allowed them to experience the incredibly moving and deep productions it possessed, or as Clams describes his productions emotional, relaxing, uplifting, atmospheric and phat – five adjectives that all hit the mark more than any other. The young producer from New Jersey confirmed what many had suspected with the release of his “Instrumentals” mixtape back in March of this year, as it firmly planted Volpe as one of the best producers in contemporary hip-hop.

On some of the most important Lil B records there has been one name sat next to the production credits continually: the name of Mike Volpe, who is better known under his moniker Clams Casino. One artist that typifies this phenomenon probably more than anyone else is Lil B, whose use of Twitter and YouTube has created a seemingly unstoppable force, yet without the talent it would not have been maintained from both his side and that of his selected producers.

We owe a lot to the use of the internet and social media sites, which allow the artists to promote and create a platform for their music where other mediums fail to do so. Over the past few years there has been a real surge of beatmakers and emcees who have taken the DIY approach like so many before them, but in a bid to be different they have contributed to some of the most interesting hip-hop we’ve heard for a long time.

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