araabMUZIK

A producer who maneuvers the Akai Music Production Center in real time, Abraham Orellana absorbed the methods of Dr. Dre, Swizz Beatz, and Just Blaze yet distinguishes himself by weaving in loops drawn from glossy trance records. The Providence, Rhode Island native crafts intense rhythms wrapped in sweeping orchestral strings and driven by cyclical piano and synthesizer motifs, fluidly shifting between skeletal and densely textured frameworks. In the second half of the 2000s he entered the Dipset circle, supplying beats for the Diplomats, Duke Da God, Jim Jones, Cam'ron, and Vado, then extended his reach beyond the collective by working with Capone-N-Noreaga on their 2010 release The War Report 2. That same year he put out an all-instrumental mixtape as part of the Instrumental Kings series, and in 2011 he delivered the dance-focused Electronic Dream, which repurposed material from Jam & Spoon, Ian van Dahl, and Kaskade. Over the following seasons additional mixtapes and EPs appeared while productions for 50 Cent, Troy Ave, and Azealia Banks entered circulation. He endured gunshot wounds sustained in separate robbery attempts in 2013 and 2016. Later that year he issued Dream World, his second studio album, and also contributed tracks to Joe Budden’s Rage & the Machine. In spring 2017 he returned with the single “Wanted,” which featured Nevelle Viracocha.