99makaveli (Makenna Edissi) is a Los Angeles-based producer originally from Ontario, Canada. Specializing in making beats for a wide range of genres, from R&B to trap, drill, and dancehall, 99makaveli has worked with artists such as Bipolar Sunshine, Chip, 917 Rackz, Young Devyn, and Numidia.

A Self-Taught Beatmaker

Growing up in a musical family, 99makaveli started learning about music production in their senior year of high school, drawing distinct influence from creators like Murda Beatz and Wondagirl.

“Music has always been a core part of my upbringing,” 99makaveli tells DISCO. “My mom was a hippie, she was super into the Grateful Dead. She’s been to over 250 concerts in her life. My dad was a guitarist, and my brother is actually a touring musician. But I was never looked at in that sense because I grew up playing sports.

“Once I went to university, I hated school. I’d sit in my dorm and I’d skip class. I’d learn how to make beats until I was good. I ended up graduating, but it really did become an escape for me to distract from anything I didn’t want in my life at that point. I just dove into it.”

On The Creative Process

Every creator goes through periods of self-doubt, followed by bursts of inspiration. For 99makaveli, “it goes through waves.” She continues, “That’s the difficult part of anything creative. Even in one day, it’s really up and down. You can feel like, ‘I just had the best idea ever,’ or you can be like, ‘Wow, I can’t make a beat.’”

Within the producer community, that up and down feeling is universal. “If you talk to any producer, it’s really funny,” 99makaveli continues. “Every person has that feeling, where they’re like, “am I really great at what I do?” And then the next second, they’ll flesh out an idea that’s like, “OK. This is why I do what I do.”

Emotional Transference In The Studio

One of the things 99makaveli excels at in the studio is tapping into a range of emotions and putting them to music. Even if she isn’t going through it personally, she’ll flip that internal switch and create a beat and/or melody that draws out a feeling.

“I’m good with emotional, sad things,” she tells DISCO. “When in reality, I’m not going through a heartbreak. [But] you get so invested, emotionally.”

She continues, “For me, every song that I listen to is tied to a particular memory. If I hear that song, I feel like I’m back there. One of my biggest things is being able to create that for somebody else. That’s one of my number one goals: being able to make people feel something when they hear my music, whether there’s lyrics or not.”

Transparency With DISCO

One of 99makaveli’s favorite DISCO features is being able to tell, in real time, who is engaging with her beat packs. “As a producer, we’re left in the dark so often,” she says. “We send out these packs and we don’t hear anything. We don’t even know if they’re open. But if we send a DISCO link, we know when they’ve accessed it, we know if they’ve listened to it. We know when they’ve downloaded it.”

The producer says that just simply having the ability to see which tracks record labels are clicking through does a lot to assuage her anxiety. “There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than sending a pack and just not knowing,” she says, also noting that keeping her beats organized in DISCO allows her to quickly send along any requests without having to dig through her files.

“DISCO just keeps us in the loop,” 99makaveli says. “If I know I have to send a pack to somebody, my ADHD brain will be like, ‘OK this is a pass.’ And then it makes me procrastinate. Then I was like, ‘Wait, it’s all organized already.’ I can just quickly send [packs] when it takes two seconds. That’s when the best music starts coming out, when you’re that comfortable.”

Saving Time In (Or Out Of) The Studio With DISCO

99makaveli knows that time is a precious resource. If she wants to secure a job or get a beat placed, she’s got to be quick when requests come in.

“Artists and management are impatient,” she tells DISCO. “If you take too long, you can miss out on your opportunity to get a beat placed.”

This goes double for when she’s in the studio with artist clients. “If you’re in the studio and it takes too long to pull up a beat, or to make beats, they might not like your workflow if they’re wanting to start right away. If you’re trying to get organized, it’s like you’re fumbling an opportunity. You don’t want to do that.”

Looking (And Sounding) Your Best With DISCO Artist & Album Pages

These days, 99makaveli has been utilizing Pages, which allows users to build great-looking playlists that highlight an artist or release, complete with images, bios, social links, and videos.

“When I have labels message me about sending packs, sending something like [my Page] that’s organized, it’s like a website for yourself,” 99makaveli says. “It’s way more professional than sending a typical beat pack or email or texting. DISCO gives us a place where we can have that already prepared to pitch yourself. My workflow just improved.”

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