BUILDING THE beat

Dylan Morris

Eight years old was a formative year for Miami Palmetto Senior High senior Dylan Morris. While playing Minecraft, Morris’ friend told him about an app that would teach him how to play piano. From there, a flourishing love of music grew, leading to Morris becoming a seasoned piano player and an established music producer.

“My dad (Morris’ grandfather) got him for Christmas, one year, a keyboard…then he just started playing on it. And it was extraordinary. It wasn’t just like a six-year-old banging on a keyboard, it was classical music. It was really incredible,” Morris’ mother Lisa Morris said.

Throughout his childhood, Dylan taught himself piano to an extremely skilled level and now utilizes his skills to produce music today. He mainly plays classical pieces, which expanded his abilities and taste in music.

During quarantine, Dylanused all his newfound extra time to break into the music industry. He expanded his skills and résumé by working with popular artists, including 42 Dugg, Tory Lanez and MPSH alumni Zzz.

“Quarantine was a great time for me to [become an established producer] because I had so much time on my hands. And there was a big community on Instagram; you get into group chats, you talk to people, you network and you make connections; you send things out to people and eventually something somewhere will land,” Dylan said.

Dylan is able to create and collaborate through means of emails and phone numbers. Through this, he sends beats and anticipates whether or not his beats are used by other artists.

“The best part of the experience for me is hearing the news that I got this huge placement with this big artist,” Dylan said. “I get such an adrenaline rush from that.”

Dylan is a member of the Global Cartel, a collective of creatives who support each other and collaborate. As a collective, the members of Global collaborate with each other for connections to create more music.

“I consider [Global Cartel] like a family,” Dylan said. “We just work together and help each other out… it is more or less a loose group of people who work together.”

Through the encouragement of his friend and fellow music producer, Nate Figueroa, Dylan joined Global Cartel in 2020.

“We (Figeuroa and Dylan) have been working together for three years. It is really good. I like working with him. It is very natural, and we get stuff done. We make a lot of different loops, and everything we make is very different,” Figueroa said.

Dylan gains inspiration from the classical music he grew up playing in his production, creating a distinctive sound and feeling in his work. From classical music, Dylan was able to branch off into different musical categories.

Even though Dylan produces mainly hiphop, he does not shy away from allowing his style to bleed into other genres. Influences of rock and classical music can be heard across his expanding body of work.

“We would take a lot of inspiration from classical music, like a lot of the old piano records and stuff. He is really great on the piano,” Figueroa said. “So he might start off and play some really cool chords— dark, you know, vintage sounding chords, and I will come in with a bunch of different instruments, just to try to replicate that old classical sound.”

As a young producer, Dylan regularly works with people more experienced than him, but this is not necessarily a disadvantage. Dylans’ work ethic from a young age led to the admiration of his work by his peers and his potential as a producer.

“People will be like, ‘oh my God, this [at the time] 16-year-old kid and he is doing all this stuff.’ I think it makes more people want to work [with me],” Dylan said. “...People want to find young talent that they have time to build.”

As an independent music producer, Dylan needs to make sure that he is not taken advantage of. His job does not just entail music; there is a business aspect, too. Dylan has a lawyer look over his contracts to make sure he is getting proper credit and compensation.

“I’m very proud of him. Even if he decided to go in the direction of not pursuing college and doing music, I believe in his abilities,” Lisa said.

Brooke Wilensky Copy Editor

b.wilensky.thepanther@gmail.com

Michael Angee Life Editor

m.angee.thepanther@gmail.com