The producer born Michael Volpe emerged at the turn of the decade, producing breakthrough tracks for Lil B, A$AP Rocky and Main Attrakionz, and his lo-fi style – with its moody melodies, faraway vocal samples, and massive, in-the-red drums – came to define the sound known as “cloud rap” and make him an underground star in his own right.
On the brink of his long-awaited debut album, Chris Kelly finds out what kept him so long.Īfter a few quiet years, Clams Casino is returning with his grandest artistic statement yet. But as offers flooded in from rap and pop A-listers alike, the New Jersey native retreated further into the shadows. His lo-fi beats-turned-breakout tracks for Lil B and A$AP Rocky paved the way for two disparate new rap icons and helped forge a fresh sound in the process – so-called cloud rap, which slowed hip-hop into queasy drifts of bass and synth.
In 2012, Michael Volpe seemed to have the world at his feet.
