TM88’s style kept getting more and more different, pushing barriers and finding new sounds. I mean, dude produced “Codeine Crazy” so you know he’s a GAWD. With appearances on the late great ATL legend Bankroll Fresh’s album Life of a Hot Boy and Future’s massive Monster mixtape, TM solidified his position in the game. If TM88 broke out in 2013, the 808 Mafia honcho established himself as one of the prominent producers in the game in 2014. TM88 also began collaborating with Metro Boomin’ (through Gucci) in 2013 on songs like “Squad Car” off Gucci and Young Thug’s Young Thugger Mane La Flare.Ģ013 was easily TM88’s breakout year, making beats for Gucci Mane and Future, in what would become a renaissance period for ATL hip-hop. TM88’s dark, menacing sound is slowed down and sludged up from his earlier stuff, the producer found his sweet spot, like so many others from ATL, working with Gucci Mane.

In 2013, TM and 808 Mafia began cheffing up for Gucci Mane, with production credits on five projects Gucci released that year. “Lurkin” is fire, but more than anything it shows how TM88 has grown as a producer over the years. The beat itself sounds kind of like Lex Luger lite, which makes sense seeing as Luger was a founding member of 808 Mafia. TM88’s first major beat was on Wacka Flocka’s Triple F Life on a track called “Lurkin”.

Along with Southside, TM88 makes up the helm of 808 Mafia, a production collective that has shaped the sound of ‘New Atlanta’ over the last five years.Ĩ08 Mafia helped transition Atlanta away from the post-crunk era to the current trap sound, arguably the defining genre in American music today.

TM88 is one of these producers at the forefront of the genre, making wild beats. As hip-hop becomes more expansive and diverse, producers, as much as the artists themselves, are pushing the music forward, finding new sounds and directions in an eternal search for the coolest shit out.

Lex luger making a beat