Meet the 20-Year-Old Toronto Producer Behind Drake's Grammy-Nominated Diss Track, "Back to Back"

Daxz has produced on 'If You're Reading This It's Too Late,' too.

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Complex Original

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Earlier this month, the 2016 Grammy nominations were announced and while Drake's "Hotline Bling" was never submitted, what was and is now up for a Grammy is "Back to Back," a diss track aimed at Meek Mill. In short, for anyone who's been sleeping under a rock this year, Mill accused Drake of using ghostwriters to which Drake responded with a few choice tracks, one of which was the Daxz-produced diss track.

Daxz, real name Jahmar Carter, is based in Toronto and has been producing for the last two to three years. One day, Noah "40" Shebib started following him on Instagram where Daxz would post snippets of productions he was working on. "I was working on my own thing, and I knew other producers just from being in Toronto," Daxz says. From there, 40 invited him into the studio, and the two started collaborating and working alongside one another. Daxz would submit beats, and 40 would find placement—which is how he ended up as the co-producer of "6 Man" off If You're Reading This It's Too Late. "It was quick," Daxz says. "I basically did all the drums, but the idea for the beat came from him putting two of my beats together as one to get the bounce, and he did the melodies on it and everything." 

Fast forward a few months later and Daxz is heading home from the studio around 6 a.m. A few hours later, he sends a few beats to 40—at the time, Drake had released "Charged Up," "Hotline Bling," and "Right Hand" just one week earlier. This kicked Daxz into full throttle, and he starting firing off new sounds to 40. That day, he sent "Back to Back" around 6 p.m. and got a call from 40 to meet them in the studio later that night around midnight. Daxz says he walked into the studio to hear his beat blasting through the speakers, and he met Drake for the first time in the studio. "They told me they were making the track right there, and within an hour he dropped it on SoundCloud," Daxz says. "It was 5 a.m., and he just dropped it. It all happened in the same day. I felt like I needed to send them beats after seeing all these producers getting looks from 'Charged Up' and 'Hotline Bling.'"

Daxz says he stripped down the beat—"It was a lot more, it was busier"—but everyone knew it was going to be the craziest thing. He says there was a lot of confidence in the room, and Drake was writing it on the spot—in and out of the booth. "Around the time they were finishing up around the track at 4 a.m., I was sitting in the studio like, 'Is this shit really gonna go down right now? Are we just gonna drop this randomly out of nowhere?,'" he says. "I didn't take it in completely until the drive home, and when I got home, the entire Internet was going crazy." 

When the track dropped around 5 a.m. on July 29, 40 was quick to hit Twitter with the credits: produced by Daxz with co-production from 40 and Drake. By the time OVOFest came, Daxz realized how big the song was going to get. After that, Daxz's inbox was filled with people hitting him up for beats and other people asking him to work with them. Then, months later, he found out he was nominated for a Grammy. "I was in the hotel, and I got a Facetime when I got off the elevator telling me I was nominated for a Grammy," he says. "I was like, 'You're talking lies right now.' Then people left and right were congratulating me, and then I knew it was for real."

At only 20 years old, he's spent the last few weeks out on tour with the Weeknd and Travi$ Scott, hoping to get some of his new production on their next projects. But nothing's in place just yet. In the same breath, he mentions wanting to be on Views From the 6, too, but most producers won't know until the project is finished and released. From a quick Google search, Daxz has produced on a Ramriddlz record. While he's not even sure if he wants to go to the Grammys right now, he's been making a number of beats to send out to other artists. He won't disclose who he signed a publishing deal with just yet but has big plans for 2016. "I'm definitely trying to get on Views for sure, we've got a couple ones," he says. "I really like a lot of '80s vibes, melodies, those synths, and I make a lot of my beats faster than most people do, so the tempo's up. When more things drop, people will see I have a different flavor." 

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