Carter Lang is an American record producer and songwriter. He is best known for his production work on

SZA Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA ( ), is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her diaristic lyrics and genre explorations, she has been credited as a prominent figure in influencing contemporary R& ...

's albums ''Ctrl'' (2017) and ''SOS'' (2022), as well as his contributions to Chicago's burgeoning R&B/Hip-Hop scene. Lang was nominated for several

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

s for his work on releases by

Post Malone Austin Richard Post (born July 4, 1995), known professionally as Post Malone, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. His music blends various genres including hip-hop, Pop music, pop, Contemporary R&B, R&B, Tra ...

Doja Cat Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (born October 21, 1995), known professionally as Doja Cat (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began making and releasing music on SoundCl ...

Lil Nas X Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), better known by his stage name Lil Nas X ( ), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his 2018 country rap single "Old Town Road," the longest-running nu ...

, and

Omar Apollo Omar Apolonio Velasco (born May 20, 1997), known professionally as Omar Apollo, is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. After signing a record deal with Warner Records, his debut album, ''Ivory (Omar Apollo album), Ivory'', was released in ...

, and won his first two Grammys in 2024 and 2025 for his contributions to SZA's projects.

Career

Musical origins

Lang, trained in classical piano and bass guitar, formed soul-influenced band "The O'My's" in 2005 with several friends in Chicago. This would lead to collaborations with local acts including

Chance the Rapper Chancelor Johnathan Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, he released his debut mixtape '' 10 Day'' (2012) during one of his high school suspension ...

Vic Mensa Victor Kwesi Mensah (born June 6, 1993), known professionally as Vic Mensa, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Chicago, he was a member of the regional hip hop groups Kids These Days (band), Kids These Days and Savemoney prior to releasing ...

, and Mick Jenkins.

New Orleans, return to Chicago, and SZA

Lang graduated high school and parted ways with his group, moving from Chicago to

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

to attend the

Loyola University New Orleans Loyola University New Orleans is a Private university, private Jesuit university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the nam ...

music business program, where he was exposed to a diverse soundscape. After graduating from the Loyola College of Music & Media and returning to Chicago four years later, Lang began producing for members of Chicago Hip-Hop collective

Savemoney Savemoney (sometimes stylized as SaveMoney or SAVEMONEY) is a hip hop collective originating in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded by Chicago rapper Vic Mensa. Members * Vic Mensa * Chance the Rapper * Nico Segal * Towkio * Joey Purp * Kami ...

, with whom he grew up. Lang was subsequently introduced to recording artist

in 2015 through a joint studio session with mutual friend Peter CottonTale, Chance The Rapper's music director. After an initial collaboration at SZA's

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

set that year, he became a member of her touring band. Lang is credited as a writer and/or producer on 8 tracks from her 2017 debut album, including hit single "

Love Galore "Love Galore" is a song by American singer SZA featuring American rapper and singer Travis Scott. It was released through Top Dawg Entertainment and RCA Records as the second single from the former's debut studio album, '' Ctrl'', on April 28, 2 ...

" and lead single "

Drew Barrymore Drew Blythe Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress, talk show host, and businesswoman. A member of the Barrymore family of actors, she has received multiple List of awards and nominations received by Drew Barrymore, awards a ...

", recorded alongside several other tracks at his Lake Michigan cabin. Amongst productions for other artists (including "

Sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae. The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds, which are often eaten as a snack food. They are also used in the pr ...

" for

and

Swae Lee Khalif Malik Ibn Shaman Brown (born June 7, 1993), known professionally as Swae Lee, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. Known for his wide vocal range and genre-bending, Lee first saw mainstream recognition as one half of the Mississ ...

), Lang resumed work with SZA, co-producing and co-writing a majority of her 2022 sophomore album ''

SOS SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, originally established for maritime use. In formal notation SOS is written with an overscore line (), to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" a ...

'', including top 10 singles “ Good Days”, “ I Hate U”, “ Nobody Gets Me”, and “

Kill Bill ''Kill Bill: Volume 1'' is a 2003 American martial arts action film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a group of assassins ( Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox and Michael ...

”, which went #1 on five separate ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' charts including the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

, and held the #1 spot for 21 total weeks on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. He would also work with rapper Doja Cat, creating Top 5 single "

Kiss Me More "Kiss Me More" is a song by American rapper and singer Doja Cat featuring American singer SZA from the former's third studio album ''Planet Her'' (2021). It was released on April 9, 2021, as the album's lead single through Kemosabe and RCA Rec ...

" featuring SZA (later winning the

Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance The Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 63rd Grammy Awards category rules, "this categ ...

), as well as promotional single "Okloser" from her deluxe album '' Scarlet 2 Claude''. In 2024, Lang won his first Grammy (for Best Progressive R&B Album) as a main producer on SZA album ''SOS''. In 2025, Lang won his second Grammy Award (in the

Best R&B Song The Grammy Award for Best R&B Song (sometimes known as the R&B Songwriter's Award) has been awarded since 1969. From 1969 to 2000, it was known as the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Song. Beyoncé has won it a record five times, while Ba ...

category) as a writer on SZA's lead single "

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

" from 2024 ''SOS'' reissue ''

Lana Lana may refer to: *Lana (given name) *Francesco Lana de Terzi (1631–1687), Italian Jesuit priest and scientist *Lana Del Rey, American singer-songwriter *Lana Turner, American actress *Lana Rhoades, American former adult film actress * CJ Perr ...

''.

Production and songwriting credits

Credits are courtesy of

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

, Tidal,

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

, and

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Executive-produced/co-written projects

Other songwriting credits / productions

Awards and nominations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Carter Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Grammy Award winners Loyola University New Orleans alumni Record producers from Illinois Songwriters from Illinois American hip-hop record producers Musicians from Chicago