Julian Martrel Mason (born March 17, 1992), better known under the pseudonym LilJuMadeDaBeat, is an American record producer and songwriter, most known for his work with

2 Chainz Tauheed K. Epps (born September 12, 1977), known professionally as 2 Chainz (formerly Tity Boi), is an American rapper and actor. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip-hop duo Playaz Ci ...

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. With a career spanning over three decades, she has established herself as one of the most Cultural impact of Beyoncé, ...

and

Megan Thee Stallion Megan Jovon Ruth Pete (born February 15, 1995), known professionally as Megan Thee Stallion, is an American rapper and singer-songwriter. Megan initially gained recognition when videos of her freestyling began to circulate widely on social me ...

. Mason has co-written and/or produced hits " Big Ole Freak", " Cash Shit", "

Captain Hook Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play ''Peter and Wendy, Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' and its various adaptations, in which he is Peter Pan's archenemy. The character is a pirate captain of the br ...

", "

Body Body may refer to: In science * Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space * Body (biology), the physical material of an organism * Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anim ...

", " Megan's Piano", and " Thot Shit" among others.

Early life

Born in DeSoto, a smaller suburb of Dallas, Mason's love of music can be traced back to exposure to his parents' record collection. A friend introduced him to a demo version of music production software

FL Studio FL Studio (known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. It features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. It is available in four different ...

in grade ten, and he began creating productions. He subsequently joined his DeSoto High School band as a percussionist, graduating in the top 10 percent of his class, and attended

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

for a period after being accepted into their architecture program.

Career

2013–2016: Music industry beginnings and Gucci Mane

In 2013, three years after graduating high school, and encountering some academic trouble in college, Mason dropped out and remained in Houston. Wanting to realize his dream of making music instead of architecture, Mason's past experimentation with FL Studio was met with success, as Atlanta rapper

Gucci Mane Radric Delantic Davis (born February 12, 1980), known professionally as Gucci Mane, is an American rapper. He is credited, along with fellow Atlanta-based rappers T.I. and Jeezy, with pioneering the hip hop subgenre trap music for mainstream a ...

utilized one of his productions to create "With My Pistol", later placed on his 2013 mixtape ''World War 3, Vol. 3: Gas''. Discussions began for Gucci Mane to sign Mason as a producer to his label, but legal trouble for the rapper ended these discussions, and Mason continued to work behind the scenes as a freelance music producer for another five years.

2017–2024: Megan Thee Stallion, 1501 Entertainment, and ''Renaissance''

In 2017, Mason was contracted by label 1501 Entertainment to become their in-house producer, working with potential signee Megan Pete, then an up-and-coming rapper from Houston. The first song they created together was “Tina Montana", which would become the first track made for her breakout 2018 EP ''

Tina Snow ''Tina Snow'' is the second extended play by American rapper Megan Thee Stallion. It was released on June 8, 2018, by 1501 Certified Entertainment and 300 Entertainment. It features the single " Big Ole Freak", her first entry on the US ''Billb ...

''. Coupled with breakout single " Big Ole Freak", her career began to take off, and Mason was signed to a publishing deal with

Sony Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing LLC (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is an American music publisher. Responsible for publishing the largest quantity of music, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021, it is part of Sony ...

. Mason has since written and produced on top-10

projects ''

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'' (2019) ''

Suga Min Yoon-gi (; born March 9, 1993), known professionally by his stage names Suga (; stylized in all caps) and Agust D, is a South Korean rapper, songwriter and record producer. He debuted as a member of the South Korean boy band BTS in June ...

'' (2020), '' Good News'' (2020), '' Something for Thee Hotties'' (2021), '' Traumazine'' (2022), and ''

Megan Megan is a Welsh feminine given name, originally a diminutive form of Margaret. Margaret is from the Greek μαργαρίτης (''margarítēs''), Latin ''margarīta'', "pearl". Megan is one of the most popular Welsh-language names for women in ...

'' (2024), recently reaching number one on the ''

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 ...

'' Rap Producers chart. Mason next worked with fellow Houstonian

, who would use one of his production loops to complete the first 36 seconds of "Thique", a record from her 2022 album ''

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

'' that was initially created almost a decade earlier from a skeleton produced by rapper-producer

Hit-Boy Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr. (born May 21, 1987), known professionally as Hit-Boy, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He first signed with fellow producer Polow da Don in 2007 as in-house production staff for his l ...

. In 2024, Mason co-composed and co-produced "

Hiss Hiss or Hissing may refer to: * Hiss (electromagnetic), a wave generated in the plasma of the Earth's ionosphere or magnetosphere * Hiss (surname) * ''Hissing'' (manhwa), a Korean manhwa series by Kang EunYoung * Noise (electronics) or electro ...

" from Megan Thee Stallion's self-titled third studio album, later debuting at number one on the

Billboard 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), ...

and

Global 200 The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or w ...

charts, and top five on various international charts.

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 ...

Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...

, 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 ...

Awards and nominations

Notes

:A. Winning producers in this category with less than a 50% album contribution are awarded with a Winner's Certificate.

References

{{reflist Living people 1992 births Songwriters from Texas African-American songwriters Record producers from Texas African-American record producers American hip-hop record producers People from DeSoto, Texas