Beatking

Houston rapper and producer BeatKing made his name in the ’10s with catchy club anthems and songs written in response to viral videos. • As the son of a church pianist, BeatKing was exposed to music at an early age. He picked up the drums as a child. • He made his debut in 2010 with the album Kings of the Club, featuring hits like “Crush” and “Hammer,” both of which made the lower reaches of Billboard’s hip-hop charts. • In the early ’10s, Beatking began releasing songs penned in response to viral videos. For example, a clip showing a bus driver uppercutting a woman yielded “Bus Driver Freestyle.” • The rapper developed a simple methodology: “Wait for stupid s**t to happen, and then freestyle about it.” • BeatKing’s 2020 single “Then Leave” reached the Top 20 of Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and went viral on TikTok, soundtracking more than 1.4 million videos.