Eventually Volpe collected a handful of these beats together on his first Instrumental Mixtape – released under the name Clams Casino – which demonstrated his remarkable and unique aesthetic. Volpe started his career by sending music out online to rappers like Lil B, Main Attrakionz, and Soulja Boy – the former two were little-known outside of California’s Bay Area at the time, while the latter had taken to experimenting with often wildly different styles following the early viral success of his song “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” a few years earlier.

If it doesn’t work out by the fall or something then I’ll look for a physical therapy job.’” “I said, ‘Listen, I’m going to take it as far as I can,’” he explains backstage at Turin’s future-facing Club To Club festival, having just played a set of his own hazy-but-heavy boom-bap productions to the receptive Italian crowd, “‘I see an opportunity – let me see how far I can take it.

Five years later and he’s got production credits for A$AP Rocky, Vince Staples, and FKA twigs under his belt and taken his live show around the world. Back in 2011, Michael Volpe was a physical therapy student interning at a hospital in New Jersey while making rap beats in his spare time – literally in his mum’s basement.

Clams casino artist