Today’s music scene is full of young artists and producers trying to make it, but Yeoj, a producer from Naples, Florida, has made a habit of separating himself from the crowd. At just 17 years of age, Yeoj has already made connections with some of the biggest influencers in the underground, and his focus on rich, complex sounds has made him one of the most promising young producers around.
Yeoj, whose producer name is an interpolation of his given name, Joey, credits Free Diesel as someone who pushed him to take his music more seriously. “I first started when I was probably 15 or so but… I started taking it seriously [after] Free Diesel found my SoundCloud and told me to start making beats and make a Twitter and all that. We ended up making like 6 or 7 labs and after I heard those I knew I could do something with this.” Free Diesel has worked with some of the biggest names in the underground, including Lucki and Warhol.ss, and is an unusually strong mentor for such a young producer to have in their corner.
Yeoj is still in high school and says he’s “working on getting into college,” but also says he’s noticing a change in his hometown. Naples, which has a population of 26,000 (as of 2015), doesn’t have much of a music scene, which initially made it difficult for Yeoj to form connections. Thanks to the Internet, however, Yeoj has been able to produce and drop tracks with a number of hot artists – he cites upcoming collabs with BigBabyGucci, Austin Skinner, and 1990Bishop – and the other kids from Naples have started to take notice. “I’ve even had friends who’ve come to me to either make them a beat or sell them one and to me that’s crazy.”
What’s really crazy, though, is the level of effort Yeoj puts into his beats. Inspired by artists like Travis Scott and Kanye West, Yeoj has focused from the beginning on making complex and beautiful instrumentals. “When [people] listen to me, they’re getting a high level of quality and a sound that you wouldn’t normally get out of other producers. [I try] to make tracks with artists that I’d personally want to listen to.” For Yeoj, that means incorporating beat switches and putting the listener into a lull one moment and ramping the sound back up the next.
Something else that immediately stands out about Yeoj is the high level of artistic maturity with which he approaches his craft. Not many people his age, or any age, are able to look at the big picture like he does, and that ability will serve him well as he continues to grow. Between that and his incredible work ethic, it’s no wonder he’s one of the hottest young producers on the scene, and we can’t wait to see where he and his rich, melodic beats go next.
