Once upon a time, poducers would have to figure out a way to get their beats into the hands of rappers without the help of social media. J. Cole once stood outside of Jay-Z's studio with a tape full of beats hoping to land a placement on American Gangster. That wasn't was led to his signing to Roc Nation but it did help in some sort of fashion.
Papimitrou Boi, the first producer signed to Meek Mill's Dreamchasers Records, caught the attention of the Championships rapper through Instagram. He was already making beats that he would release on YouTube but Meek reached out on IG before his team called up Papi to sign him to Dreamchasers. On the latest episode of "Behind The Beat," Papimitrou Boi breaks down the beat behind Meek's "Intro" off of Championships.
From the second you press play on Championships, the first thing that stands out is the sample of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight." Papimoutrou, who also produced the intro to Wins & Losses, revealed that he initially made the beat in 2016. However, while working in the studio with Meek, the rapper told him to bring it back up.
"I actually did this [beat] on spot with Meek because I actually had a previous version in 2016 that we did and it was with the Phil Collins intro sample," he said. "He told me, 'Yo, can you flip that again?' So I said, 'Yeah, let's do it.'"
Papimitrou later detailed that he got some live instrumentation added to the production. He also said that he added the iconic Phil Collins drum-fill on the track to make the sample's origin as obvious as possible.
Peep the latest episode of "Behind The Beat" above and subscribe to HNHH TV for more exclusive content with your favorite artists.