Nicholas Piantedosi (born November 8, 1984), professionally known as Decap, is an American record producer from

Nashua, New Hampshire Nashua is a city in southern New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 91,322, the second-largest in northern New England after nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, Manchester. Along with Manc ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Decap has worked with and produced for artists such as

Talib Kweli Talib Kweli Greene (; born October 3, 1975) is an American rapper. He earned recognition early on through his collaboration with fellow Brooklyn rapper Mos Def in 1997, when they formed the group Black Star. Kweli's musical career continued with ...

, Joyner Lucas,

Hit-Boy Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr. (born May 21, 1987), better known by his stage name Hit-Boy, is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. In May 2011, he had signed a two-year deal with Kanye West's GOOD Music production branch. ...

, Locksmith,

Zion I Zion I was an American hip hop project founded by MC and producer Baba Zumbi (real name Stephen Gaines) in Oakland, California. K-Genius and Amp Live were also project members. Career Originally formed as a group, Zion I released the debut s ...

Spose Ryan Michael Peters (born July 1, 1985), better known by the stage name Spose, is an American rapper from Wells, Maine. Early life Peters was born in Portland, Maine. He grew up in Wells, Maine. Although he began rapping in eighth grade, he ...

Watsky George Virden Watsky (born September 15, 1986), better known mononymously as Watsky, is an American rapper, singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, poet, author, and illustrator. Watsky broke out as a rapper with his viral video "Pale ...

Smoke DZA Sean Pompey (born February 8, 1984), better known by his stage name Smoke DZA, is an American rapper and songwriter. Biography 1984–2007: Early life and career beginnings Smoke DZA was born February 8, 1984 at Harlem Hospital in New York ...

, J-Essential and many more. In 2013, Decap released his full length debut instrumental album, ''Omni Love''.

Early life

Nicholas Piantedosi was born in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...

and relocated to

as a young child. As early as Junior High School, Decap was fascinated with music and began to study the art of producing. In 1995, after purchasing

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...

“Doggystyle” album, Decap was fully committed to making his presence felt in hip-hop. Decap began to collect and study the genre and drew inspiration from hip-hop pioneers such as

J Dilla J, or j, is the tenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is ''jay'' (pronounced ), with a now-uncommon varia ...

Dj Premier Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He is considered one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. He was half of the hip hop duo ...

Pete Rock Peter O. Phillips (born June 21, 1970), better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapping, rapper. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongs ...

, and

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip

. Decap began rapping and started a 9 member rap group named, “Young Tribe.” Inspired by marginal success and wanting original material for Young Tribe, Decap bought his first drum machine and began to record beats and instrumentals.

Music career

In 2007, Decap moved to

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to pursue his career in music. In January 2013, Decap relocated to

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and began work on his solo album, “Omni Love”. Decap produced and mixed several tracks on the

album, “

Gravitas ''Gravitas'' () was one of the ancient Roman virtues that denoted "seriousness". It is also translated variously as weight, dignity, and importance and connotes restraint and moral rigor. It also conveys a sense of responsibility and commitment ...

”. In June 2015, Decap released the single, “Feeling”, which reached 550,000 streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

and led to a collaborative performance video with

Ableton Ableton AG is a German music software company that produces and distributes the production and performance program Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments and sample libraries, as well as their own hardware controller Ableton Push. ...

. Also in 2015, Decap produced several tracks on the

album, “Why Am I So Happy” which peaked at number 1 on

Billboard charts The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in '' Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

. In July 2016, Decap produced a non-album single alongside Teeko (producer) THRPY (producer) and AzizTheShake (rapper). The song, titled "Hot Box", charted at #6 on

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 advertise ...

, and #6 on

USA Viral 50 Charts. Also In 2016, Decap founded the label/collective "Future Knock". Beyond a label, Decap considers "Future Knock" a new subgenre with its own signature sound. Decap also curates a bi-weekly “Future Knock” podcast promoting up-and-coming artist and producers. Decap released his Drums That Knock downloadable sound kit series (volumes 1-10) for electronic producers, which received 180,000 downloads and charted at #1 on Splice for the month of December 2016. In 2017, Decap produced ‘The Calling” and “Sanity” off of Locksmith album, “Olive Branch” and produced the first single, “Ultrasound” off of the

Joyner Lucas Gary Maurice "Joyner" Lucas Jr. (born August 17, 1988) is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. Lucas first received widespread exposure and critical acclaim after the release of his single "Ross Capicchioni" in 2015. In June 2017, he relea ...

album, “ (508) 507-2209”. In April 2017, Decap produced the single “In The Bay” by

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

Fr artist Ted Park.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Production discography

Singles produced

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Decap 1984 births Living people American hip hop record producers Musicians from Massachusetts Musicians from San Francisco Record producers from California