Although we’re not sure where producer el. aka Mighty Recordings may hail from, fingerprints of the northeastern U.S. hip-hop sound are all over his beats. Productions from el. fit well behind verses from your favorite rapper, although they’re just as exciting as instrumentals. He’s been making music for at least six years, but most of the knocks in our curated playlist come from the last two.

His music doesn’t mess around with the broad aesthetic of contemporary lo-fi, although the sound itself is indeed low-fidelity. In this way, el. beats can sometimes sound like a stylistic throwback, while still remaining on the cutting edge of contemporary beatmaking. Acapellas appear frequently throughout his catalog, but it doesn’t appear he’s worked with many rappers on original music. Our curated playlist includes some real nice bars from Dave East, and an acapella from Jay-Z and Cam’ron.

These acapella choices combined with the fundamental northeastern style of his beats and some additional context clues (see the sample at the end of “Dynasty”) give us the impression that el. hails from the Big Apple. It appears the vast majority of his music is self-released, although he did drop a few jewels with the Australian “creative agency” St. O’Donnell. In early 2019, look out for a project called Que Mas? from el. releasing on Beatbliotek.

FOLLOW el.: Soundcloud / Instagram / Facebook