WAV, new producer rocking industry with hot beats
Talented young producer WAV is leading the charge of a new generationof young Jamaican-born beat-makers making major moves in urban markets in the USA, and revolutionizing dancehall back home in Jamaica.
The young beat-maker, whose real name is Okino R Thomas, is the man whose beats have driven the rise of Masicka to international stardom with singles such as ‘Rinsing Shot In Head’, ‘Crab Inna Barrel’, ‘Greatness’ and the chart-rider ‘They Don’t Know’ by Masicka.
WAV
“It is always great working with Masicka. He was the first established artiste to voice on my riddims and it provided me with the opportunity to get my work out there,” he said.
He first voiced a song called ‘Hold On Deh’ with Masicka in 2016, followed up by ‘Regardless’, a collaboration with Ishawna, and another collaboration, ‘Fire in the Rain’ featuring Kranium.
“The biggest song I have done with Masicka is ‘They Don’t Know’, that crossed over internationally, getting airplay on urban radio stations, and getting millions of views on Youtube,” he said.
In 2016, WAV built the rhythm behind the hit dancehall compilation, “Cure Pain”, which featured Vybz Kartel’s ‘I’ll Take You There’ (7.4 million views on YouTube), Alkaline – My Side of the Story (9 million views on YouTube), Mavado’s Big League ( 3.9 million views on YouTube) and Masicka’s ‘Everything Mi Want’ (3.4 million views on YouTube).
“Zum (the producer of Cure Pain) had head my artiste, Showtime Damian singing on my riddim, he was the first to voice, and linked me to do the riddim, and he got the artistes on it, and it just took off,” he said.
He has also worked with Kartel on such hit tracks as ‘Unstoppable’, ‘Time’, and ‘Christmas’. And WAV worked briefly with troubled rapper XXXTentacion before he was murdered a month ago.
“I did the remix with Jon FX on a collaboration between Vybz Kartel and XXXTentacion, I don’t know if that will come out now that XXXTentacion is dead. I met him one time, he used to send vocals to me, in all. I did five tracks but he only heard and approved one, so I don’t know if that one will even come out, it is up to his record label,” he said.
Born June 5th, 1993 in the parish capital of Mandeville in Manchester, he attended Mandeville Primary before he migrated to live in Florida. He completed his high school education at Boyd Anderson High in Florida. He began to experiment with beats at the age of 13, and honed his skills to a sharp edge. For a time, he ventured into the corporate world, doing rhythms for TV commercials in 2011. But then, WAV paved the way for a successful career with the release of a debut solo production, a rhythm he called, “Apple Vodka” in summer of 2013, at the age of 19.
In addition to his rhythm compositions for other producers, WAV has worked with UK-based, dancehall artist Showtime Damion, producing majority of the tracks off his 2016 “Live My Life” EP produced by TMG Production including title track, Live My Life on the sizzling compilation. In that year WAV went on to produce a number of singles for the London-based TMG Production upcoming artists Cotterell and Braintear Spookie. WAV also played horns on the ‘Dancehall Bully’ rhythm also featuring Mavado as well as Aidonia, Demarco and Busy Signal to name a few. He has worked with US hip hop artiste OT Genasis and platinum-selling rapper Rick Ross and his label artistes in 2011.
“I am working on some big things this year, so look out for WAV,” he said.
Source: loopjamaica.com
