Tennessee-based producer Chance Toon, 21, makes beats, industry connections
Updated: Jun 3, 2020
By Krystal Loritts, Studio M staff //
“I feel like music can be the breakthrough that can impact a lot of people’s lives.”
Chance Toon, 21-year-old producer and Computer Information Systems student at Middle Tennessee State University, comes in with a bright smile despite it being cold and dreary outside.
Chance lives in Shelbyville, Tennessee, where his home studio is located. On his website BeatsbyToon, customers contact him for customized beats and beat packages. He has worked with many local up-and-coming rappers, like Chapo Cody (also in Shelbyville) and Nashville’s KingTaz.
“I was networking and saw (Toon) made beats, so I linked up with him; that same day we made a track called ‘Yola,’” says King Taz. Taz has started his own rap company, Dirt Made Empire, and is working with Toon on a new mixtape.
Chance Toon also puts his mixes on YouTube and Soundcloud.
“Most of the stuff I put on YouTube really isn’t my favorite work,” he admits. ”I’d much rather be in the studio with an artist and work around their vocals.” The views on his YouTube videos are each in the 10,000-15,000 range, so he must be doing something right.
Surprisingly, Toon says he took a long time for him to get into producing.
“I don’t think there was anything as a kid that made me want to do music,” he says. “But what really influenced (doing music) was about two summers ago.” He goes on to explain he went to the OVO Fest, a three-day music festival hosted by Drake in Toronto. It was at OVO Fest where Toon not only got to see Kanye West and Drake perform, he was close enough to touch them.
“That was like the craziest experience I’ve ever had, and it influenced a lot into why I make music today,” he says.
Toon’s love for rap and hip-hop shows as he speaks about the art and mechanics of it as well as the artists. Although Kanye is Toon’s favorite rapper, he brings up Lil Uzi Vert as having the best production in music, saying she has a clean style to her mixing.
Chance Toon is always looking at the bigger picture, working on a mixtape with several Tennessee artists and pushing out beat packages on his site.
Houston-based rapper 17 year-old Anthony Gracia — or “Antho,” has he best known — stumbled onto Toon’s website, went through his beat samples and wanted to collaborate.
“I contacted Chance by finding his beat online; I thought it was crazy and a good vibe,” Antho says. He adds he’s excited to keep working on the mixtape with Toon and his own new music as he awaits a label offer.
“There are people don’t really care to learn all of the mechanics, but he actually reads the books,” KingTaz says. “I like that he want to learn that s–t.”
Says Toon: “There’s a lot of trial and error (making music), so I use a process of elimination to what sounds good to me.”
Krystal Loritts is a senior at Middle Tennessee State University.
Studio M, a project of the College of Media and Entertainment at MTSU, allows student journalists to be published statewide and nationwide. It’s made possible through grants and donations from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Tennessean and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.
