Sophomore Michael Pratt recently produced four new music beats adding to his large collection.

Pratt has been making hip-hop/rap beats for about three years now, and has developed an interest in beat making aside from his love for music. “My amusement in music gave me the idea to start making beats,” Pratt said. “It started off with me using a simple software but it quickly began to grow on me. It’s now something I do on a regular basis.”

He started making beats during a long term illness, which enabled him to peruse his beat-making because of his free time at home. “I couldn’t go to school for a full month, and since I was so sick it made me super exhausted and I wasn’t able to do the athletic activities that I wanted to do. Even though I felt horrible, it got me more into making beats and that’s when things started taking off.”

His beats generally are the same genre. “I would categorize my music as hip- hop, but I definitely sample a lot of soul and I’m influenced by old school tracks,” he said.

He fixes up many different sounds on his beat making machine, and sometimes spends up to 45 minutes bolstering a beat.

“It requires patience. Sometimes I’ll create a beat that sounds good the night I make it, but then I’ll wake up the next morning, listen to it again, and have a whole different point of view. I usually end up deleting most of my beats,” he said.

Pratt’s instrumentals now have over 40,000 views on YouTube, and he also has over 1,000 fans that follow his updates on Twitter. “It’s really rewarding when my friends and some people I don’t know as well come up to me and give me feedback. I really appreciate everyone that follows my work, but also just love doing it for fun,” he said.