Melina Nguyen
Melina Nguyen
A deep dive into two teenagers who are spearheading the next wave of Billboard-charting hip-hop tracks—despite still being in high school
Credit: Provided by ap.melodies & eqprod
Even though they’re too young to vote or drive a car unsupervised, two teenage producers are already at the head of mainstream rap and hip-hop, with placements on some of the hottest artists’ albums after grinding for years in online communities.
From his resumé and diction, eqprod doesn’t sound like a typical teenager when he starts talking about music.
Born Evan Qin, the 15-year-old producer from Long Island is currently in ninth grade, but his musical career progression adds years to his mental age. He’s best known for his placement on Lil Tecca’s album Dopamine, which gave him his moniker “15-year-old Lil Tecca producer.”
“My biggest memory is the morning of getting that text because it was so random,” eqprod recounted receiving the text from burnymadeit last June on a Discord call. “I was so, so, so surprised because in my head, that was one of the background beats that I made that I just happened to send… I was so shocked, bro. And I was so happy.”
Credit: eqprod
eqprod previously highlighted Discord servers and Telegram groups as part of his success, sharing with KXVI in a YouTube interview that he would make around 10 beats every day after school and would send them out in multiple channels and DMs. He got his start after watching music producers speedrunning beat-making on TikTok. By the time he got his Lil Tecca placement, the teenager had been producing for only two years.
Not only does he have a Billboard-charting single in his portfolio, but eqprod is also the owner of a collective called Paradigm. Founded last October and consisting of around a dozen members, the collective is one of eqprod’s business ventures, with the team getting placements on releases by Glokk40Spaz, Westwood, pryme!, Rsieh Raxan, sixbill, and more. eqprod himself was the executive producer for rising underground star imnotvrycreative’s 2026 album DOGPILE.
The group’s most recent achievement was member MXSSIVH’s credits on “Ran To Atlanta” featuring Future and Molly Santana and “New Bestie” off Drake’s ICEMAN and MAID OF HONOUR, respectively. “Expect way more, going way harder on the content and going way harder on the placements, especially because we’ve really started to break into the mainstream space off of those Drake placements,” eqprod said.
Despite all the accolades, the producer has made sure to credit all the help and peers he’s had along the way. Paradigm’s co-founder, SABB3Y_, was also a co-producer on their breakout placement “On Your Own.” He’s also recently signed with Views Management under a joint venture between Seba Lamour and Owen Smith, who manages prominent viral acts slayr and Yung Fazo.
eqprod has made sure he hasn’t taken his foot off the gas after his major placement, something that a fellow young producer knows all too well.
At just 16 years old, ap.melodies, whose real name is Arham Paul, is still studying for his upcoming exams. But just last month, his double life outside the classroom finally caught up with him in real life. “I’m still kind of shocked because… so many people are messaging me every day, so I have to keep up with that,” he said. “I want to connect with new people that are messaging me… I can’t believe it.”
After Drake’s surprise triple-drop on May 15 at midnight, ap.melodies was suddenly thrust into the limelight on social media with two placements on MAID OF HONOUR and HABIBTI. Influenced by German producer milye, fellow Drake producer Grant Lapointe, Nico Harris, and underground star 808toofly, ap.melodies has been producing for half his life now. After the Drake placements, his classmates and even his principal have approached him at school about the news. His parents, who enjoy playing instruments and singing as a hobby, and his siblings, who didn’t find the same passion for music as their younger brother, have been a steadfast support system for the producer, creatively and mentally.
Credit: ap.melodies
“2025 was the main year I felt like I made some progress because I started posting the [Instagram] Reels and then everyone started seeing the Reels. And then I started making my new ‘connects’ from there, and then last year in May, I got my first Drake song,” ap.melodies said. “And I’m like, yo, I could do this.”
Prior to the Drake placements, ap.melodies had notable credits on a few of PlaqueBoyMax’s singles, which helped him learn how to land placements by finding different artists’ core producers. “You have to connect with the prods and then you have to send every day and then you get the placement. And I basically did the same thing with Drake,” adding that he would join their private Discord servers. He mostly freestyled the networking process, trying to get in touch with people who knew the artist until he finally got the crucial connects.
Now secured with their respective mainstream placements, the two teens have recently collaborated with emerging R&B artist kortani for his latest single “drag u down,” a Mk.gee-inspired track with an orchestral outro produced by Paradigm member syn.jas. kortani has been a longtime friend of eqprod, who produced “LIKE ME!” on his 2025 project moving on. The latter commended the singer’s success, adding that he reconnected with kortani this year after seeing one of his short-form reels.
Then, as he was working on beats for kortani’s upcoming EP, eqprod sent one he made with a loop he got from ap.melodies. A few days later, kortani hopped on the beat and released the finished song on his socials, with BNYX commenting on one of the Instagram Reels and reposting it on his Instagram Story. “I think he found him from the first song kortani posted that blew up, and then he reposted this new song on a Story, which I was like, what the hell? It was crazy,” ap.melodies said, referencing “angel eyez,” which went viral on Instagram and TikTok and quickly racked up a million streams.
Working on “drag u down” is just another move on the chessboard for both producers, who are focused on fleshing out their respective sounds and linking with more artists. eqprod noticed a significant change in his workflow from last year, which was primarily focused on deliberately making beats with the artist in mind.
“Back then, it was more of a placement grind, like you make something every time and then you have somebody in mind for it… and it’s like a type beat farm, kind of. Whereas recently, I think I’ve been doing more of just sitting down and working on one loop, one beat from scratch, and just trying to figure out what my sound is,” he explained. While he still spends a lengthy portion of the day on music—at least five hours—he’ll finish a session with two quality loops and beats each instead of a double-digit slew. eqprod describes his genre as a mix of trap, modern rap, electronic, EDM, and emo rock, aiming to inject that sound into the mainstream.
ap.melodies echoes his sentiment and noted, “I’m definitely trying to do some new stuff, work on new vibes. New vibes always.” Even though he was specifically tasked with making an ‘80s-style intro for “Classic,” he understands the balance of producing for the artist’s style and advocating for his own style. “For ‘Q&A,’ we just sent like ‘summer ratchet vibes’ and I was just using a bunch of references, but I’m trying to implement my sound into their music more.”
eqprod and ap.melodies came up in the same online communities with mutual friends, sending a constant barrage of loops and beats in servers like KXVI and Rio Leyva’s. Being in this de facto cohort helped everyone improve both their production and networking skills as they propped each other up throughout the years. “We were all relatively new to the game,” eqprod recalled. Then, one of their friends, Ryan Langley, was credited on Segway’s remix of ONEFOUR and Nemzzz’s “SPINNIN” in December 2024, which has garnered nearly 100 million streams at the time of writing. “We were all trying new things and reaching out to new people, and we were really combining our networks… It was like trial and error but altogether as a group.”
Credit: ap.melodies
eqprod, ap.melodies, and their friends were swiftly building their strategy for networking, uncovering the gamification aspect of modern music production. In a sense, their camaraderie was one side of the coin, with the other being a rivalry. eqprod described the friendly competitiveness when he was in the same environment as his producer friends. “When ap[.melodies] got those Drake songs, immediately I felt so happy for him because that’s my goat, but then in my head I’m also thinking, oh, I need to work harder then because I’m seeing this guy going crazy… You just want to better yourself as well when you’re in an environment of a bunch of people who are really hungry to make it.”
Some producers to keep an eye on, the teens mentioned, include cleanzprod, who also has a PlaqueBoyMax credit; fss, who’s produced multiple tracks for Rsieh Raxan; karinovvaa, another rising teenage producer; restlessfc, who’s worked with names like kuru, vaxfr, dollywood1, and blxty; and armaggethur, a part of the revival of the SoundCloud “bounce”/pocket subgenre that ap.melodies tapped into earlier in his career.
Growing up in the music industry at a young age has given eqprod and ap.melodies wisdom far beyond their years. When it comes to their approach to networking and collaboration, the emphasis lies on reaching out to connects and fostering their current networks—a valuable piece of advice from two producers who originally got their start in a notoriously lonely online space. “That’s what some people do wrong sometimes,” ap.melodies said about producers who only focus on social media follower count and interaction numbers, “because they don’t realize the amount of connects that they’re getting, which can lead to more opportunities. People should be networking when they’re making content.”
It’s simultaneously putting in the time and effort into producing as well as networking, eqprod said. “You can really tell who has the drive to really make it in the end… you can see it in real time, you could see them going up, and I feel like those are the people who you’re going to consistently be around for all of your time in this industry [in] the next 10 or so years.”
Credit: eqprod
He even admitted that at the time of his Lil Tecca placement, he wasn’t an insane producer—still good but not exceptional. What set him apart from the rest of the other producers was making solid, unique beats that fit artists’ visions and pulling his own weight in terms of networking. With both sides of the equation, eqprod saw major success. Over time, he’s overcome mental blocks like anxiety and dealing with getting ghosted by bigger producers by reminding himself that success was within reach. “When you’re first starting out, you feel like, that placement is impossible, you’re never gonna be able to work with these people for like another three years and then it happens in a couple months.”
“I didn’t know that there’s this many people in the same situation that I was in maybe a year ago,” ap.melodies said when asked about being a teenage producer. “My advice is to have a plan, be strategic, and stay original and be creative.”
When considering his age, eqprod said there are both perks and downsides. “In a sense, people are looking for younger talent in music, in general. But then… when people are looking for studio producers, like people who could be there every day working on this thing… I still have school and the commute and I’m still young as well to be in those settings all the time.” Still, even when people happen to find out his age, he said they are amazed by his music and reach out to collaborate.
The two are fueled by their desire to produce with A-list acts such as Rio Leyva, Don Toliver, Travis Scott, The Kid Laroi, and Julia Wolf. Both are looking forward to in-person studio sessions with other producers and artists—an understandably welcome reprieve after years of networking through Discord channels and Instagram DMs. eqprod shared that he’s even looking for a studio internship. “In person makes everything feel real… you really get to meet these people and understand who they are and just get their overall vibe.”
For now, they are focused on continuing the music grind while dealing with their high school classes. Likewise, their current post-grad plans revolve around production, which they both expect to only become more serious for them from here on out.
“I don’t think there is a point where you should ever get too comfortable,” eqprod finished the call with. “Do your best to maintain that hunger for just wanting to do more or wanting to work on more stuff and just stay proactive.”