User:Theturtlenecks/sandbox

Spadez, otherwise known as Alexander Martinez, began his musical career playing keyboard during the summer of 2004 while attending middle school in Berkeley, California. One year later, the young beatsmith landed his first collaboration with a local rapper. Connections weren’t easy to come by as a 13 year-old, so Martinez decided to explore Myspace as a tool for reaching out to more established artists. His online networking led to collaborations with successful Bay Area artists The Cataracs, Bobby Brackins, DEV, Zion I and San Quinn.

Martinez continued to reach out to artists via social media, and his persistence paid off when he landed his first major production credit with the Ying Yang Twins in 2008. By 2010, Spadez was working with T.Mills, Jamar Rogers (a top contestant on American Idol at the time) and members of D4L and Pretty Ricky. With the help of another local producer named Nic Nac, he released his debut album a few months later—a compilation of his production titled Hello My Name Is: Spadez.

Due to his already impressive portfolio of production work, Martinez was accepted into NYU’s highly competitive and well-respected Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in Fall of 2010. While attending the Clive Davis Institute, he received mentoring from Swizz Beatz, Ryan Leslie, Rob Thomas, Fatboy Slim, Stargate, and Young Guru, and was taught courses by ?uestlove and Downtown Music CEO/co-founder Josh Deutsch, among others. Before graduating in 2014, Martinez had racked up production credits with Riff Raff, Fatman Scoop, Rocko, J-Kwon, Deniro Farrar, Jessica Ashley, Collin McLoughlin (The Voice), and Oh Honey singer Mitchy Collins. His music has been featured on Complex, The FADER, XXL, VIBE, Stereogum, HotNewHipHop and countless others.