Before Mustard would produce hits in all directions like Pure Water, Want Her, Rack City, I’m
Different, Paranoid, Show Me, 2 On, Who Do You Love, Freaky Friday, Boo’d Up, “Up
Down” and “Left, Right!”
Before Mustard would work with the biggest artists in the game like Ella Mai, YG, Ty
Dolla Sign, Drake, Rihanna, Big Sean, The Game and more...
Before he would drop the DJ from his name and just go by Mustard
Before he would help run LA’s music scene for nearly 10 summers and get his own day
in LA on June 19!
Before he would have nearly 400k Twitter followers,
2.2 million on Instagram and on close to 500k subscribers on YouTube at the time of this
recording.
Today, Mustard is responsible for some of the biggest hits of the last decade and has
worked with basically every major artist in the game.
Mustard began DJing at around 12 years old after his Uncle handed the turn tables over
to his nephew at a family get together.
From there, Mustard fell in love with music and never looked back.
But his first big hit wasn’t even meant for the artist who ended up recording to it!
Over on IG Mustard posted after getting two Grammy nominations and enough bread to pay
off his house in full and buy himself his dream car:
I remember having my first kid and not having enough money to pay my car note, let alone
get an apartment, but look at us now!!!
For any up and coming producers out there this is a story your gonna wanna hear...
What's going on guys?
It’s your boy Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Mustard prior to fame,
here for you of course on Before They Were Famous.
Some other recent drops on this channel include Lil GotIt, WizKid & Danny Brown.
We've tackled a few other producers in the past including Mike Will Made It and Metro
Booming but of course there are plenty of others I can cover.
You guys gotta let me know who is next in the comments down below.
Before we start, I’ve got a trivia question for you:
What is Mustard’s favorite condiment?
The answer might surprise you.
Alright, let’s get into this video.
Mustard was born Dijon Isaiah McFarlane on June 5, 1990 in Los Angeles, California to
Jamaican parents.
In a recent IG post about his mom he said: My moms prolly the only person who will kno
I’m in New York or any where but la and call me like you ok I just heard some helicopters
and sirens ? but couldn’t ask for a better mom love you ...
He grew up with an older sister who Mustard credits as being like a second mom to him
when he was young.
It's gotta be nice having two moms cause when Mustard was still young, his father was deported
back to Jamaica.
The two still kept in touch and remained close, but it was his uncle, who became a parental
figure in his life and the man that first introduced him to music.
His uncle was a successful DJ and while spinning a set at a family party one day, he let 12-year-old
Mustard take over the turntables.
At first, it sounds like a great uncle, but then, could he have just been handing his
job off to a young kid because he didn’t feel like DJing the party anymore and wanted
to enjoy himself?
I guess we’ll never know.
But either way, he never returned to that party and left the job in the hands of young
Dijon.
The experienced sparked something in the young 12 year old who was inspired to continue learning
about the craft.
Even before he was DJing, he was going by the name of Mustard, which of course is a
play on his real name.
You gotta imagine kids were making all sorts of jokes and he just decided to run with it.
After that fateful day with his Uncle, he studied DJing
and by the age of 14, Mustard was DJing his high school parties.
He was inspired to move his skillset from just DJing to producing after watching one
of his friends produce beats.
He told HipHopDX in a 2012 interview:
Three years ago, I started watching my friend making beats, and I started watching him.
I’m like, 'Dang, I want to do that.'
So I taught myself everything
I taught myself how to play piano, I taught myself everything to make beats.
After that, he knew he had a talent.
Mustard cites Dr. Dre, Lil John, Kanye and Swizz Beats as some of his early role models,
but he also says that Al Green, Frankie Beverly and James Brown were in rotation when he was
first making music.
Mustard began messing around with making beats and learning how to produce using Reason 5.
But everything changed when he met fellow LA artist YG.
YG became one of the first rappers to ever rap over one of Mustards beats.
But at first, before the two ever met, Mustard actually found YG’s early mixtape and began
mixing his songs into new records.
Then he sent over some mixes to YG and YG loved them.
Mustard became YG’s tour DJ and from there, the two began making music together and crafting
what would later become their signature sound.
Many even credit the two with popularizing “ratchet” music.
The two made their first mixtape together.
Eventually they got into some beef that ended up in a first fight and they even fell out
for a while, but they have made up since and continue to drop hits.
Mustard was also close with LA legend Ty Dolla Sign
and they made a lot of records together.
Before long, the crew’s sound began to make waves around Los Angeles and could be heard
in every club or party in town.
Today, Mustard has more hits than a hockey game.
But one of his biggest songs that broke his sound into the mainstream was “Rack City.”
The song peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became 2x certified platinum.
The connection to Tyga happened through his friend YG.
The beat was originally supposed to go to YG.
Tyga called YG and asked him who made his beats, so YG gave him Mustard’s name.
And YG had the vision and told Mustard that Tyga should have that beat.
So after some hesitation, because of how much he envisioned YG on the song, Mustard sent
Tyga the beat.
Tyga sent back the record a day later, and the two had themselves a hit.
Mustard on da Beat, Hoe!
After that, basically everyone in the rap game wanted Mustard on the beat.
Every rapper was hitting him up to get a beat with his signature sound.
And from there, the hits kept rolling in.
In 2012, he produced “I’m Different” for 2 Chainz and R.I.P. for Jeezy.
In 2013, he produced YG’s biggest songs from his album “My Krazy Life” and signed
a deal with Jay Z’s Roc Nation.
Mustard worked on records with Drake, Rihanna and Jay Z even has some beats…
Although at first he hung up on Jay.
But at the height of all of the success, Mustard was sued by his ex-lawyer and people who were
close to during his come up.
That is
probably the same friend that he referenced in the interview from earlier in this video.
But either way, the lawsuit was settled and it was back to business for Mustard.
In fact, things went to a whole new level.
He was DJing at festivals and had a residency in Vegas.
Today he continues to produce hits and he recently dropped his album Perfect 10, which
features an emotional tribute to Nipsey Hussle.
So it seems like the rest of the producers in the game, need to Ketchup to Mustard….
But when it comes to what he dips his chicken fingers in:
So Mustard likes Ranch!
Shoutout to the kids for asking the real questions.
But as for the rest of the story, well you know it, because this is Before They Were
Famous.