By Katie MacBride, Online Editor-in-Chief 

Actor, chef, firefighter, astronaut, ballerina and teacher are just a few dream jobs that children want to have when they grow up. Most of these dreams are not realistic for many children as they grow up, but this is not the case for junior . His childhood dream, to make music, has already started to become a reality.

Lotas-Sherratt has always had a deep love for music, but a little over two years ago he started to make his own. After being inspired by the rap genre and taking the time to research how big-time producers create hit songs, he started to create his own beats.

“I was listening to rap music and I just fell in love with the musicality of it so, I started making beats,” Lotas-Sherratt said. “I love the music aspect of rap music, so I just wanted to pursue it. I also liked the ways you can become famous and make money off the beats.”

The young music maker creates his beats from the comfort of his home. His set-up consists of Sennheiser headphones and two speakers connected to his computer. He then uses FL Studio to compose the beats. 

“I start off with a loop that another producer sends me and then I create the beat for that loop. I then arrange the whole thing. The beat and the loop create a melody and then I have to ‘drop it’ – and that’s called the range,” Lotas-Sherratt explained.

Lotas-Sherratt didn’t always have producers send him the loop, though. Recently, he was able to obtain a manager by putting his first beats on internet platforms and emailing his music to people in the music industry. Once he got a manager, Lotas-Sherratt started being introduced to rappers.

“I post snippets of beats on Instagram and I was posting on YouTube, but then I stopped because I liked Instagram more. I got my manager, Marc B., when I flooded emails with beats trying to see if he liked them so he would manage me,” Lotas-Sherratt explained. “Then all I did to get with rappers was networking. I used my Instagram ogcutta1 mostly to build my business and reach out to artists.”

The young entrepreneur is also getting paid to make his beats. 

“My manager Marc will set up the road royalties and advances, which is like getting paid up front. So I’ll get paid when a song does drop, like if it’s on an album or something,” Lotas-Sherratt said. “I’m hoping
this year that I can make enough money and just fly to Atlanta or New York or wherever to go hit the studio.”

On top of receiving income, Lotas-Sherratt and his manager were invited to Atlanta last summer to a studio session to make beats.

“We got invited to go to a studio session with this artist named Paper Trail. I met my manager for the first time in person and I also met Yung Lan. He was a big producer and I met them because they were all friends. We made beats and talked about the industry,” Lotas-Sherratt said.

Some of the rappers Lotas-Sherratt has made beats for include JayDa Youngan, Lil Tjay, Fredo Bang, NoCap, Smooky MarGielaa, Yung Mal, Lil Gotit, BBG Baby Joe and Young Scooter. When Lotas-Sherratt isn’t making beats for rappers, he also creates music with some of his friends. 

Junior KJ Williams has used Lotas-Sherratt’s beats to freestyle to, and Lotas-Sherratt has also introduced the beat-making process to junior Justin Beasley.

“It was a pretty fun experience just learning everything because it seems like something I would want to do one day,” Beasley said. “It was awesome because he was talking to some rappers on the phone and it was a cool experience just hearing them talk and everything.”

Lotas-Sherratt is looking forward to his future in the music industry and hopes to continue making his dream job a reality.

“I just love creating something new, something that no ones heard and then putting it out there. Especially when an artist hops on, it could be a big hit,” Lotas-Sherratt said.

Junior Katie MacBride can be reached at 21macbrideka62@daretolearn.org.