Frank Dukes

Adam King Feeney (born September 12, 1983), professionally known as Frank Dukes, is a Canadian record producer and DJ.^[1][2][3][4] A Grammy Award-winner, Dukes is known for producing original compositions for prominent record producers to sample in their own productions. Many of his original samples have been used in songs for major artists across the American hip hop industry including Travis Scott, Future, Young Thug, Drake, and Kanye West.

Early life

Adam King Feeney was born on September 12, 1983 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He first got into music with piano lessons that he received when he was five years old, however, he quit learning the piano after three years due to losing interest in it. He later taught himself to play guitar, bass and drums.^[4][5] Around age 13, he was a skateboarder, which overturned when he started to take a bigger interest in music and became a DJ.^[6] In 1999, at age 16, Dukes, while as a DJ, he began collecting records from the 1960s and 1970s, trying to understand how they were made.^[4] This habit later got him into record production, and by 2000, he bought an MPC. Previously, Dukes had no intention to become a musician.^[6][7]

Career

Dukes sold his first beat to a local Canadian hip hop recording artist from Toronto named "General Too Smooth", which Dukes was paid $250 for it.^[7] In 2008, Dukes' had first paid placement for a major artist at the time, a beat for American rapper Lloyd Banks, through Mo Jointz, a Toronto manager who then represented him at the time. Dukes sent some of his early beats to Mo Jointz, who sent them to Banks, who paid Dukes $5,000 for it, through his beat would later show up on Banks' third studio album "H.F.M. 2 (The Hunger for More 2)" as the song "Sooner or Later (Die 1 Day)" featuring American rapper Raekwon. The sample used for that song "Like Toy Soldiers", by Eminem, made Dukes express the sample clearance issues for that song, which gave Dukes the idea of composing original compositions, or original samples for other record producers to use in their productions. He recorded the samples with vintage equipment, making them in a 1960s and 1970s style of song, and packaging them in various volumes for a collection titled "Kingsway Music Library", which he puts up for sale for commercial use, with the sample clearance of his samples guaranteed.^[4][6][8] These original samples has led to him working with record producers such as Boi-1da, Metro Boomin, Vinylz, DJ Dahi, Tae Beast and more, which landed him prominent placements for Kanye West, Drake, Eminem, 50 Cent, Travis Scott, Danny Brown, Ghostface Killah, Jeremih, Tory Lanez and Rihanna, among others.^[9] He has also worked in genres other than hip hop, by producing compositions on BadBadNotGood's third album, III and writing songs for Charles Bradley's second studio album, Victim Of Love.^[10][11]

Personal life

Dukes has one son. He currently resides in Mississauga, Ontario, but often stays in Toronto because of his work.^[4]

Production discography

References

External links

• Frank Dukes discography at Discogs