Hitmaker of the Month: With Gunna’s ‘Pushin P,’ Producer-Writer Wheezy Is Creating a ‘Tsunami World’

24.02.2022 - 22:05 / variety.com

A.D. Amorosi With its ominous threadbare melody and chilly minimalist percussion, Gunna and Future’s “Pushin P” (featuring Young Thug) has been an anomaly on a Top 10 recently filled with family-friendly fare like songs from “Encanto” and the latest Adele ballad. Credit a large part of the success of that track to the writing, production and beat-making skills of Wesley Tyler Glass, aka Wheezy.With his personal credo, “Stay wavy, it’s a tsunami world,” Wheezy’s come a long way from his start manning the boards for underground hip-hop artists like Shad da God and apprenticing under producer Metro Boomin.

Today, Wheezy’s list of collaborators includes Travis Scott, Meek Mill, Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage and Trippie Redd. His name also appears on 2018’s “Yes, Indeed” from Lil Baby and Drake, 2019’s “We” from Bon Iver and 2021’s “Lord I Need You” from Kanye West’s “DONDA.” Wheezy’s sound helped catapult “Pushin P” to the upper reaches of the chart. Gunna’s “DS4Ever” album, meanwhile, beat out the Weeknd’s “Dawn FM” in first-week consumption.

That victory “was a mindblower,” says Wheezy from Los Angeles. “We think of the Weeknd as our brother. There was never any competition.

But you know … numbers don’t lie.”Growing up, Wheezy split his time between Vicksburg, Mississippi (where his mother lived) and Atlanta, where his father resident. “Being around the culture of Atlanta and my dad when he was listening to music, I developed a passion for it,” says Wheezy. In particular, the young hopeful developed a fondness for fellow Atlantan Jeezy and his early trap sounds.In his teens, Wheezy caught the production bug and, at 15, started to make beats for his brother, rapper TG Montana and the aforementioned Shad da God.