Photo courtesy of Keise On Da Track.
Making it in the music industry is no walk in the park. Becoming an award winning, Billboard-charting music producer and member of the Recording Academy’s Grammy Class of 2025, is a monumental accomplishment.
Dallas native and Carter High School graduate Keise On Da Track made those accomplishments happen. He got his start in music in the Lone Star State, saying that his grandfather shared his love for the art form and got him started.
“He basically introduced me to the music as a young guy, and (I’m) forever grateful,” Keise said. “The journey hasn’t been easy, but it’s been fair. I can say that for sure.”
That journey started in the streets of Oak Cliff, shaping his art through his real life. Having grown up in “kind of rough areas,” Keise started out by making rap music.
He credits seeing a lot of the experiences he writes about being what he saw growing up. And those experiences have been relatable to listeners, as he achieved a certified gold track, Shottaz 4Eva (Deluxe) with MO3, and has peaked at #4 on the Billboard National Charts.
“Being able to create from rap music, I was able to gain access to a Billboard chart, to a gold plaque…the Oak Cliff journey definitely helped me create rap music correctly,” he said. “Being from the streets, or seeing the streets and creating a street sound, it definitely helped me, for sure.”
Having started out with an authentic street experience approach to his music, Keise is now pivoting to another form of authenticity through R&B.
In March 2024, Keise signed to EMPIRE, a 100% independent label, distributor and publisher for artists. This opportunity came about through his attorney Brittany Trigg, helping him land the actual deal as an artist to move forward.
“I definitely didn’t want to lose my independence, as far as freelancing and working with other artists,” Keise said.
Through this deal he has begun to seek growth in his work by creating outside the rap genre, focusing more on music in the hip hop and R&B landscape as RnB Keise.
“R&B is a genre that is not easy. I love the challenge,” he said.
The resources through EMPIRE have given Keise the opportunity to reach out to “people all over working with different walks of life” to help in his journey, even while staying based in Dallas.
“There’s a lot of raw talent here,” he said. “We have a few mainstream artists, but it’s a lot of raw and uncooked talent that just need that golden opportunity. So my goal is to definitely continue to try to shape the sound and create something monumental here.”
Currently, he is working on new projects with Chris Brown, Tink, and Troy Taylor to name a few. Keise says he can’t pick a favorite of his work so far, even with new music in the works.
“I can’t say one song is better than this, or I take pride in this song over this song,” he said. “I mean, they’re all my work. So I definitely take pride in everything that I collectively work on.”
To listen to work by Keise on Da Track, check out his producer playlist curated by the Apple in-house editorial team.
