Anthony White had no idea the journey he would take when he first started making beats at 16 and that includes the change in names.
Born Anthony Jermaine White, for the music business he goes by the moniker, “J. White,” aka “J. White Did It.”
Regardless his name is becoming well known among industry insiders.
Now 32 years old, after stints in New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas, the Kansas City, Kansas native has climbed to the rap music mountain top by working with rapper Cardi B. White is among the 2018 Grammy award nominees for songwriting credit, in the best rap song category, for Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow.”
Last fall Cardi B’s “ Bodak Yellow” nabbed the number one spot on the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, knocking Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” out of the top spot. On making “Bodak Yellow,” White commented that he knew the song was “special.”
White grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, attending church and realizing as a teenager, that sports, especially football due to his lack of size, was not going to be his forte. He discovered music when a relative bought him a keyboard.
He graduated from Leavenworth High School, moved to New York City in 2005 and learned how to produce records.
He left New York but returned in 2016 during a difficult time in his life. His mother had been murdered the year before a victim of domestic violence, he was having baby mam drama and financial issues. A friend told he to come back to New York, it was on this trip that he met Cardi B, through a music mentor of his Shaft, who is one half of Cardi B’s management team.
At a low spot in his life, when Cardi B asked him did he have any beats, he jumped out on faith, and shared some of his best stuff with her. Well his faith paid off and his fortune changed drastically. When he first heard the finished “Bodak Yellow” he said, “Yo, this is gonna be a big stepping
stone for us to get another record.”
Noting the public’s reaction to the song White said:
“I have seen 90-year-old-women get up and dance to the record. It’s for everybody.”
The Grammy award winners will be announced on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, from Madison Square Garden, New York City, on CBS.