In this interview, we sit down with Tommaso and Alessandro Pinto, the dynamic brother duo behind DopeBoyzMuzic. They share their journey from growing up in a music-loving household in Germany to becoming internationally renowned hip-hop and R&B producers. With over 30,000 beats sold worldwide and collaborations with industry heavyweights like Eminem and Jeezy, the duo reflects on their creative process, the inspiration behind their popular sample packs, and their advice for aspiring musicians. Discover how their passion for music, authenticity, and dedication have fueled their success in the world of sample creation.
Tell us a little about yourself and what led you to production and creating samples.
We are Tommaso and Alessandro Pinto, aka “DopeBoyzMuzic,” two brothers of Italian/Greek heritage born in Germany, now living in Cyprus, producing quality hip-hop and R&B music since 2007. Through hard work and dedication we’ve been able to become one of the most sought-after production teams in the online realm, with over 30k beats sold to artists in 45 different countries. Our expertise in creating original loops and samples has earned us international recognition, with some of the biggest names in the music industry, like Eminem, Jeezy, Tory Lanez, and Joey Badass, among others, using their work in their songs and projects.
Our father always had a great passion and appreciation for quality music. I guess his passion rubbed off on the two of us. He was listening to music pretty much all the time, mostly funk and reggae. He also had a solid vinyl collection, which, for the most part, we were not allowed to touch. He almost had a heart attack when he once caught me trying to scratch with one of his records
So I (Tommaso) started collecting music digitally using Napster when I was 11 years old. At first, it was mainly R&B music and G-Funk, because that sounded new and fresh, yet somewhat familiar from listening to funk all the time. After that, I discovered Erick Sermon, who was the perfect gateway from the funky West Coast sound to East Coast hip-hop. Then followed all the East Coast classics and after that there was no turning back. After years of doing that and inheriting a love and passion for music, I had earned myself my first turntables at 15 years old and started DJ’ing. Only four months later, I was playing my first gig in front of 1,000+ people. My hands were shaking like crazy, but I did okay, and that led to more bookings and shows. At the age of 18, I saw one of Ryan Leslie’s famous beat-making videos on YouTube and instantly knew I wanted to do the same thing. It was weird because, after watching just a few of his clips, I kinda knew this was it, and I didn't wanna do anything else but that. However, music equipment is expensive, and I was 18 years old and broke. Luckily, my grandmother (R.I.P. Giagia) generously sponsored a Roland Juno-G. In addition, I got an old version of FL Studio from a friend and started experimenting. I kept DJ’ing at the clubs, but the will to create my own music was taking over, and the beats that I was making were getting better and better. My brother Alessandro (born in 1993) had no choice but to take notice of what I was up to. Due to the fact that he was, and still is, kind of a computer nerd, messing around with FL Studio seemed to be the perfect pastime since he could do it while sitting in front of his computer as usual. So he, too, started spending hours and hours in front of FL studio, and his skills improved incredibly fast. I remember him showing me his first beat. At that point, I was six months in, and he had maybe experimented with FL Studio for three weeks or so. Then he played me this beat, and it sounded better than anything I had created up to that point. In fact, it was so good, I thought he was trying to prank me by showing me somebody else's track! But then he showed me the project, and I was blown away. From that moment on, we started working on music together as a team, creating countless beats. Being inspired by Ryan Leslie, we kinda wanted to do the same thing and took our talent to YouTube. In 2011, we won the “Mike Kalombo Producer Contest” on YouTube, which put us on Jermaine Dupri's radar. In 2013, we put out our first sample pack. In 2017, we scored our first placement on Kianush’s album Instinkt, which went top 10 in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. In 2018, we provided the piano sample for Eminem’s record-breaking diss track “Killshot.” When we first started, we just wanted to make music and do what we love to do. To us, actually making a living off music always seemed like an impossible goal to reach. Now we’ve been producing music full-time since 2015, and we don’t see ourselves stopping, only progressing forward. It’s truly a dream come true.
What inspired the sounds included in this pack?
We've always been fans of horns in music. Growing up, our father would listen to funk and reggae music 24/7. Both genres have a great number of songs that feature horn sections and sax solos, etc. The same goes for film scores and library music, and we grew up listening to all of that. Horns have a majestic sound, and when they play, it hits you with an incredible force. Obviously, hip-hop producers have discovered that fact as well, which has led to horns being used in a lot of very successful hip-hop songs. But instead of using the same horn lines and chops that have been used in hip-hop since the early 90s, we wanted to create something original that sounds big and epic and would enable producers to craft these anthem-like beats we all love listening to. This led to the creation of Horn Anthems Vol.1.
What do you hope the Splice community will do with these sounds?
We are hip-hop producers first, so before we release any sample pack to the public, we gotta "test-drive" it and make sure it's ready to go. With that being said, I think we flipped every single sample from this pack ourselves, so I'm confident producers of all genres will love these samples. Whether you're making trap beats, a house track, or sync music for sports, I think these samples are a perfect fit for all of that, and the fact that every composition features live horns adds an extra bit of character and power.
Do you have any advice for other musicians who are striving to move into the world of sample creation?
I think the most important thing when creating music is that you truly love the music you're making. I think when you love what you do, and you have the integrity to be true to yourself and create nothing but that, regardless of money, fame, and all those things that people associate with successful music and musicians, you create from an authentic place and that is always gonna sound better and resonate with the right people. It also helps you to keep going when you're going through a bit of a rough patch, and things aren't working out as well as you want them to. Every musician has had episodes like that and it's much easier to work through them when you enjoy what you do. We make Horn Sample Packs, Retro Sample Packs, Soul Sample Packs, and Hong Kong Cinema-inspired Sample Packs because we truly love all of those types of music. Even though we don't play the horns ourselves, and we were not born to live much of the 80s ourselves, nor are we of Asian descent, we've spent so much time listening to these genres, studying the instrumentation, the harmony, the arrangements, and sonics of those genres that we can now authentically create all of those sounds. People appreciate that, and it's nice to be appreciated for something that you do when it's something you truly love and care for.
Click the button below and check out the Horn Anthems Vol. 1 sample pack today!
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