phertee cassettes
the phertee tapes is a three-part beat tape series created between 2020 and 2025. Inspired by cassette culture, short-format music, and a desire to make something physical, the project tracks my growth as a producer and artist — through exploration, improvisation, collaboration, visual design, and a daily creative practice. Each tape was dubbed by hand, printed using Risograph, and built around short, complete, mini tunes.
This project started with a cassette I couldn’t play. It became a document of my growth and perseverance.
the story
the spark
a surprise cassette started it all
The phertee tapes is a trilogy of beat tapes made over five years, tracing the arc of my creative development from 2020 to 2025. The idea started when I bought the Adventure Time vinyl box set and discovered a surprise cassette inside—Summer Jams 3. The songs were short, weird, and full of character—most under a minute long—and they made a lasting impression on me. At the time, I didn’t even have a cassette player, but I was fascinated by the idea of such a tactile, physical format. When I finally got one and was able to listen, I fell in love. I loved how these tiny tracks created a defined space with such limited time and tools. That tape planted the seed for what would become a long-term project.
the cabin tape (soup)
My first attempt at a beat tape
Later in mid-2020, I went to a cabin in the mountains and recorded foley and found sounds with a Zoom recorder—banging on surfaces, collecting textures, and building beats using only what I recorded up there. I dubbed the music to cassette with a cheap machine and designed the artwork on my phone. It was rough, but I was hooked. I didn’t release it widely, but it helped me realize how much I loved the idea of physical, handmade music—and how much work I still had to do.
building a practice
creative practice, new skills, and deeper intention
From 2021 through 2024, I focused on growing as a producer and artist. I started making music almost daily and began collaborating with friends remotely. I learned how to treat the DAW as an expressive instrument, not just a tool. I worked with vocalists for the first time, refined my composition, sound design, and mixing and started thinking more seriously about what I was trying to say with my music. My creative practice became steadier, more intentional, and more personal.
the name
why it’s called “phertee”
When I first heard Danny Brown’s album XXX, I was around 19 years old. I wore that album out and had it on repeat for many years. I learned that the title wasn’t just stylized—it stood for “30,” the age he was when he released it. That added context reframed the entire project for me. Danny wasn’t a young breakout at that point—he was pushing forward with a strange, experimental, emotionally raw record at an age when a lot of artists feel the pressure to conform, scale back, or quit. That stuck with me. The name phertee came from the desire to make a project when I turned 30, inspired by XXX. I missed that deadline in 2022, but I kept the idea alive and built the series around it: phertee one, phertee two, and phertee three—loosely connected to my age, but more importantly, to the evolution of my ideas, sound, and process.
the format
sketches with form
Each tape follows a short-format approach, each track built to feel complete on their own. The music blends beat tape sensibility, improvisational spirit, experimental structure, and the kind of sonic brevity that invites replays. The short format wasn’t just inspired by Summer Jams 3—it also connects deeply to hip-hop. Mixtape culture, beat CDs, and mid-album interludes all use brevity as a strength. A loop doesn’t need to overstay—it can hit once, say what it needs to, and move on. I’ve always loved how hip-hop gives space for sketches, fragments, and raw ideas to exist in their own space.
In that spirit, each phertee track hovers around a minute. They’re not demos—they’re miniature songs. Focused, self-contained, and open to interpretation. They let the listener imagine what could be added—or appreciate what’s already there.
visual identity
Risograph and improvisational design
In parallel to my musical journey, I was exploring visual art more intentionally. Working with Patrick Edell on LUMAMA’s Balra left a lasting impression—his dense, character-driven style opened up a world of visual curiosity. I started diving into layered, playful art styles: Where’s Waldo, the puzzles of Walter Wick, comic books, John Pham’s J&K, the fluid precision of Kim Jung Gi, the consistency of The Neubad Plakat, Wimmelbilder, and Hokusai’s Manga.
I wasn’t trying to match those styles—I just followed what sparked curiosity. Like with music, I experimented with layering and texture, chasing a feeling more than a finished look. The phertee covers were shaped by this kind of improvisational exploration.
I emulated the Risograph aesthetic digitally for a while but in 2025, I joined a local print studio to try the real thing. I began printing the cassette covers by hand, embracing the limitations and happy accidents of Riso. Every phertee tape has a hand-printed cover and was dubbed manually in my studio—just like the first one in 2020.
The visual process became part of the point: making something tactile, personal, and intentional—an honest extension of the music.
the point
The phertee tapes started as a simple idea: to make something physical, personal, and handmade. But over time, it became much more.
Through openness, through design, through perseverance, I built a practice that could hold my ideas and reflect my progress. Each tape marks a stage of development—technical, creative, emotional. Together, they form a personal record—not just of the music I made, but of how I grew, and how I came to see myself as an artist.
2cy time (phertee one)
Released: 4/16/2024
11 tracks – 11 minutes
2cy time (phertee one) is a study in rhythm. It’s built around polyrhythms, odd phrasing, and looping structures that stretch and fold time in on itself—the kind of rhythmic play that only a DAW can deliver with both precision and unpredictability. This tape honors my roots as a drummer and reflects years of thinking about how rhythm breathes, bends, and repeats.
These tracks don’t wait around or linger. They’re short, intricate, and self-contained—each one its own clock, ticking to its own logic. There's really no space left for vocals; the beats are complete as they are. It’s a tape about timing, texture, and musical motion.
As the first release in the phertee series, 2cy time set the tone: short-format beats with a clear concept and a deliberate process. It’s strange, raw, and intentional—exactly how I wanted it to be.
phertee 2: out the house
Released: 11/11/2024
11 tracks – 11 minutes
phertee 2: out the house marks a shift in focus—from inward isolation to outward connection. After years of solo beat-making, I began working with vocalists in 2023 and 2024, learning how to shape music that left space for voices. This tape reflects that growth.
Still built around short, self-contained tracks, these beats are more open, direct, and grounded. They’re structured with presence in mind—imagining how a voice might move through them, even if most remain instrumental. The energy is more extroverted, more physical, more foundational.
The physical cassette version includes exclusive (unauthorized) vocal features on several tracks not available on streaming platforms.
This is a tape shaped by clarity and direction. I followed the same deliberate process as 2cy time—refining, sequencing, designing—this time with a stronger sense of how I wanted it to feel. The result is lean, focused, and collaborative in spirit.
phertee 3: phree
Released: May 5, 2025
33 tracks – 33 minutes
phertee 3: phree is a personal send-off. It marks the end of a five-year journey and the final tape in the phertee trilogy. The subtitle—phree, with a PH—isn’t just a play on words. It symbolizes release: from the project, from the backlog, and from the creative journey—rife with highs and lows—that began in 2020.
This tape blends everything I’ve learned: the polyrhythmic experimentation of 2cy time, the spaciousness and vocal awareness of out the house, and the organic, improvisation I carry from jazz and live performance. It’s a distillation of years spent building a personal language.
Compiled from over 200 unreleased beats, the tracklist is made entirely from favorites—no theme, just instinct. The visuals were designed and printed by hand using Risograph, a process I learned specifically for this release. Every element was crafted with intention.
phertee 3: phree is me, being done. Not in exhaustion—in clarity. It’s not just the end of the phertee tapes. It’s the beginning of what’s next.
