Mike Dean

Born in Houston, Texas in 1965, Mike Dean has established himself since the 1990s in the American hip-hop landscape by helping build the Southern sound around Rap-A-Lot, with credits on Scarface, UGK, Geto Boys or Devin the Dude. As a producer, sound engineer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, Mike Dean develops a signature where rap blends with dense electronic textures, synth pads, guitar lines, and stretched song endings. Over the 2000s and 2010s, Mike Dean expands his scope by working on mixing, production, or arrangements for Kanye West on The College Dropout (2004), Late Registration (2005), Graduation (2007), Yeezus (2013), The Life of Pablo (2016), Ye (2018) and Donda (2021), while regularly collaborating with Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey or Madonna. Also present on stage as keyboardist and guitarist, he accompanies several of these artists on tours and at major festivals. Parallel to this studio work, Mike Dean releases a personal instrumental body of work centered on atmospheric and progressive electronics with 4:20 (2020), 4:22 (2021), Smoke State 42222 (2022), 4:23 (2023) and 424 (2024).