The 24 year-old Virginia-born songwriter and producer Benny Blanco is actually the protege and main collaborator of Dr. Luke, who we’ve featured before in our producer Friday Mixtape series. The pair have worked together extensively over the past few years (Blanco is listed as co-producer and songwriter on many of Dr. Luke’s biggest hits), but Benny Blanco is really starting to carve out his own niche in the pop production spectrum.

In the early days of their partnership, Benny’s very young age was an asset to Luke. Any lyrical references in the song would have to be “Benny-proofed.” Basically, since Benny was Luke’s target market, if he was too young to understand a lyrical reference, the lyric would be cut entirely.

Blanco (real name Benjamin Levin) first got attention thanks to a collaborative EP with Baltimore rap group Spank Rock called Bangers & Cash. He has production credits on over 20 Top 10 singles, at least 12 of which have gone #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since they work together so often, his style is not so dissimilar to that of Dr. Luke, creating synthetic hooks with slick production tricks. Everything on this Friday Mixtape is Blanco’s work sans Dr. Luke, to give you an idea of what he brings to the table. His latest project is the forthcoming Neon Hitch debut full length, on which he is an executive producer.