Mr. Bangladesh (a.k.a. Shondrae Crawford) was born in Iowa, but you wouldn’t have figured that out just by listening to his beats. Shondrae wants his sound to be different — he took the name Bangladesh because it sounds foreign to your ears. The big break came for this beatsmith when he got the opportunity to produce a track for Ludacris. That song was “What’s Your Fantasy?” which peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot Rap chart, and began a harmonious working relationship for the pair.

Bangladesh has created a very unique style of beat production that involves distinctive sample chopping and looping. The first song to hit it big while employing this method was “A Milli” by Lil Wayne, one of Bangladesh’s signature beats. If you hear a chopped and screwed vocal loop as the hook for a contemporary hip-hop song, you find yourself almost waiting for the drop of Bangladesh’s producer I.D. tag (“Bangladesh!”). It’s a style that he has made his own.

In addition to his knack for finding hooks in samples, Shondrae has the ability to weave a pastiche of strange synthetic sounds and samples together, giving his tracks a very intriguing aural treatment.

Let’s enjoy some of Bangladesh’s biggest bangers on this fine Friday, shall we?