Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt “Mateo” McKinney.
Matt “Mateo” McKinney was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and moved with his family to Houston, Texas at age one. Growing up in the ethnically diverse southwest Houston area enabled Matt to experience many different cultures and demographics early on, which influenced an international outlook. Traveling and meeting interesting people shaped Matt’s upbringing significantly and helped foster a creative mindset and interest in the arts, especially music, and the art of sampling music, starting off with the oldies his parents introduced him to at home like Marvin Gaye, Anita Baker, James Brown, Chaka Khan, and Roy Ayers to name a few. Having explored different mediums of artistic expression, taking music theory classes, piano lessons, and graphic art classes, by high school Matt started producing music regularly as a hobby. Matt attended high school at St. John’s school in Houston and explored his passion for learning about foreign cultures and languages during his junior year by living a year studying abroad in Beijing, China and learning to read write and speak Mandarin Chinese.
After returning to the states and graduating from St. John’s, Matt went to college at Claremont McKenna college in California where he continued to explore music production, audio engineering, and entrepreneurship, and officially launched Mooty Beats Entertainment on January 7, 2013. Through Mooty Beats Mateo has executive produced and released projects for MYTH, including “The MYTH Tape” and “We the Mayans”, his own “Sonic Narcotics Volume One”, Atlanta Rapper CEO Sauce’s “Drive By” (produced by Mooty Beats partner Josh Blount), as well as other collaborations with various artists in Texas, New York, LA, and Pittsburgh. Matt has produced for and collaborated with artists internationally and has taught music production for almost ten years through his business, Mooty Beats Ent. Mateo founded the Moundsfest Music Festival at the Claremont Colleges in 2012, a day festival on Pitzer College’s campus with Hip-Hop, R and B, Jazz, Spoken Word, and Alternative Rock music, as well as food and clothing vendors. Since moving back to Houston from the Los Angeles area, Mateo joined the Entertainment and Recording Management program at Texas Southern to study managerial strategy and build the Mooty Beats Brand into a full-fledged label and media conglomerate.
The connections and relationships he has built there so far has enabled him to launch his business-talk and music radio show “Entrepreneur Hour with Mateo” on KTSU2, the Texas Southern University student-run online streaming station, which launched in February 2019, for which Mateo was the founding Music Director. Mateo returned to China in summer of 2019 and has begun production on his first Chinese Speaking Hip-Hop album featuring sounds from ancient Chinese music. Mateo is also developing a sketch comedy show and podcast with fellow artist and rapper “Mitch Mars” which will be called “The Realm”, debuting in early 2020. The music projects and Mateo productions to look out for are “Falling” by Tasiah Iman, (produced by Mateo), “Freestyle” by Dank Lucas and Kiah Joy, “Be Safe” featuring Mitch Mars, and other collaborations with Tobacco Ryan, Cody Banks, Yanna Starr, and more.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My career has had ebbs and flows. Getting into music I knew the journey would be difficult, but getting paid for your music and your services, and having people that know you and don’t even know you respect your talent and your craft is very rewarding and makes all the hardships seem small in comparison. A big struggle was having my high school rap group, MYTH, disband on less than ideal terms. We had sold out Warehouse Live a few times, done shows in LA and all over Houston, won a Swisha House Talent Contest and opened up for some legends like Bun B, Z-Ro, Slim Thug, Afroman, Devin the Dude, and Killa Kayleon. We had merch, videos, fans, and momentum but then I moved to LA and things went left from there. Starting a solo career after that took a lot of self-examination and reflection. Since then, I have focused more on producing and engineering than rapping, and have gotten that momentum back and then some. I also dropped out of college from Claremont McKenna, where I was studying Financial Economics and Accounting for three years, which was really not for me. I hated it, but that school was litty.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Mooty Beats Ent. story. Tell us more about the business.
Mooty Beats Ent. is currently a music and media production company primarily operating in production, selling beats, studio time, audio engineering, mixing, and producing media content, as well as transitioning back into event production in the near future. I specialize in making melodic colorful beats in hip-hop, rap, r and b, jazz, neo soul, alternative and pop. I audio engineer and record all genres under the sun. I am most proud of the songs, projects, music videos, and shows I have put on, I am critical of my work and don’t think I’ve made my best stuff yet, but I am more so proud of my persistence and consistency in putting my creativity out there. My sound is unorthodox and inspired by generations of music, not just one era of music or style. My music tags “We are not sure that Mateo is dead” and “Peace to Mateo” let you know it’s my beat thats coming on, but even without the tags, I have a distinct soulful but still hard vibe.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think hard work and preparation increases your chances. I also thank God for blessing me with a fun and interesting life. All the times I randomly came up on something, it could be called luck, but it was more so having belief, persistence, support, a good team, and good timing.
Pricing:
- Beat leases start at $150
- Beat Exclusives start at $300
- Studio Time and mixing Starts at $50/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: youtube.com/mootybeats
- Email: mattemckinney@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/mattwecool
- Facebook: facebook.com/mOOTYBEATS
- Twitter: TWITTER.COM/mattwecool
Image Credit:
Night time 59 bridge photos- Jakayla Monay @jakaylamonay. Mixing shots in studio Zac Austin @zac_whereyouat . In studio sitting shot- Asia Tilford @a_tilly
Suggest a story: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
