Mike Dean

Mike Dean Reveals He’s Working on Travis Scott’s ‘Utopia’ Album

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Travis Scott's Utopia album is on the way. Hitting Instagram, Mike Dean revealed that he is the one mastering the forthcoming album.

Travis Scott’s Utopia album is on the way. Hitting Instagram, Mike Dean revealed that he is the one mastering the forthcoming album.

Hitting IG, Dean blacked out a few notes about the song he was working on and simply provided a one-word caption: ‘TOPIA.

Travis Scott is keeping the Utopia album secure to him, packed in a briefcase, and handcuffed to his security guard.

Travis was spotted in Hollywood on Thursday, hitting a vinyl store. TMZ noted the rapper was escorted by his security guard. In addition to ensuring Scott’s safety and opening his door, the guard had another job, making sure the Utopia album was safe.

READ MORE: Travis Scott Closes Rolling Loud Thailand 2023, the Nation’s Largest Festival in History

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Travis Scott

Utopia serves as his newest release since 2018’s critically-acclaimed Astroworld, which features all-star appearances from Frank Ocean, Drake, Swae Lee, James Blake, Sheck Wes, Kid Cudi, Juice WRLD, The Weeknd, Pharrell, Gunna, Nav, Takeoff, 21 Savage, and more.

And if there’s one thing you can count on from Travis, it’s his support for his hometown of Houston. On Monday evening (May 15), the “Sicko Mode” recording artist visited Minute Maid Park to hang out with the Houston Astros baseball team guys, giving them a preview of the highly-anticipated new music. 

In a clip that surfaced online, Travis states, “Man, fresh from Utopia. It’s on the way now. Had to come here and play Utopia for the boys in the locker room. Had to get it right for the game. You know how we do, from the clubhouse to the stu!”

READ MORE: Travis Scott and Cactus Jack Foundation Host Celebrity Softball Game to Support HBCU Scholarship Program

Boasting 49 million followers on Instagram alone, Travis Scott played the unreleased music right before the Astros played the Chicago Cubs in their home stadium. Travis must have been good luck, as the Astros ended up beating the Cubs 6 to 4. Additionally, Scott got in some batting practice and even got to peep the weight room.

While rocking his Air Jordan 1 Low “Black Phantom” sneakers, Travis seemed very excited to preview Utopia. In fact, he’s been teasing these tracks for years, even releasing two songs titled “Mafia” and “Escape Plan” back in November 2021.

Last year, cryptic billboards of Utopia popped up all around Southern California. In August, Travis revealed returning to the studio to perfect the new project.

Shirley Ju contributed to this report.

The post Mike Dean Reveals He’s Working on Travis Scott’s ‘Utopia’ Album appeared first on The Source.

Mike Dean Deletes Post About Mixing “UTOPIA”

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Hype for Travis Scott’s next album Utopia is at an all-time high, and maybe Mike Dean toyed with that excitement that with his latest Instagram post. On Wednesday (May 17), the acclaimed producer posted a picture of a few tracks and regions on a song that he was mixing. “‘TOPIA,” he captioned his post, which obviously got fans incredibly ecstatic. However, he quickly deleted that post and uploaded the same picture. This time around, though, he made no such allusions to La Flame’s next project, and instead gave producers and mixing engineers some game.

“#levels,” Mike Dean began his new Instagram caption on the same picture. “If u got too many tracks and your songs not big. Make bigger sounds. Doesn’t take a hundred tracks. All the best album in history are on 24 tracks.” Given Travis Scott’s recent comments on Utopia, seeing Mike in mixing mode is quite interesting. After he played the album for the Houston Astros, Travis remarked in a viral clip, “Finish the master, Mark.” Mark is not Mike, but this back-and-forth IG posting suggests that the LP is in its final stages.

Read More: Travis Scott’s Biggest Songs

Mike Dean Mixing Utopia… Or Is He?

Of course, Mike Dean and Travis Scott are quite frequent collaborators, especially on the production side of things. As such, maybe this news shouldn’t be much of a surprise, because who didn’t expect Mike Dean to be involved anyway? Regardless, the fact that he deleted the post and remade his caption is quite interesting, as maybe the Houston rapper wants the project shrouded in at least some secrecy. Still, that renders reports on Utopia‘s summer release date quite moot, as it’s hard to keep something so hyped so secret.

Meanwhile, Travis Scott has reportedly told people like Kevin Durant that Utopia will be “f***ing insane.” No matter how the album sounds, when it arrives, or who else is on it, hints of Mike Dean’s involvement certainly bode well for the project. Hopefully the star instrumentalist isn’t just toying with fans with his Instagram posts… but at least producers got some tips as a result. For the latest updates on Utopia and more news on these Houston artists, stick around on HNHH.

Read More: Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival: What Happened?

The Weeknd Concerns Fans With Cryptic Tweet

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The Weeknd left fans shook this morning. Even though he maintains a mysterious presence in the public eye and often carries that persona online, he left a cryptic message on his Instagram page that left fans quite concerned. “Goodbye Earth,” he wrote without a follow-up. Fans flooded the replies with well wishes, concerns, and jokes. However, it doesn’t seem like fans picked up on the fact that “Goodbye Earth” is actually a song on Mike Dean’s album 4:23, which the Weeknd executive produced. 

Dean and The Weeknd’s collaborative track record together expanded further on 4:23. Along with serving as an executive producer with the legendary producer, he also has four credits on the project: “Artificial Intelligence,” “Defame Moi,” “More Coke!!!,” and “Emotionless.” Prior to this record, Mike Dean contributed to the production on The Weeknd’s new single, “Double Fantasy” ft. Future, alongside Metro Boomin. Hopefully, this is an indication that Mike Dean will be far more hands-on with the Canadian singer’s follow-up to Dawn FM. 

The Weeknd Preps The Idol

The Weeknd is currently gearing up for the release of his upcoming HBO series, The Idol, as well as its accompanying soundtrack that Mike Dean will be contributing to. The series is set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival this month before debuting on HBO Max on June 4th. The show, co-created by the Weeknd and Euphoria’s Sam Levinson, follows the story of a budding pop star who gets caught up with a self-help guru/cult leader, played by The Weeknd. Hopefully, it doesn’t disappoint after all the controversy and hype surrounding the series.

The Weeknd is undoubtedly making strides these days, between the influx of music and his budding acting career. In March, the Guinness World Record officials declared the pop star as “the most popular artist,” weeks after reaching the 100M monthly listener mark on Spotify. Combined with the success of “Die For You (Remix)” ft. Ariana Grande shot to the top of the Hot 100, the Guinness World Record explained that his streaming numbers boosted significantly across the globe to earn this title. Check out The Weeknd’s tweet above. 

Mike Dean Drops “4:23,” Executive Produced By The Weeknd

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Earlier this week, Mike Dean announced that his new album 4:23 was dropping soon. The album is the third in his numbered series, following 2020’s 4:20 and 2021’s 4:22. Dean is a famed hip-hop record producer who has worked with the biggest names in the industry. Among his clients are Beyonce, Drake, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Madonna, Lana Del Rey, and more. He has also worked extensively with The Weeknd, including playing a part in the star’s new collab with Future, “Double Fantasy.” The single is from the soundtrack from Abel’s new HBO show, The Idol. As such, it is likely that Mike Dean also played a hand in producing the rest of the soundtrack with The Weeknd. “There’s a whole album. I’m not shying away from making music. It’s just adding another element to my already crowded schedule,” Abel said of the new soundtrack.

In order to announce the new album from Mike Dean, Abel took to social media. “New @therealmikedean 4:23 album co-executive produced by me dropping this week,” The Weeknd tweeted. Very few details about the album were revealed before its release. Being that it was announced just several days beforehand, it’s no surprise.

Mike Dean’s Wonderland of Dreamy Synths

On 4:23, Mike Dean welcomes you into his weird, dreamy world of analog synths. Even as far as electronic music goes, much of this album is not for the faint of heart. The Weeknd has some great guest vocal spots, but much of it is simply synthesizer madness. There are some standouts, however, particularly on some of the songs with Abel. Perhaps the best song on the album is “Artificial Intelligence.” It would fit very well into The Weeknd’s oeuvre, so it makes a lot of sense that he features on it.

“You can have me on my knees / Like I was about to break / Idolizin’ at your feet / Know that you are so far away,” Abel sings on the track. “I will travel overseas / Join hearts in another place / I’ll do all to compete / Emotionless.” He gives a very strong, emotional performance over Mike Dean’s space production. The album does lose its way at certain points, but there will always be plenty of good production to reel listeners back in. “118k” is one of the weaker tracks, but the distorted, weaponized feedback that comes on immediately after in “Earth To Michael” makes it impossible to stop listening.

Tracklist:

  1. Once Upon a Time
  2. Artificial Intelligence
  3. Defame Moi
  4. More Coke!!
  5. Music for the Future
  6. Rewind Life
  7. Goodbye Earth
  8. Hello Space
  9. Mechanical Tarantula
  10. 118k
  11. Earth To Michael
  12. Emotionless
  13. Electric Sheep

The Weeknd Co-Executive Produced Mike Dean’s New Album ‘4:23’ Which Drops This Week

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The Weeknd has been quite busy recently preparing for the debut of his HBO series The Idol, but he still had the time to help a friend on a project of their own. The Weeknd informed fans via Twitter that not only is his frequent collaborator Mike Dean putting out an album this week but that The Weeknd co-executive produced it. The album is called 4:23 and drops this Friday, April 28.

Mike Dean, who has produced for Beyoncé, Chloe, Drake, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, Lana Del Rey, Madonna, Selena Gomez, and Travis Scott, is four albums into his solo discography, which he surprisingly only kicked off three years ago with 4:20, released on April 20, 2020. He’s released a project around the same time each year since with 4:23 being his fourth. Dean has yet to share further details about the album, although he retweeted The Weeknd and cross-posted his announcement to Instagram.

Meanwhile, The Weeknd recently released his own first new music since last year’s Dawn FM in the form of the Future collaboration “Double Fantasy.” The new track is set to appear on the soundtrack for The Idol, which The Weeknd has said was inspired by both Pink Floyd and Prince.

4:23 is due 4/28.