Table of Biography
Southside is a prominent American record producer. Southside is also a rapper and songwriter who has several stage names like Young Sizzle, Southside on the Track, 808MafiaBoss, and Sizzle. He has worked with and for several world-famous artists like Drake, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Gucci Mane, and Waka Flocka Flame among many others.
Early Life and Childhood
Southside was born on 2 February 1989 and he is 34 years old. His birth name is Joshua Howard Luellen and his hometown is Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
Moreover, he is also popular under different stage names like Sizzle, he on the Track, Young Sizzle, and 808MafiaBoss.
Likewise, he was born when his mother was only 18 years old. She was still in high school. Additionally, his father is a record producer named Masaba Tyson, He is also popular as PHAROAH 808 MAFIA.
He grew up in the Southside region of Atlanta and growing up, he was a well-known baseball player and excelled in numerous baseball positions.
However, he eventually gave up the sport after suffering a concussion when he was hit in the head with a ball. After that, he started making beats when he was 14 years old when he got his first computer with his uncle.
Southside – Net Worth 2024
Moving on, his net worth estimation is approximately $4.5 million. He earns through his involvement in the creation and production of music for several artists.
Production Style
In addition, he uses the digital audio workstation, FL Studio along with custom-installed VST plugins to compose his beats.
His distinct signature trap sound is gritty, grimy, and thunderous hip-hop street sound which is similar to that of his collaborators, Lex Luger and his group 808 Mafia.
Despite such similarities, his sound is distinctly more gangster, bombastic, gritty, rambunctious, and menacing compared to that of his collaborators.
He is also renowned for his dark, belligerent, and menacing hip-hop sound coupled with hard-hitting 808 kicks, crisp snare drums, fast hi-hats, frantic synthesizers, and sinister lead instruments.
And colorfully layered ominous orchestration of synthesized brass, hits, strung, woodwind, and keyboard instruments.
Just like many other producers, he also uses a musical signature tag on many of the songs he produces. the main tag is a pitched-up voice saying his name.
Additionally, he also uses his team tag, 808 Mafia, and more recently, a sample of the Ironside (1967 TV series) theme song produced by Quincy Jones.
Back at the beginning of his career, he completed a single beat in 15 to 30 minutes. However, as of 2015, he makes a single beat in less than 6 minutes and with no sound.
Career and Professional Life
Professionally, Southside is an American record producer, songwriter as well as a rapper.
He gained recognition in the hip-hop industry by producing songs for many world-famous artists across the American hip-hop sphere.
Additionally, he and Lex Luger established their production and songwriting team 808 Mafia. Lex and he are fellow 1017 label-mates. They established the 808 Mafia team in the year 2010.
At present, he is at the helm of the 808 Mafia team. his stage name came from the place where he grew up, i.e. Southside, Atlanta.
The Beginning
When he was around his mid-teenage, he decided to start taking music production as a serious career path. The then-unknown rapper Waka Flocka Flame discovered him when he was 17.
Hence, through Waka’s network, Gucci Mane eventually signed him to his label 1017 Brick Squad Records. There, he met Lex Luger, who was another producer for Waka Flocka.
The two then started working together to lay the production groundwork for Waka Flocka’s debut album. Precisely, his first major release was the song Fuck the Club Up. It appeared on Waka Flocka’s debut album Flockaveli.
In 2011, he also co-produced the track Illest Motherfucker Alive, from Kanye West and Jay-Z’s critically acclaimed album Watch the Throne.
This helped him boost his career and also brought him into the mainstream hip-hop scene. He has since then worked with world-famous artists like Rick Ross, B.o.B, Wale, Meek Mill, Lil Scrappy, and MGK among many others.
Additionally, he was the main producer of Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka’s collaboration album Ferrari Boyz and on Flocka’s sophomore album Triple F Life: Friends, Fans & Family.
Caption: Southside photographed in his workspace in 2019. Source: Instagram
After 2010
Moreover, in January 2013, he produced Millions. It is the lead single from Pusha T’s mixtape Wrath of Caine. They released the music video for this song on February 10 of the same year.
This particular song sparked controversy when producer Rico Beats was asked to modify the instrumental for the final version of the song.
He wasn’t notified of the changes and this led to the two producers exchanging threats over Twitter. In Wrath of Caine‘s official tracklist, Kanye West is credited as co-producer, instead of Rico Beats.
The same year, he and TM88 produced the song Tapout by Birdman for his album Rich Gang: Flashy Lifestyle. This song peaked at #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been certified Gold By The RIAA.
Throughout the early 2010s, several mixtapes featured his productions. Along with 808 Mafia’s TM88, the single titled Danny Glover also became a breakout in early 2014.
He produced the breakout single for Gucci Mane’s protégé/follower Young Thug. By late 2014, his production continues to catapult into Atlanta’s hip-hop mainstream.
Future’s mixtape Monster went on to become one of the most well-acclaimed rap releases during that year as he handled a quarter of the mixtape’s entire production.
This well-received project has seen more than a million combined streams and downloads via the online mixtape site DatPiff.
2015 Onwards
Monster standout Commas was released as an official commercial single in March 2015 and spent 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #55 and simultaneously earning an RIAA gold certification.
This further helped cement his career boost.
Then in 2015, he continued to push his trap sound in the hip-hop industry ubiquitously. He did so, especially on various songs he produced and his 808 Mafia collective.
Additionally, he was responsible for producing a significant portion of Future’s album, DS2 as well as being responsible for producing nine of the ten tracks of Future’s mixtape, 56 Nights.
For this album, he made the entire project’s worth of beats in only one night. In addition, he also contributed to the production of three tracks on the collaborative mixtape What a Time to Be Alive.
This mixtape is by Future and Canadian rapper Drake. Furthermore, in 2018, he produced the entirety of Chicago MC G Herbo‘s sophomore effort, Swervo. It debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200.
Caption: Southside in an interview. Source: Instagram
Southside – Social Media
Talking about Southside’s social media presence, he has personal accounts on several platforms. He joined Twitter in August 2009 and so far has gained 223.6k followers.
Similarly, on his @808mafiaboss Instagram account, he has garnered 1.3 million followers and shared 564 posts as of August 2020.
He also has a YouTube channel. The self-titled channel has 69.9k subscribers and 5,296,716 views. He created the channel on December 1, 2011. We can also contact him at [email protected] for inquiries.
Influences
He cites Lil Jon as his favorite producer and enjoys the production work done by Pharrell, Shawty Redd, and Drumma Boy.
Moreover, the production works of Kanye West, Dr. Dre, Timbaland, and Swizz Beatz also influence Southside.
In addition, he also credits modern technology and the internet with helping him make a living off of his passion for hip-hop music.
He also credits them for helping him make his production career possible.
Modern technology, he credits particularly the monetization of music through streaming sites like SoundCloud, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music
Work Ethic
Inside the studio, Southside is recognized for his strong work ethic and strategic marketing acuity when producing beats for artists and getting the finalized track towards the mixtape circuit or for radio play.
Ever since the year 2013, he began focusing on his career as a producer from an entrepreneurial perspective by cultivating talent.
He did so while also learning the ins and outs of legality in the music production business.
He also started negotiating deals and making financial decisions on every track he was responsible for producing.
Relationship Status
Southside is currently single. Previously, he was in a romantic relationship with rapper Yung Miami. The then-lovers welcomed their first child together on 17 October 2019 and they named her Summer Miami.
Yung Miami is a rapper who was an Instagram influencer who promoted her fashion line before starting her career as a rapper. Her birth name is Caresha Romeka Brownlee and she was born on 11 February 1994.
Back in December 2018, he and Yung Miami broke up and the former lost his cool on Instagram Live. Many fans clowned him for this.
The way he talked about his ex-girlfriend made many fans believe that he didn’t deserve the City Girls rapper and also suggested that he didn’t love her.
Yung Miami has another child from her previous relationship and hence Summer is her second child. As for him, he has a total of six children including Summer.
His other children are sons Karmello, Legend, and RJ, and daughters Karlye and Haylee. Among all, his first child is daughter Karlye who celebrates her birthday on 10 April.
She is also a cheerleader and he often refers to her as the future CEO of his company.
Caption: Childhood photos of all of Southside’s six children. Source: Instagram
Southside – Body Measurements
There is no detailed information regarding his body measurements. Nevertheless, his eye color and hair color both are black.
Similarly, he has several tattoos on various body parts such as his face, arms, chest, etc.