Last summer, Drake took to OVO Sound Radio and released "Charged Up," the first of two releases aimed at Meek with a corresponding emoji. Noah "40" Shebib tweeted out that night the production credits for the track with an unfamiliar name—Maneesh. On Thursday night, Maneesh was again a surprise star, popping up all over the album credits of VIEWS. Here, we look at the crucial stops on the Toronto-based, Indian-Canadian's road to the credits of Drake's new album.
Read Next: Rap Column’s top 30 rap songs of 2024
Maneesh used to be known as DJ M-Rock.
He began his career most prominently as a DJ and turntablist. Old videos on his YouTube channel show him giving DJing tutorials and performing at the Scion King of Beats Finals in 2006.
Maneesh produced intro music for comedian Russell Peters, who was hosting the 2009 Juno Awards.
Maneesh was tapped by Canadian comedian Russell Peters to produce his entrance music when he was the host for 2009's Juno Awards in Vancouver. He interpolated the tumbi melodies from Punjabi MC's "Mundian To Bach Ke", which was famously remixed by Jay Z. Watch Russell Peters' entrance, followed by Maneesh demonstrating how he made the beat, below.
Maneesh did numerous mixes from 2009-2014, most notably for Mark Ronson.
On the now defunct DJ M-Rock website, one finds dead links for "Best of Nas", "Best of Outkast", and "Michael Jackson Tribute Mix". However, numerous mixes have survived on his Mixcrate account, including "Best of A Tribe Called Quest" and "Best of Kanye West" mixes. In 2013, he was the guest DJ on Mark Ronson's Authentic Sh*t radio show on East Village Radio.
Maneesh got his first major credit as a writer on Ludacris' 2015 Ludaversal album.
Maneesh released Lap of Luxury vol. 1 and Lap of Luxury vol. 2 on Kingsway Music in 2014. Each release featured original compositions by Maneesh that were inspired by "the lush orchestrations and arrangements of composers from the 70s such as Isaac Hayes, Lamont Dozier, and Thom Bell."
Current OVO producer Frank Dukes sampled compositions from Lap of Luxury vol. 2 for his work on Ludacris' Ludaversal album which was released in March of 2015. Maneesh is credited as a writer on "Charge It To The Game" and "Lyrical Healing."
Maneesh gets his first major production credit on Travis Scott's Rodeo album.
Maneesh co-produced Travis Scott's "Maria I'm Drunk," featuring Justin Bieber and Young Thug, along with Frank Dukes and Mike Dean.
In 2016, Maneesh appeared on the credits of dvsn's SEPT. 5th album.
Maneesh first appeared on "Charged Up" for OVO, and went on to produce on dvsn's Sept. 5th album.
Maneesh produces three songs on Drake's VIEWS album.
Noah "40" Shebib shared the production credits for Drake's VIEWS album on Instagram. Maneesh produced "Keep The Family Close", "Summers Over", and the titled track "Views".
