Twan Da God is in his producer bag and has a LOT to celebrate. Twan Da God, real name Antwan Newkirk, has worked and collaborated with some of the biggest heavy-hitters in the rap game, including NBA Youngboy, Rylo Rodriquez, Calboy, and JayDaYoungan… and he shows no signs of slowing down.
Originally born in a small town in North Carolina called Elizabethtown before relocating to Fayetteville when he was six-years-old, Twan Da God relocated to Atlanta in 2016 — a place he now calls home. It was in the sixth grade when he began experimenting with beats and rapping, passing out mixtapes to his peers in high school and performing local shows.
In describing himself, Twan Da God states, I’ve been producing mostly since 2016, going for my goals. I’m a producer who has a wide range from R&B to hip-hop to pop. I’m heavily influenced by the Atlanta culture.”
The name Twan Da God comes from Antwan’s desire to reach GOAT status, and he’s well on his way with the announcement of his new signing to Jay Z’s Roc Nation agency.
AllHipHop spoke with Twan Da God to discuss his love for music, how he learned to produce, his first big placement, how he produced for NBA Youngboy and Rylo Rodriguez, signing to Roc Nation, working with Calboy as part of 6Lement, goals, and more!
AllHipHop: When did you fall in love with music?
Twan Da God: I fell in love with music at a young age. I was part of a little rap group when I was growing up. We were doing shows. When I was in high school, I started traveling with my group. We opened up at proms. Did a couple of shows in New York, Tennessee.
But my main focus when I started taking on producing, I started pushing the producing more because I felt it was quicker to get me in the door. And being an artist takes a lot of money producing. Producing, you ain’t really gotta pay for stuff.
AllHipHop: How did you learn how to produce?
Twan Da God: I just watched my homeboy when I was growing up. I was shadowing him and picked it up that way. It started becoming a natural ability. I learned pretty easy and pretty fast just by watching. Who influenced my music were my favorite producers: Timbaland, Pharell, Ryan Leslie, Metro Boomin, the list goes on. It came real easy, I fell in love with it and started pushing forward.
AllHipHop: Do you remember your first big placement?
Twan Da God: It wasn’t that big, but it was big to me. Well, it was kind of big. It was this record I did with Derez De’Shon, it was called “VVS.” It had Money Man on it, Verse Simmonds. It was a dope record.
AllHipHop: Talk about producing “Goals” for NBA Youngboy, that’s huge.
Twan Da God: I don’t know if you know, I’m also part of a group now. It’s not just me. We go by 6Lement. My partner Parker, we’re in a group together. He’s with APG. He has the relationship with Cheese, NBA Youngboy’s engineer.
Actually, we all got a relationship now. We just had a lunch meeting when I was LA. He’s been rocking with us and asked for beats for him. He been rocking with it, he’s the one that jumped it off.
AllHipHop: Just like that?
Twan Da God: Yeah, it was crazy. Well our first record we did was called “Young Stunna.” It was on From The Bayou, the one that he got with Birdman. That was our first placement with Youngboy.
AllHipHop: I found out about 6Lement through Calboy, he shouted you out on my show Shirley’s Temple.
Twan Da God: Me and Calboy, we got some stuff about to come out with 6Lement. We recorded two projects together. All produced by us, the whole thing. We really went in. We did post-production on Black Heart and went crazy on it. It’s sounding real dope.
AllHipHop: How did you guys tap in?
Twan Da God: So I own a studio in Atlanta called Plugged In Studios. In my studio, you heard of Off The Porch?
AllHipHop: That sounds super familiar. Is that the Dirty Glove Bastard?
Twan Da God: Yeah, so they do that in my studio. In the warehouse in my studio. Calboy came for an interview and we had linked with one of his managers. He had booked the studio session, then he heard us cooking up in the next room. He’s like, “man, I gotta bring Cal. Y’all boys dope!”
The next day, he set up a session with Calboy and the first day we locked in, we knocked out 3 records. That just led on to more and more records. [laughs]
AllHipHop: You also did “Murder” with Rylo in Nardo Wick. How’d that come about?
Twan Da God: Me and Rylo been rocking for a long time. I was engineering him, he came in the studio one day and I played a beat. I said, “Bro, you gotta hop on this beat. This s### gonna be a hit.” I guess he listened and jumped on it. Next thing I know, he played it for me. Originally, he was trying to get 21 Savage on it, but then he came back with Nardo Wick on it. I’m like oh snap! That’s hard.
AllHipHop: Are you transitioning into an recording artist yourself?
Twan Da God: Right now, I lean more into songwriter than recording artist, so I be writing and helping other artists write. Really producing more: telling them to say, do it like this type thing. I mainly build relationships with artists where they feel comfortable with me to take my advice. That’s how I been rocking, I try to lock in with all the artists I know and create a relationship. OMB Peezy, that’s another one that I’m real close with. We lock in a lot, I got a couple of records with him. StreetsMadeMe.
AllHipHop: How does it feel to sign to Roc Nation as a producer? Congratulations.
Twan Da God: Thank you. Everything’s been going great. They been throwing me plays. We’ve really been working on it since last year. We been talking back and forth. My management, Donovan Butler, he’s the one who connected the whole thing and had them looking at me.
It took a while to lock everything in, but I kept working. They really signed me based off talent, they wasn’t really looking at the numbers. They’d listen to the production we was bringing. My manager would meet up with them, play new records and new beats. They was really feeling it. We done locked in a couple of sessions with other artists that’s with Roc Nation, and we been making a lot of dope music together. It’s going to be a beautiful relationship.
AllHipHop: Now what? What’s the game plan?
Twan Da God: I’ve mainly been working with songwriters and other producers, cooking up. Eric Bellinger, we locked in. We got some dope stuff we did together. He came to my studio in Atlanta, then I went to his studio in LA. We made a bunch of dope records. I really don’t know what’s the next one coming out, because we got a lot of placements.
We got one with SleazyWorld Go, another buzzing artist in Atlanta called Anti Da Menace. We be working with Lil Darius a lot, he’s another artist that just signed to a label. We got hella records with Lil Darius. We been locked in with Ryan Trey, we’ve done a lot of records with him.
Who else? You heard of Baby Jungle? We did the majority of his music too. We really locked in with the next wave that’s coming up right now, but we also got a lot of OGs in that game that we’ve been working with too.
AllHipHop: What is special about your beats?
Twan Da God: We’re bringing it back to real producing. We’re also being involved with the making of the song, so we’re controlling the direction. We’re just not putting out anything. We’re really here for the creativity and every detail of it.
AllHipHop: 3 things you need in the studio at all times?
Twan Da God: Some Hennessy or Tequila, maybe a little Don Julio. I need my water, and I like for a good smelling candle to be in the studio.
AllHipHop: Any goals for yourself?
Twan Da God: Yes, I got a lot of goals. Definitely want to get to the Grammys, trying to win one of them. I just want my team as a whole to be stamped in the music industry. Everybody is going to be recognized. I really want us to be the next big thing that everybody’s talking about. Well I feel like we are anyway, because we’re working towards it. It’s a lot of big things going on in the background, so we’re working hard.
We’re building the brand. It’s not just the production team. Eventually it’s going to be a label, so we’re working on that and building it up. Already got people wanting to intern for us. We just building it up.
AllHipHop: Why the name 6Lement?
Twan Da God: Carbon is the sixth element on the periodic table, which is essential for life. We feel like we’re essential to the music industry, that’s how we came up with that. It’s just some nerdy stuff. [laughs]
AllHipHop: What are you most excited for next?
Twan Da God: I’m really excited about this Calboy project. He’s a great guy, he got great energy. The music we did together, we got so many big features on it. Like Jackboy. Fredo Bang, Joey Badass, T-Pain. It’s going to be a real dope project, and I’m glad it’s gonna get the push it deserves.
AllHipHop: Anything else you want to let us know?
Twan Da God: Just be on the lookout for 6Lement, we all coming hard. Twan Da God, Parker, Donovan Butler, we all coming hard.
