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Cassell the Beatmaker

Cassell the Beatmaker

- The Streets
"I play Premier because the team have always looked after me when I needed support. Their drums are the best, they look and sound amazing."

Cassell the Beatmaker is an Ivor Novello award winning song-writer, producer and world renowned drummer.

Cassell’s musical career has lead him to work with an impressive list of established and new artists including names such as Plan B, The Streets, Akala, Ady Suleiman, John Newman, Duffy, Jeff Beck, Rizzle Kicks, Keziah Jones, Mahalia, Natasha Bedingfield, Pixie Lot, Dionne Bromfield, Garou, Axelle Red, Sophie Delila, Jacob Banks, Will Heard, MNEK, Daniel James, Claire Maguire, Terri Walker, Beverly Knight, Kele-le-Roc, Pino Paladino, Faith SFX, New Machine, Lowkey, Ms Dynamite, Nina Nesbit, Tiggs Da Author and many more.

Cassell started his career with a London based hiphop / jazz fusion band named Quite Sane. After winning Capital Radio’s ‘Young London Band of the Year’ as a young teenager, he went on to become the resident drummer for an event named ‘The Apricot Jam’ where he worked with internationally renowned hip hop artists including TY, Estelle, Skinny Man, Floetry, Sway, Bashy, Kalshnekoff, Rodney P, Black Twang & Roots Manuva. With help from the Prince’s Trust, Cassell set up his own production studio in his home town Forest Gate, East London, which enabled him to produce many artists he’d met as a live musician in his own establishment.

As a drummer, Cassell has toured the world extensively with the international superstars, Keziah Jones and Mike Skinner (The Streets). Additionally, Cassell was the first resident drummer for the ‘I Luv Live’ events company where he met two independent artists, Ben Drew (Plan B) and Akala. Cassell worked with both artists and was recorded on both of their debut albums, Ben’s ‘Who Needs Action When You Got Words’ and Akala’s ‘It’s Not A Rumour’ both released in 2006. Further tours across the UK, Europe and America pursued. Cassell gained both drumming and co-writing credits for all of their follow up albums to date.

Plan B’s ‘The Defamation of Strickland Banks’ reached critical and commercial acclaim in 2010 after reaching #1 in the UK charts. Cassell received an Ivor Novello Award as a co-writer and continued working as drummer & co-writer for the follow up #1 album ‘Ill Manors’ in 2012. Cassell received similar credits on Akala’s follow up albums, ‘Freedom Lasso’, ‘Double Think’, ‘Knowledge Is Power’ & ‘The Thieves Banquet’. Cassell co-produced and recorded drums for Ady Suleiman’s debut & sophomore EP which was released through SYCO/Sony Music and has also co-produced an album with Robert Logan (Grace Jones) for Bassistry entitled ‘What The Hell Do You Call This?’.

Whilst life in the studio and on the road continues with success, passion and purpose supporting unsigned acts such as JJ Rosa, Josh Barry, Elle Exxe, Charlie Bowdery and more. Cassell has recently launched his new artist development scheme titled ‘In The Making’ to share his knowledge, skills and wide industry network to offer the best possible services to young, talented artists who require access, support and guidance for their career in music and personal brand & business development.