Photo: Isaac Wheatley, @richforever & @tropdavinci
Jordan "Mini Boom" Douglas had a feeling he would end up working with Rick Ross one day.
When he was just 13-years-old, the versatile artist was browsing for songs to sample on YouTube when he came across a distinct recording from famed French orchestrator Paul Mauriat. He used FL Studio to rearrange the sounds of the descending piano notes and soothing violin riffs to create a tough, bass-filled instrumental. Mini Boom allowed a handful of people to listen to the beat since he made it three years ago, and they all told him the same thing.
"They'd be like, 'Yo, this sounds like a Rick Ross beat. 100 percent,'" he tells iHeartRadio.
Last month, the 16-year-old beatmaker finally made contact with Rozay. Mini Boom and his father, famed film director Benny Boom, reached out to Ross to appear on his upcoming album Detonate. They sent a beat pack to the MMG boss' engineer David "TropDavinci" Bermudez on Thursday, April 11. Trop and Ross opened the beat pack that Saturday — right before Drake's "Push Ups" leaked online.
The instrumental in question was the first beat Ross heard in the studio, and he instantly loved it. He originally intended to use Mini Boom's beat for a collaboration with Benny The Butcher, however the game plan shifted once everyone heard the authentic version of Drake's diss track.
"We thought it didn't sound right to us," TropDavinci says during a phone call. "At first we were like 'This gotta be AI. It can't even be right.' Once we got the confirmation it was legit, that was when the idea to release it as a Drake diss started forming."
Ross immediately laid down two verses, the hook and the closing skit all within 30 minutes or so. The title came to Ross while he played back the record in the studio. "It was almost like a victory celebration," Trop recalls. An hour later, a clip of "Champagne Moments" leaked online and generated plenty of reactions from all corners of the music industry. The hype surrounding Rozay's swift response inspired the "Everyday Hustle" MC to drop the official version.
Mini Boom and Benny Boom had no idea about Ross' plans. Mini Boom was in the studio and had just cracked a joke about Ross using one of his beats for a Drake diss. Less than two hours after "Push Ups" exploded online, the revered music video director saw Ross' now-infamous Instagram Story in which he teased "Champagne Moments" for the first time.
"I heard it and I said, 'Yo, check out Ross's story. That's your beat in the background,'" Benny Boom explains. "And then, an hour later, the beat came up. So he had no idea that [Ross] was going to use the beat for that."
"I just saw the story and I was just completely freaking out," Mini Boom adds. "And then of course, two hours later when DJ Akademiks announced he was going to play the diss that he just got sent directly on a stream. Then I heard the beat and it was just crazy."
Following its debut on DJ Akademiks' livestream, TropDanvinci mixed, mastered and turned in the final version of the record less than 24 hours later. Shortly after he sent it in, the Miami-based producer saw "Champagne Moments" go up on Ross' Instagram page that Monday, April 15, with the comical cover art featuring a white man who looks similar to Drizzy. Since then, Ross has yet to lift his foot off Drake's neck.
Ross continued his war of words against Drake by referring to him as "BBL Drizzy" and "Cupcake Drake" in numerous IG Stories. Once his diss garnered millions of stream across multiple platforms, Ross premiered the official music video shot by Shula The Don, which put all his well-known brands — Belaire, Bumbu and his upcoming car show — in the spotlight. He also praised Mini Boom and Trop for their work on the record on several occasions. In his Instagram stories, Rozay co-signed Trop's breakdown of the record and saluted Benny Boom's son.
"Can you guess the age of the kid who produced ‘Champagne Moments’?” he said into the camera. “16. That’s right. 16 years old. Little man’s 16 years old and he’s the son of famed director Benny Boom. Yeah, he go by the name Mini Boom. So much love! Y’all show little homie some love. Boss.”
"Champagne Moments" is one of the biggest highlights of Mini Boom's career thus far, but Rozay isn't the only major artist he's produced for. By the time Hip-Hop's civil war broke out, Mini Boom already had a solid mix of credits between established MC's and fellow rising stars. He got his first major placement on Busta Rhymes' 2020 song "Hey You" featuring his son Trillion from the deluxe version of Busta's Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God album. He went on to produce tracks for Dave East, The Game and others.
Boom also dropped a few songs of his own like "NANA vs DADA" featuring D4M $loane & Lay Bankz, "Bag On Em" with Fivio Foreign and "Lets Go" with 2rare & Serena Smart. His previously released singles will appear on his upcoming project Detonate, which drops May 31. As his music career continues to flourish, Mini Boom will never forget his unintentional role in Ross and Drake's beef.
"It was just a really just a exciting moment for me when I found out that night," he says. "The following weeks were just crazy seeing it everywhere, seeing reaction videos of people listening to it, people that I actually watch on YouTube and stuff like that, reacting to the song and just crazy to experience."
When it comes to Drake's beef with Kendrick Lamar, Rozay, Trop and Mini Boom all agree his response on "Euphoria" was necessary. Ross was so impressed that he told Drake not to fire back. Much like everyone else, Mini Boom was blown away by KDot's surprise response.
"I'm really just enjoying the moment that's going on right now between all sides," Boom says. "Just witnessing everything that's happening, especially since like in my era I haven't been able to experience something on this level. So it's great to see."