Royall didn't even like the beat at first.
He'd had it sitting in his vault for days, maybe weeks, before deciding to post it anyway — figuring he might as well "get something out there." That beat would go on to become "Q&A," a track on a Drake album, and the latest example of a story BeatStars producers know well: you never know which file is the one until you post it.
In the newest episode of The Inside Track, Royall walks through exactly how it happened, from a self-taught bedroom setup to a placement he calls his original end goal in music.
From GarageBand to a Five-Year Self-Taught Grind
Royall's path started the way a lot of producer stories do: messing around on GarageBand on his phone. It wasn't until 2020, when everyone was stuck indoors, that he decided to actually teach himself music production. Five years of self-taught work later, in his own words, "just learning by myself in my room," he'd built a sound he describes as experimental — genre-blending, built on whatever feels good rather than sticking to one lane.
The Loop Pack That Started It All
The track that became "Q&A" began with a cold outreach. Royall was hunting for loops on YouTube, came across producer Sav's channel, and asked for a pack. At the time, Royall was averaging around 200 views and 100 subscribers — not exactly leverage — but Sav sent him a full pack anyway. Royall built on it for the next six months.
The spark for this particular beat came from somewhere unexpected: his kitchen. "I'll be in the kitchen or something and all of a sudden I hear something and it inspires me to make something on the spot," he explains. His roommate happened to be freestyling over Brazilian funk, and Royall instantly heard a way to combine it with sexy drill. That collision of genres, worked out live in real time, became the foundation of the beat — and, later, the sound he says he's still trying to push forward.
It Was Already on BeatStars
Here's the part producers will want to pay attention to: the beat, nicknamed "Baby Four" (the fourth of five versions Royall made off Sav's loop), was posted publicly on both YouTube and BeatStars as a non-exclusive lease, offer-only, for months. Nobody bought it. Then Stackey, a Drake connect, found it through a different beat of Royall's that had gone viral on YouTube — and asked him to take "Baby Four" down before anyone else could grab a lease and complicate the placement.
Royall pulled it from both platforms for six months while things were sorted out, turning down $300–$400 offers along the way. He didn't know for certain the song was for Drake until Stackey told him directly. Even then, he says, "it was super hard to believe... it's just not something you believe right up front."
Building the Track
In the studio breakdown portion of the episode, Royall walks through the actual production: pitching Sav's loop up eight keys for a more upbeat feel, adding saturation for grit, and layering in a vocal snippet — Sav's own voice saying "baby" — that most listeners don't realize made it into the final mix. The drums are deceptively simple: just a kick and a bongo carrying the whole track, with added vocal fills and a drum loop for the back half. From there, collaborators AP, Dylan Hyde, and Stackey merged in their own melody and bass, and the final mix came together with help from Angel and B4U.
Waiting for Release Day
Even after all of that, Royall still didn't know if the song had actually made the album until release day. He and Sav got on the phone together, recording their reactions in real time as they scrolled to see if it was there. "It was just crazy," he says. "It's hard to explain."
The Advice He'd Give Any Producer
Royall's takeaway is the same lesson that runs through the whole story: post the work, even the stuff you're unsure about. "If Sav didn't post his loop kit, I would have never found it. If I didn't post this beat, Stackey would have never found it. It's all about just putting your work out there."
He credits BeatStars with giving him a structure to sell passively instead of relying on sketchy DM deals — a foundation that let a beat he almost kept hidden find its way to a Drake connect months later.
Watch the full episode of The Inside Track to hear Royall break down the entire session in the DAW, and follow BeatStars for more stories like this one.
Check out the full episode of The Inside Track: https://youtu.be/EQpSRxP97C0
