Writing
Clifton the wordsmith has written and recorded over 400 records, and has penned over 1,200 articles between Basement Made, HipHopDX, The Black Sheep, The Badger Herald, Wisconsin Union Theater and Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association. Beef became an author in 2017, publishing his first book/journal called Why Wisconsin Voted For Donald Trump: The Coastie Privilege. Clifton writes non-fiction and fiction.
Music
The poet, rapper, singer and songwriter started recording and engineering in Garageband, and producing beats in Fruity Loops, around age 14. The vocalist pushed his music on the street and also sold mixtapes of others’ music. Beef promoted his first widely distributed single in 2009, using social media, as a part of a new group he formed with a producer. He later switched to Logic Pro and self-produced half of his 22-track debut solo project. An experimental beatmaker, Beef pulls from a diverse pallet of sounds, but often has heavy hip hop, spoken word, rock, jazz, soul, funk, gospel, country, folk, and EDM influence. He worked as an on-air personality and producer at 93.1 JAMZ (Midwest Family Broadcasting) for two years and contributed to several projects for Wisconsin Union Theater as a marketing and social media intern.
Additional record production and engineering credits include: Dope, RCyn, Sam Petricca, Kane-O, Leona Harper, Superior Webbs, Marvy Marv, D. Crews, Dflo, ¡Oye!, M.O., Veezy, C.A., Anthony Brown, Josh Dominguez, Charles White, Jr Wise, South of Lee, Kev, Michael Medall, Kiersty, Chaos NewMoney, Big Daddy Earl, Swisher Sweez, Jamon Randolph, Spaz, Probs, Splitty, Mel Low. He has collaborated on beats with Tony Chaney, Bullet Rush, Elysse Lindell Cook, Michael Cooper, Tony Sanchez, Victory, Scattered Brains, Michael Medall, Jay Walters, Paul Fass, and Quincy Kwalae. The artist has over 80,000 organic plays on Soundcloud alone, and can be heard on many other streaming platforms. Beef gets play around the world. To hear more of Clifton’s recordings, check out his Soundcloud or the Albums page.
Film
The artist has produced, directed and/or starred in over 50 short films, music videos, webisodes and sketches over the course of his career. Cliff’s independent movies have amassed over 2,600,000 organic views on YouTube alone. Like his other art, all of Clifton’s visual productions have been created with little to no budget at all. He also spent a year and a half in Los Angeles – doing background work on major film sets, auditioning, and learning how modeling and acting operate at the industry level. For further examples of his work, see his Youtube or the Videos page. The artist has proven that his raw creativity, vivid storytelling ability, innovative use of language, alternative content and independent character can connect with audiences from around the world.
Design
Clifton Beef began graphic designing in 2009, and does much of his own album art. He co-created the “Teach Me How To Bucky” t-shirt line and currently sells merchandise through the BM store. The web designer created this Midwest Culture website and maintains it.
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