TONY YAYO “SO SEDUCTIVE”

Photo by Mike Delfin

AS HE COMES off the wave of Tony Yayo’s “So Seductive,” Punch is seeing the game in a whole new way. “In the course of one week, I had five major artists hunt me down. Busta Rhymes called me the other day like, ‘Yo, I need a single!’” Yet Punch is far from a new face to the music industry.

When his uncle, Chuck Stanley, was signed to Def Jam in the ’80s, Punch was at every session pretending to be older than he really was. “I’d be 16, 17 years old, smoking, drinking with Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen and they never knew how old I was. Imagine!” But Punch took full advantage of the situation, building his production skills until Cohen eventually signed him to Rush Artist Management. His new deal sent him all over the world—selling tracks, doing commercials, and even touring with Madonna as a keyboardist on the Blond Ambition tour.

But Punch wrapped up the ’90s on a note that would set the tone for his career. Puffy came across a CD of beats and hired him to do “Blast Off” for The Saga Continues, as well as album cuts for G. Dep and Loon. He spent the next few years doing tracks for Canibus, Raekwon, Shaggy, and more, but “So Seductive” has been his biggest success yet, dominating the radio all summer long.

A self-described “prolific producer,” Punch claims to always be by his MPC, banging out close to 600 beats a month. Now exclusively managed by Nile Rogers, one of the biggest producers next to Quincy Jones, the beat madman is being called on by everyone from Lil’ Kim to Peter Gabriel for tracks. “My goal was always to change the sound of music. Right now, it needs a change. It’s time. I’m now into bigger and better music.” - jesse matthews











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