SPC PROJECTS: LOCOMOTOR (2014)
Known professionally as Clams Casino and Clammy Clams, Mike Volpe is a 26-year-old American hip-hop producer based in New Jersey. One of the more creative left-field hip-hop figures to surface during the late 2000s, Volpe landed his first collaboration after contacting the Pack’s Lil B via MySpace. The MC proceeded to use several Clams Casino productions, all of which were trippy, wistful, and strangely emotive, for the likes of Realist Alive, Motivation, and I’m God (the latter of which was also used by Soulja Boy for 2 Milli). Volpe’s professional profile quickly rose as word got out that he was the one behind these tracks, as well as the source for material by Main Attrakionz, Main Attrakionz’s Squadda Bambino, and Mobb Deep’s Havoc. In June 2011, the first official Clams Casino solo release, the Rainforest EP, was issued by Tri Angle. Volpe also uploaded a free 13-track mixtape, Instrumentals, which earned him a number 16 listing in SPIN magazine’s “40 Best Rap Albums of 2011”―with a citation stating that this “sonic smear barely scans as rap music, but Instrumentals is arguably 2011’s definitive sound.” He made the cover of SPIN for a feature on “The Changing Face of Hip-Hop,” and this past fall made a crossover into the world of video games with one of his cuts featured on the soundtrack of the Grand Theft Auto 5. His score for Locomotor is his first composition for dance.