Last week I had the chance to sit down with Norman Beats, one of Olympia's most slept-on producers, who admits he avoids the spotlight purposely. Beats talked about his past, future and life as a local hip-hop producer.

On Feb. 24 Beats was in the audience of the sold out Macklemore show at The Royal Lounge, meaning he got to hear and see 400 people react to XP performing his newest banger "Again" - a track produced by Norman Beats.

"It's one of the dopest beats I've ever made," Beats has been quoted as saying. 

"Originally the beat was supposed to be for Tech N9ne, but when that fell through Xperience heard it and really liked it so I gave it to him," Beats explains.

The beat Norman Beats is referring to is one that was already as beastly as they come when XP got his hands on it and turned it into a whole new animal. XP is planning to release "Again" on his new mixtape. 

"I really don't care about making a mill (a million dollars) or nothing, I just want to make a decent living off of this," says Beats. "I grew up in San Diego where I was selling beats left and right. I actually sold my first beat for $300, which set the bar pretty high for me at a young age." 

Beats says things were going very well for him in San Diego, where he was producing and rapping with his group L.I.E., but he had to make a move out of S.D. in 2002 for reasons he doesn't wish to speak about. 

"Man, I had been putting in work down there since 1996 and it was kind of sad to leave, but it was time for a change of scenery," explains Beats. "I started making beats when I was 16 with a Groovebox I bought off a friend for $100. It's come a long way since then."

Beats explains that he tries to focus on grooves, which led him to work with Smoke of Oldominion, who was fascinated with the work he had been putting out. 

"We came up with this plan to team up and help out the local talent that we think has a chance to do some damage in the hip-hop world," says Beats. "We are currently in the process of making this happen."

While you may have heard some of Beats's production listening to JunkYard Gang, Xperience, SP and Q-Storm in the past, the entity truly responsible for getting his name out in the South Sound was Saints of Everyday Failures. 

"I went to one of their shows at Le Voyeur in, like, 2002 and I liked their stuff.  I approached them after the show and told them I had just moved here and made beats. They were interested and let me show them some music I had made and were pretty happy with what they heard," says Beats. "Not only did I end up producing a lot of music for them after that, but they also introduced me to a lot of other people that I ended up working with." 

These days, you can check out almost any new hip-hop album coming out of Olympia and your destined to hear some of this OG Olympian's production.