Carlos Stephens facts for kids

Carlos Stephens (born January 24, 1972) is an American record producer and mixing engineer from New Orleans, Louisiana. A record producer helps artists create their music, from writing songs to recording them. A mixing engineer makes sure all the sounds in a song blend perfectly. Carlos became famous as part of the "Beats by the Pound" team at No Limit Records. He was the only producer there who could also release music for other artists outside the label. Later, he started his own record company called Flame Entertainment. Carlos has helped sell over 75 million records and his work has been streamed nearly 900 million times! He has worked on more than 65 big music projects. He has also helped create three number one songs, 14 gold albums, 10 platinum albums, two double platinum, one triple platinum, and one quadruple platinum album.

Early Life and Music Beginnings

Carlos Stephens was born in New Orleans but grew up in the Gretna area. In the early 1990s, he started making music for local groups. This helped him learn and improve his skills as a producer.

Joining No Limit Records

In 1994, Carlos produced a song for Ron Gray. This was one of his last projects before he joined No Limit Records. He became part of their special in-house production team called "Beats by the Pound."

Over the next few years, Carlos made a lot of music for artists signed to No Limit Records. His first major project was on Silkk the Shocker's first album, The Shocker, in 1996.

In 1996, Carlos got special permission from Master P, the head of No Limit Records. This allowed him to be the only producer from the team to release music outside of No Limit. He then released his first artist, Skull Duggery, and the group The Ghetto Commission in 1998. Later, Carlos was nominated for "Producer of the Year." He was also voted one of Hip-Hop's "Thirty Most Powerful People" by The Source magazine.

Big Hits and Success

By 1999, other members of "Beats By The Pound" had left No Limit Records. Carlos was the only one left, and he oversaw most of the music production for the next five years. During this time, he helped create many gold and platinum albums.

He worked on Master P's platinum-selling album Only God Can Judge Me. He also produced the main song for the movie Light It Up. In 2000, Carlos contributed music to the soundtrack for the HBO TV show Oz.

Carlos and No Limit Records then introduced the 504 Boyz. He produced their first album, which sold platinum. The main song from that album, "Wobble Wobble", also went platinum. After this, Master P's album Ghetto Postage went gold, with its huge hit song "Bout Dat" reaching platinum status.

In 2001, Carlos had his biggest success with Lil Romeo's first song, "My Baby". This song went platinum and stayed at number one on the Billboard charts for 10 weeks! "My Baby" was even named the 2001 Billboard Single of the Year.

Later Career

In 2008, Carlos tried something new: he directed his first music video. It was for the song "Be Fresh" from C-Murder's album Screamin' 4 Vengeance. Carlos also started a company called 31Minds LLC. This company helps other businesses with their branding and finds new ways for them to work together.