Blanco at home in Los Angeles. But for an Everyman, he’s also slyly savvy, gossiping like the consummate insider, but giving only enough to prove he’s plugged-in without betraying anyone’s confidence (or violating any nondisclosure agreements).Working with Kanye West, for instance, was “crazy,” “incredible” and “inspiring.” “Everything you want to believe about him is true,” Mr. Blanco said — “in the best way possible!” To listeners, they may be cipher-like stars, but to Mr. Blanco, they are all homies, or buddies, or just good dudes.What Mr. Blanco is not, however, is a hanger-on, or a name-dropper with nothing to back it up.
“I beat the system — I get all the luxuries of being famous without actually being famous!”Born Benjamin Levin to nonmusical but ever supportive (if skeptical) parents — a father in the “intimate apparel business” and a mother who worked in assisted living — Mr. Blanco was an aspiring rapper until he realized “no one cares what a chubby Jewish kid from Virginia thinks,” and began making beats instead. “I couldn’t sit down and play a concert for you or really wow you on any instrument,” Mr. Blanco said, estimating that “like 75 percent” of his success comes from being a good hang. This fall, Mr. Blanco will release an official album, but he plans to continue adding songs to it after the fact, inspired in part by Mr. West’s “I have so many friends that are artists, and I work on so many songs, and sometimes it’s so hard to place them, even at my level,” Mr. Blanco said. "Roses" did not enter the Swedish Singellista Chart, but peaked at number five on the Swedish Heatseeker Chart. “All my beats were like 40 seconds long.”Even now, he considers his arsenal of traditional skills to be limited at best. 2002 (song) A. Adore (Cashmere Cat song) All in My Head (Flex) Animals (Maroon 5 song) Ass Back Home; At My Best ; B. Now he’s putting out songs of his own.On a recent summer morning in his Manhattan apartment-slash-home studio, Benny Blanco, one of the most successful producers and songwriters in contemporary music, was scrolling through Teeth freshly brushed, in a pajama-like outfit that doubles as his regular uniform — soccer shorts, vintage Cher T-shirt, an unruly Chia Pet shrub of curls, tangled gold chains, Fenty slides — Mr. Blanco rattled off the director’s commentary on his discography as he tried to explain how he’d gone from an anonymous teenage goofball from the suburbs to the preferred studio goofball of pop stars everywhere.With motor-mouthed enthusiasm, he reminisced about his feel-good, hands-in-the-air Top 40 anthems under the gurus Dr. Luke and Max Martin — Britney Spears’s “Circus,” Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold” and “I Kissed a Girl,” Kesha’s “Tik Tok,” Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” — and took special pride in his run of smashes, post-apprenticeship, with Rihanna, Trey Songz, Maroon 5 and Iggy Azalea.But Mr. Blanco, 30, lit up most describing his left turns: championing the understated “I’ve produced every song I want to produce, I’ve done it every way I want to do it,” Mr. Blanco said, “and especially now with this Kanye stuff, my bucket-list dreams are pretty much checked off.” (For years, he’d kept a computer folder labeled “Kanye drums,” just in case. West, in a text via an associate, called Mr. Blanco “an amazing talent” who “brought in awesome, weird and aggressive sounds and concepts.” (The John Janick, the chairman and chief executive of Interscope Geffen A&M, said: “There’s nobody on the planet like Benny. In an effort to bolster his credentials (and assist in the journalistic process), Mr. Blanco solicited testimonials from his colleagues, insisting: “I can hook you up — I’ll get everyone.”Mr. "Graduation" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 12 on the NZ Hot Singles Chart. This list may not reflect recent changes . Benny Blanco, Travie McCoy, Ammar Malik, RoboPop, Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo, Matt McGinley, David Silberstein Gym Class Heroes featuring Neon Hitch October 31, 2011 This fall, Mr. Blanco will release an official album, but he plans to continue adding songs to it after the fact, inspired in part by Mr. West’s living, breathing “The Life of Pablo.”