By Karev | Heritage Hip-Hop | Heritagehiphop.com
"You are now listening to an Ipkiss production." If you know, you know. And if you do not know yet, August 29 is going to fix that.
Stanley Ipkiss is an award-winning music producer from Newark, New Jersey — beat battle champion, CEO of Headphone Therapy LLC, and one of the most versatile creators in the culture right now. The name comes from Jim Carrey's character in the 1994 film The Mask, a nickname his friends would not let die after the movie dropped, so he took it and made it his own. That tells you something about the man before you hear a single beat. He takes what the world hands him and turns it into identity. And honestly, the name fits, because like the mask itself, when Ipkiss puts his hands on a record it transforms into something bigger, louder, and impossible to ignore.
Do not call him just a Hip-Hop producer, because the catalog will not let you. Ipkiss blends Hip-Hop, R&B, Soul, Dance, Club, and Gospel — no music is a challenge he backs away from, pushing the boundaries of sound with music that is big, electric, and soulful. His inspirations run from Michael Jackson to Timbaland, and his favorite comic book character is Superman, which makes sense, because the work ethic is not from this planet. He even took the comic book love all the way to wax, creating Comic Cons, an album built on comic book concepts with Deuce H. Wood the 5th. Rest in peace to Deuce — that record is part of his legacy now too, and Ipkiss carries it forward every time he presses play.
And the culture has tested him. This is not a producer who built a reputation in a bedroom and never defended it. Stanley Ipkiss has won producer beat battles across the United States, and then he did what champions are supposed to do — he built a stage so the next generation could compete. Battle in the Bricks is his signature live producer beat battle, presented in partnership with Newark's milestone Lincoln Park Music Festival, putting underground producers in front of industry judges like Rah Digga. A Newark producer, championing Newark producers, in the middle of a Newark institution. That is not networking. That is nation building.
Now the work stands nominated. Artificial Ipkiss 2 is up for Solo Project of the Year at the 2026 Heritage Hip-Hop Awards — a critically acclaimed album with complete creative concepts, deliberate song sequencing, and production themes that cross genres the way only Ipkiss crosses them. He came on Off The Record, right here on the Heritage Hip-Hop Podcast, and broke the whole album down — the catalog, the global beat-competing background, the creation process. If you want to understand how a champion thinks, that conversation is required listening.
And here is the part that shows you what this year's nominee class really is. Stanley Ipkiss is the main producer on Badmuthafucka — Janétza Miranda's album, nominated in the same Solo Project of the Year category. Sit with that. Two Newark artists, one producer's fingerprints, both standing in the same category on the same night. Add DJ Kawon producing D.R.U.M.S. RUGGED's Keep It Rugged and you see the truth about this year's Heritage Hip-Hop Awards: these nominees did not just make records, they made records together. This is not an industry. This is a community that builds each other up, from Newark to Dallas to Maryland to Massachusetts. Different cities. Different sounds. One culture.
The Heritage Hip-Hop Awards streams live Saturday, August 29, 2026 at 8 PM on YouTube at www.youtube.com/HeritageHipHop, hosted by The Bad Seed, Johnny Dough, Karev, and DJ Big A. Have you run Artificial Ipkiss 2 yet? Put it on today, follow him at @kingipkiss26, and catch his Off The Record breakdown on the Heritage Hip-Hop Podcast on iHeart. Then pull up on August 29 and be in the chat when Brick City's champion hears his name called. Salute to Stanley Ipkiss for proving that the producer is not behind the music. The producer IS the music. Hip-Hop is to be valued and able to grow representing God's people. God's people is his Heritage and his Heritage is Hip-Hop.
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- Karev
- Mar 30, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 6, 2019
March 30, 2019
Tonight the world was introduced to the beginning of a new era of sound. Bloody Waters release party came and went making the world a more soulful and forgiving place. The world knows many people that can sing, but not too many people know of Gail Campbell. Tonight the world was introduced to Gail Campbell and a renewal of faith in music started to grow when music from her Debut album, Bloody Waters, started to play. The crowd swayed back and forth with joy in their hearts. Young women praised danced to the music giving God worship and praise for the creation of music that was delivered by Stan Ipkiss and Gail Campbell. The hood came out to celebrate and the listeners were given a reason to believe that real music still exist. I call this the Genesis because in the book of Genesis God began the world giving people the commandment to take control of the world and make it our own. Gail Campbell is taking the world ear by ear, soul by soul and giving them a renewed understanding of music coming from the soul, not a program director or someone telling you how to think, sound, or feel. When Gail danced with her mother to the classic track Overdose and brought out Tha Savior to rhyme over the gritty 70s dance track the crowd was moved by the soul and spirit that moved through out the room.
This night was a celebration not only for Gail Campbell to release her voice and emotion on music. This is the night that real music came back to the forefront and people were treated to not only the depth of emotions that came from Gail's inner self. We were all treated to her pain, her joy, her growth, and the genesis of her new life as healer through musical expression. If you crave good music go buy and stream Bloody Waters and contact Gail Campbell and tell her what that album has done for you. For 1 night in Montclair, NJ it made the world still and gave us a reason to rejoice at God's Plan for 1 soul.
- Karev
- Mar 30, 2019
- 3 min read
Once in a lifetime does an artist find a producer that can challenge them to be great. Once in a lifetime do we find a genius in their craft that challenges the world we know to expand and grow due to our lack of experience in something we love. Very few people like that come our way and we awe at their creative ability to capture our souls with their artistry of life. Maybe it's the way Mike or Kobe played ball that made people want to go to the extreme to take over a sport. Maybe the artistry for expression is what made Odell Beckham Jr. capture the hearts of so many young football stars to never hide their love of personality. Maybe it is the way Prince or Michael Jackson moved the world with soulful music that opened up the possibility to people that music was for more than our ears, it is also for the soul. Maybe it is Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Pete Rock and so many other producers in the Hip-Hop culture that taught us how to make music from sound that inspired us to move our feet and the crowd over drum patterns and loops that caused us to make our own sound for the world to hear. Yet, who had the scope to not only make new sounds and beats but to create a world with their music?
Welcome to the reality and art of Stan Ipkiss the founder of Headphone Therapy. After producing for other artists, Mr. Ipkiss has put out his own instrumental album that is more than a Hip-Hop beat album it is music for the soul not just for the inner city culture of Hip-Hop. In this world we have what so many producers in today's music lack, harmony and the ability to score and compose. In music today we have beats that are dry and lack artistry. The beats of today's music is just sounds with no soul or harmony in it. A lot of today's producers are just putting vibes together and the mindless are bobbing their heads to a pattern. Stan Ipkiss has not only broken that chain but has composed a soundtrack to the emotion of music. There are beats for the Hip-Hop kid, the house music mind, and for the anime generation all here on his contribution to keeping real music alive. If you rap, sing, or love to listen to music as you go through your day this album has more than 1 selection for you to enjoy and listen to. 326 is an album that brings music lovers back to the love that they lost and will inspire the next generation of music composers and beat producers to not only step their games up. It will challenge them to create a world of music instead of catchy beats and hooks if they are paying attention to the delivery of the tracks and their names. Stan Ipkiss will be a name you will know for many years to come and by listening to this album you will thirst and hunger for more music to be delivered by. Maybe it is the the way Stan Ipkiss saves his best to inspire that will take music to its next level one beat at a time. Maybe it is your willingness to hear it that can bring the best out of you.
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