Kansas City–born hip-hop producer Judge talks about his life in Los Angeles

You’re in a Hollywood mansion (OK, a mini-mansion), and the party is going strong when you see a Royals baseball cap hovering over the DJ booth. Yup, you’re at Lil Aaron’s place, epicenter of a semi-mysterious new brand of internet hip-hop coolness. And you’ve spotted Paul Judge. He’s usually the lone Kansas Citian at these raucous get-togethers of up-and-coming rappers and internet celebrities. He’s also often one of the most talented musicians in the room.

Judge, 26, is known simply by his last name to nearly everyone he works with; he was reluctant to let me use his first name here. He first posted photos of his face on social media only this year. He moved to Los Angeles in 2016 but has been making music since he attended Rockhurst High School, having grown up watching older brothers Michael and Matt play in punk bands (Culture Camp, Der Todesking, Anne Emergency) and done time in some rock bands himself. He says he can’t remember the bands’ names and doesn’t think much of the music he made then. “It was so bad,” he tells me.

Compared to his punk-leaning siblings, the hip-hop-loving Judge is something of a black sheep. His first time dabbling in his preferred form involved making beats with drum machines and GarageBand software. Soon came CD-Rs full of beats, given to a Rockhurst classmate to rap over. Judge also formed a comedy-rap duo with his best friend and says they grew a substantial local following.

By the time Judge was 18, he was delivering beats to Kansas City locals and rappers online — and getting paid. “I had songs that popped on the internet and stuff,” he says. “But to actually make money doing this, it’s very hard to do if you’re not in L.A.” So, after graduating from the University of Missouri with a bachelor’s degree in English, he set out to make music production his career.

During a 2015 visit to Los Angeles, Judge met Lil Aaron (born Aaron Puckett), laying groundwork for a future partnership. During a series of studio sessions, Judge and Lil Aaron discovered how well they clicked. “I met him, we went into a session, and within 20 minutes we made a song,” Judge says. “And we were both just like, ‘Wow, you’re dope.’ ” Lil Aaron signed a publishing deal in early 2016, moved into that mini-mansion and invited Judge to join him.

Lil Aaron has his own family ties to DIY punk. His brother Kora plays in several bands in their home state of Indiana, including CHUD, Laffing Gas and Bugg. Each has played Kansas City in the past few years and would have fit neatly alongside various of the Judge brothers’ old projects.

Since establishing residence in the Golden State, Judge has made some noteworthy associations — including underground icon Bones and multimedia savant Yung Jake. But among the many collaborations on Judge’s SoundCloud page, the name that stands out the most may be ILoveMakonnen’s. Judge and Y2K co-produced “Prolly” — a Lil Aaron single featuring the “Tuesday” crooner. “I had been a Makonnen fan for so long, and then I was just suddenly watching him in our living room, rapping on my beat,” Judge says.

Colonizing the Billboard charts doesn’t mean Judge is leaving his hometown behind. Two rising Kansas City stars — Rory Fresco and Dettsa — worked with Judge when he was back in town for the holidays at the end of 2016. Dettsa has dropped two songs produced by Judge since then and promises more are on the way. “It’s different,” Dettsa says. “His shit is hard.”

Judge attributes his music’s appeal to his broad taste and his ability to mix different sounds and genres. “Hip-hop is where I come from for sure, but I do a lot more than that,” he says. “I’m doing a lot of pop, R&B, urban, etc.” He readily cites his influences, saying he wants to make beats that “bang like Metro Boomin” that are also “artsy and cool, like Cashmere Cat.”

Meanwhile, countless internet-using millennials have been exposed to products of the mini-mansion. Lil Aaron — when he’s not welding together Warped Tour pop-punk and Atlanta trap for his own music — has written songs for numerous other artists. He has his ASCAP bona fides thanks to work for Icona Pop and Dev, for instance, and hints that he’s done ghostwriting for even bigger acts. And then there’s one of the biggest memes of 2016: “Dicks out for Harambe.” Following the slaying of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, a friend of Lil Aaron and Judge who goes by SexualJumanji tweeted: “We comin with them dicks out to avenge Harambe.” Two days later, during a Fourth of July party, Judge and Lil Aaron found themselves tossing back and forth a shortened version of the tweet. Thus was born the phrase that comedian — and mini-mansion party guest — Brandon Wardell picked up, on his way to being lauded by Rolling Stone as the “voice of a generation.”

Mini-mansion roommates Mikey and Rashaun help, too, working on graphics and merchandise and collaborating with Judge and Lil Aaron on more visual projects. “It’s like a little factory,” Judge says. “We’re all always collabing on ideas and stuff.”

Judge says he has finished work on a new EP consisting of solo, EDM-style instrumental tracks, due out soon. A full-length “producer album,” featuring verses from rappers and other guest appearances, is being worked on for release in late 2017 or early 2018. Until then, the next track you see by Lil Aaron, or any other promising new rapper ascending SoundCloud, might say: “Prod. by Judge.”