Downtown Music Publishing has signed a worldwide publishing agreement with multi-Platinum songwriter, producer, engineer, instrumentalist and composer Chris Barnett, professionally known as Cbmix. A cornerstone of Chicago’s rap and drill music scene, and one of the creators behind Lil Pump and XXXTENTACION’s global hit “Arms Around You” featuring Maluma and Swae Lee, Barnett has organically built a catalog with some of the most culturally defining artists in contemporary music such as Chance the Rapper, Juice WRLD, Kanye West, Smylez, Young Chop, and Chief Keef, among others.
“Chris Barnett’s incredible talents have rightfully positioned him at the forefront of popular music and culture,” said Downtown’s Senior Vice President and Head of A&R Andrew Gould. “Downtown is beyond grateful to Chris and Ben Sachs for choosing Downtown to be Chris' publishing partner.”
Building a network from his early days as producer/engineer in his hometown of Chicago, Barnett landed a spot on Chance’s acclaimed Coloring Book (2016) for the song “Mixtape” featuring Young Thug and Lil Yachty; the project went on to win the GRAMMY for Best Rap Album, becoming the first streaming-only body of work to do so.
“This was a long and well thought out process and the fit was right,” Barnett said of the signing.
In 2018, a year when hip-hop accounted for over 25% of all streamed music in the U.S., Barnett contributed to songs that garnered nearly two billion of those plays. He co-produced Wiz Khalifa’s single “Hopeless Romantic” featuring Swae Lee, Juice WRLD’s single “Wasted” featuring Lil Uzi Vert, and the top 10 Kanye West and Lil Pump single “I Love It” — alongside Lil Pump’s “Esskeetit” and Pump and Desiigner’s “Overseas.” Following his success with Lil Pump on numerous hit songs, Barnett will have significant contributions on his upcoming album, Harverd Dropout, set to release in 2019.
“Chris is a defining creative, shaping the modern music landscape. And he is just getting started,” added Corey Roberts, Vice President of A&R Research at Downtown.
In addition to his work as a record producer, Barnett has an extensive background in audio engineering and operates his own recording studio, Glass Tree Creative. Based in downtown Chicago, the studio is frequented by the likes of Chance, Juice WRLD, Vic Mensa, G Herbo, Desiigner, Lil Bibby, Tee Grizzley, and has become a creative hub for many projects such as Juice WRLD’s “Hide” from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
