SAMPLEDJeff Markey has been on Backwoodz since the first Armand Hammer mixtape — he just disappears between records
From "Native Sun" in 2013 to Sports & Leisure, the Akron-born producer's credits read like a decade of well-timed cameos.
Some producers build a catalog. Jeff Markey built a pattern of well-placed appearances, then vanished for years at a stretch. Backwoodz says it directly: his contributions have always been memorable and always few and far between.
The trail of credits
- 2013 — produces "Native Sun," the opening track on Half Measures, the first Armand Hammer mixtape
- 2013 — "Black Ark" on Race Music, the duo's debut LP
- 2019 — co-produces "Western Education is Forbidden," the first single from billy woods' Terror Management, featuring Fielded
- 2022 — "Halloween Fell On A Weekend" with Fielded again, on Armand Hammer's vinyl-exclusive WHT LBL
Two collaborations with Fielded, two hits. Whatever the two of them do together works.
The other history
Markey has a long association with Reservoir Sound, the arts collective founded by producer A.M. Breakups, and released projects outside the Backwoodz orbit. Mostly, though, he spent the last decade on the periphery of the New York independent scene — as likely to drop something excellent as to go quiet for years.
The reset
He was born in Akron and moved to New York in 2004. According to the label, the pandemic gave him the time and headspace to recommit to music, and Sports & Leisure marks the start of a more consistent era.
His page is here (opens in a new tab).