Courtesy of Maryland Eastern Shore Athletic Communications


PRINCESS ANNE, Md. — When Derrico Peck joined the University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team in the fall of 2015, he was in Princess Anne to just play basketball. What he did not know was that the next two years would lay the groundwork for his career after basketball.

He is now one half of Priority Beats, which is a producing, songwriting and engineering duo. The other half of the duo is his wife Ashley, and the two were nominated for Grammys for their work with Lil Baby and Anuel AA this past year.

Peck came to the Hawks after completing his Bachelor's degree at Northeastern and still had two years of eligibility left. By the time his playing career with Eastern Shore ended in 2017, Peck had already climbed to second all-time in school history in blocks with 66, but his work making beats off the court is where he truly found his calling.

The Atlanta, Ga., native made his first beat in eighth grade. He began by just messing around with sounds on his AT&T phone. That led to him watching YouTube videos and making a beat in a demo version on his computer, but Peck did not have the beat for long.

"After I made my first beat on the computer I felt like I knew something," Peck said. "But my mom shut my computer down so I loss the first beat I ever made."

Peck continued to refine his skills over the next few years. As he got older he knew he had to make an investment to get to the next level.

By the time he was a student at Eastern Shore he had saved up for a $2,000 laptop. During that time, he used his Twitter page to connect with someone that would help him sell his material. He was making just $20 a beat, but he was on his way to more.

The moment that made Peck's work become heard around the area was when he and teammate Ryan Andino combined for a song in 2016 ahead of a game against rival Delaware State. The two left practice and went to Peck's dorm room and made a diss track about the Hornets basketball team.

Peck made the beat, Andino rapped the lyrics in one take and the song went on SoundCloud. One hour after the song was released, it had 2,000 streams.

"We lost the game and got chewed out by the coaches," Peck said. "But it still was dope because everybody heard the song and it was good quality."

After graduation, Peck was back in his hometown making beats and networking by reaching out to other artists in the area via Instagram DMs. He had a breakthrough with one of the messages when he got a call from his former Hawk teammate Shane Randall. Randall had called him about a DM his cousin Ashley – who worked in the music industry – had received from Peck.

"It's crazy because Shane called me about her and I actually didn't know her name at the time," Peck said. "Once he explained who she was, I told them to come over. That day, we made a song, then we started talking.

"Now we are married with two kids."

Ashley worked as an engineer with Quality Control Music before Priority Beats was formed. The record label, simply known as QC, houses artists such as Lil Baby, Migos and City Girls.

The relationships that she developed during her time at QC led to Priority Beats getting a chance to work with several artists and producers on the label. After first making various beats and not even knowing who would be the artist on the song, the duo's production work would eventually become the song "Live Off My Closest" on Lil Baby's album My Turn. They also were producers on the song "Antes y Después" on Anuel AA's album Emmanuel. Both albums received Grammy nods.

Peck and his family have relocated from Atlanta to Los Angeles in recent months. Priority Beats is now signed with Sony Music Publishing and are looking forward to what the future holds.

"Success on the surface right now is that we're in LA, so our clientele is growing," Peck said. "Also, I get happiness and peace because I get to see my family every day. My wife and I are able to be with our kids at home and create content."