Pi'erre Bourne emerged as one of the preeminent rap producers of the late 2010s, scoring major hits with
Playboi Carti and
6ix9ine, in addition to working with
Kanye West,
Travis Scott,
21 Savage, and others. Also active as a rapper, he has recorded several solo mixtapes (The Life of Pi'erre series) and singles, showcasing his atmospheric beats and Auto-Tuned crooning. He first gained widespread attention when he produced
Carti's 2017 breakout hit "Magnolia." He later received acclaim for
Sli'merre, his 2019 mixtape with frequent collaborator
Young Nudy.
Born Jordan Timothy Jenks in Fort Riley, Kansas,
Bourne spent his summers with his grandmother in Queens, New York, where he became interested in East Coast rap. Inspired by his uncle, who was a rapper and graphic designer, he began making beats while in elementary school, and later moved to Atlanta to study sound engineering and pursue a career in music. He began releasing music in 2014, and worked at Epic Records as a sound engineer beginning in 2015, leaving a year later to focus on his career. He released three volumes of his solo mixtape series, The Life of Pi'erre, in 2016, and produced tracks for
Young Nudy and
Trippie Redd the same year. After meeting
Playboi Carti,
Bourne produced several tracks on the rapper's self-titled debut, including "wokeuplikethis*" (with
Lil Uzi Vert) and "Magnolia." The latter was a breakthrough for both the rapper and the producer, with
Bourne's producer tag ("Yo Pierre, you wanna come out here?," sampled from The Jamie Foxx Show) spinning off into an internet meme in its own right.
Bourne and
Carti also recored a song called "Yo Pi'erre!," which was announced as being the first single from The Life of Pi'erre 4.
From there,
Bourne became one of rap's most in-demand producers. By the end of 2017, he had produced songs for
Lil Yachty,
XXXTentacion,
21 Savage,
6ix9ine ("Gummo"),
Big Sean, and many others.
Bourne produced the majority of
Carti's acclaimed 2018 full-length
Die Lit, in addition to producing
Travis Scott's "Watch" and co-producing
Kanye West's "Yikes." In 2019,
Bourne and
Young Nudy released their first full-length collaboration,
Sli'merre, to critical acclaim. ~ Paul Simpson