Richie Souf

I just told Richie we rich!

This line said by Gunna in his 2017 song “Rich Bitch” found its second life in becoming a tagline used to represent the “faceless producer.”

Richie Souf is a record producer, label owner, and entrepreneur from Atlanta, Georgia. Richie is an easily distinguishable figure in music, using his long, blonde hair to his face-covering advantage:

It’s mysterious. If you don’t know something, you want to figure out what it is. I think it makes people want to come to me more. They’ll be like, “Who is this? I like his hair, I like his beats, but what does he look like?”

Richie began an interest in producing at the age of 12 after having seen Craig Brewer’s 2005 film Hustle & Flow, which he explained in his 2016 interview with The FADER:

I started when I was 12. There’s this movie called Hustle & Flow—have you seen that? There’s a scene where they make a beat. When I saw that, it put a bug in my head, like, “This is cool, I want to try it.”

His friend had provided him with a copy of FL Studio, an action that was the catalyst for his experimentation on the beat-making platform.

In 2011, Richie produced “Rollin,” a song by Chicago rapper Soulja Boy of which Richie described made him “the cool kid at the time.” However, the popularity he achieved in high school would be nothing compared to the impact of MadeinTYO’s 2015 breakout hit “I Want,” which elevated Richie and established him as a force to be reckoned with in the music production scene.

Following the release of his collaborative effort with Drake, fellow Atlanta native Future was on the search for a new sound. Richie was referred to Future by his former videographer, Patrick Fagan, thus prompting the Freebandz label head to call him and request to work together that same night. After collaborating with Richie frequently and taking a strong liking to his unique work, Future became adamant about having him as the first producer signed to his record label, Freebandz.

Since then, Richie has produced more well-received songs, such as Gunna’s “Top Off,” Chris Brown’s “High End,” A Boogie wit da Hoodie & Juice WRLD’s “Demons and Angels,” as well as Future and Young Thug’s “All da Smoke,” among many others.

In 2022, Richie founded and curated SOUFSIDE: his record label and production group based in Atlanta, Georgia.