DALLAS — His name is Julian Mason.

But most know him as Lil Ju. The 28-year-old rapper from Dallas makes beats heard around the world on songs topping the charts like Megan Thee Stallion’s recent record “Body.”

“This is what I’ve been working for since I first picked up beats to get to this point to be able to be on the producer list, to be with one of the perennial artists of the new generation,” Mason said. “I know this type of stuff doesn’t happen for people from Dallas. It feels good to know that I’m the producer from the city.”

A 2010 graduate of DeSoto High School, the producer got his first taste of music in the band as a percussionist. Mason admitted that as a young boy growing up, music was more than just an outlet – it was a way of life.

“I’ve always loved music,” he said. “I’m musically inclined. I eat, sleep and breathe music. I was in band in fifth, sixth and seventh grade. So, I played the drums, the xylophone, the triangle, the cymbal – all of the percussion instruments.”

After graduating high school, Mason took his talents to Houston where he furthered his education by attending the University of Houston, while still pursuing his goals of making music. Fast forward to 2017, Mason and Megan – now dubbed the Houston hottie – connected and began working together shortly after. Mason recalled Megan coming to his home in the “hood” just to create music.

“We were literally in my kitchen table in Houston,” he said, reminiscing back to three years ago.

Ever since he was a sophomore in high school, Mason has crafted beats.

“I’m not going to say I was always interested in beats, but music is literally in me,” he said. “If you go to my Instagram page, I have a picture of me when I was like three and I used to turn on my dad’s record player and I would just listen to records to every song.”

Reflecting on the very moment that changed his life, Mason noted it was a close friend who introduced him to beat making.

“I say in 2008, I remember it like it was yesterday, the “Carter III” leaked before the album came out,” he said. “I remember that I was at my friend’s house and he showed me the software that I use to make beats on a computer. So, he showed me the software that day and I told him it was the coolest s---t I had ever seen in my entire life.”

Afterward, Mason went home to download the software for his own use.

“From that day, I said, ‘this is what I’m going to do with my life’,” he said. “I’m going to get rich and famous off this s---t. … Since then, I just did everything in my path to get to this point.”

Mason’s work with Megan Thee Stallion catapulted his career. Within just three weeks of its release, “Body” produced by Lil Ju, sold more than 500,000 units in the United States, making it a gold record. But it’s not the first time the duo’s work has put both Texas natives on the map. According to ChartData, “Big Ole’ Freak,” which debuted in 2018, went platinum—selling 1 million units--- on June 3, nearly a year after it went gold.

“All of her firsts are my firsts and vice versa,” he said. “That was my first song on the charts and that was her first song on the charts. “Big Ole’ Freak” was her first gold record and that was my first gold record.”

Megan, the mastermind behind Lil Ju’s tagline –  ‘and if the beat live, you know Lil Ju made it' – serves as an intro to the songs he produces.

“As soon as she said it, I was like, ‘this is going to be viral,’” Mason said. “I was Lil Ju, but I wasn’t Lil Ju yet when she made that song. We were still bubbling.”

The words originated from the track “Run It Up Freestyle” featured on Megan Thee Stallion’s “Fever” mixtape released last year.

“It was just too perfect,” he said of the one liner. “Once the mixtape came out, I started putting it every song. I did not tell her to say it, she just said it on her own.”

In an interview with TIDAL, Megan talked about the musical tastes shared between her and Mason as a recipe for success.

“Us together, we make music that we want to listen to,” she said. “Like the songs that we make together, we can listen to over and over again… I always have to have something by Ju, because the chemistry is just crazy. We used to sit in the living room and make beats.”

In just three years, the bond forged with Megan has become tight. More than just a friendship based on lyrics and beats, the two have been there for each other in tough times.

“I was there when her momma died,” Mason said. “I was with her in the hospital. She was crying in my arms. When her grandmother died, I was with her in the hospital. She was crying in my arms. When we got the news that “Big Ole’ Freak" went gold, we were at Lizzo’s mansion in L.A. She’s crying in my arms.”

Lil Ju will tell anyone that his rise to fame did not happen overnight and that it came with setbacks. The work he hoped to do with rapper Radric Davis, known as Gucci Mane, was derailed when the Atlanta native pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon back in 2014.

“I remember talking to Gucci Mane and everything,” Mason said. “He said he wanted to sign me and then that’s when he went to jail for those three years. That whole time I was like maybe that’s my shot and I missed it. But, God had a different plan.”

And it was Mason’s pursuit of his goals that kept him going in spite of the change in plans.

“Between Gucci Mane and meeting Megan, nothing was really happening for me,” he said. “What’s happening for me right now with Megan, I thought was going to happen back then in 2013 with Gucci. But, he literally went to jail probably two weeks after the mixtape came out.”

On Dec. 5, Mason landed on Billboard’s Rap Producers and R&B/Hip-Hop Producers list as No. 1 for hits – “Body” and “Do It on the Top” – he produced for Megan Thee Stallion. Looking back, Mason insists he knew the day would come where people would dance to his music – he just didn’t know exactly when. As far as what’s next, he hopes to work with some of his favorite singers and rappers.

“I want a Drake placement, I want the Beyoncé placement, I want the Taylor Swift [and] I want the Rihanna,” he said, adding that he’s the first Texas-born producer on the Billboard’s Rap Producers and R&B/Hip-Hop Producers list. “I want to be the one. I want it to be ‘and if the beat live, you know Lil Ju Made It” to be like ‘If Young Metro don’t trust you, I’m gone shoot you’. I want to be like that and it’s almost there.”

In the past couple of years, Mason, who now resides in Los Angeles, has received several plaques celebrating his achievements in the music industry. To date, the producer has earned at least five entries on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and he doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.

“It’s really beautiful, because I know this isn’t even a once in a million chance, this isn’t even a once in a lifetime chance,” he said. “People can go through their whole lives and never get this type of chance. Sometimes, I just be randomly driving in the car somewhere and I’m thinking and a tear rolls down my face, because I’m like, ‘I really did it. I really did everything I said I was going to do’ and a lot of people can’t say that.”