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Meet Chad Thomas, the University of Miami Football Player Who Produced a Track for Rick Ross's New Album

The defensive end crafted the instrumental for "Apple of My Eye" off "Rather You Than Me."

You can say Chad Thomas is recording hits on and off the football field.

According to The Washington Post, the University of Miami Hurricanes' junior defensive end produced "Apple of My Eye," the opening track off Rick Ross's new album, Rather You Than Me, which is easily one of the most well-received rap LPs early on into 2017.

When Thomas isn't tackling quarterbacks or running backs, he is busy behind the boards as a budding, local Miami producer known as Major Nine with a burgeoning resume to his name, the newspaper reported.

Thomas told the Post that he actually met Rozay back in "2013 or 2014" while still in high school and that he crafted a beat for the rapper about a year ago, keeping in touch throughout. With the encouragement of Ross's DJ, Sam Sneak, Thomas sent the Boss a batch of beats and one of them turned out to the mellow, yet-stirring "Apple of My Eye."

"I was too happy," Thomas said about first learning that his track was selected for Ross's latest project. "It dropped a week after my mama’s birthday, and I wanted to surprise her with it. I couldn’t even wait until the day of the album. I just told my mom I made a beat for Ross, and it’s going to be on his intro. I told my daddy, and he said we’ve gotta print the check stubs and frame that. We’ve gotta go buy the hard copy."

He added, "It made me drop a tear. The song really touched me. It spoke my life. Then to think that I made the beat, just to come from where I’m from in Miami in Liberty City, a lot of people don’t get opportunities like this. When they do, they either mess it up or somebody messes it up for them. I felt blessed for that opportunity."

Thomas even tweeted out this picture of himself and Rozay in the studio from a few years back.

It looks like Thomas has a bright future ahead of him on and off the football field.

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