Brian Warfield and Mac Robinson met each other in the Jazz band at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Both aspiring music producers, they decided to combine studio equipment and work together as a producing duo. They earned their first placement on Jazmine Sullivan’s “One Night Stand” off her debut album Fearless, which went gold and earned two Grammy nominations.
They would also work with Miguel, still an aspiring singer at the time, to release Mischief: The Mixtape, which would earn Miguel a record deal at Jive Records. The Fisticuffs would go on to have production credits on all of Miguel’s subsequent albums, scoring their first #1 hit on the R&B chart with “Quickie” off Miguel’s debut album All I Want Is You.
The Fisticuffs would also meet an unsigned Jhené Aiko. Aiko’s debut mixtape, Sailing Soul(s), was produced mostly by The Fisticuffs and led to a record deal for Aiko with Artium / Def Jam Records. They would also produce every track of Jhené Aiko’s debut album Sail Out, which received a Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album in 2014. “The Worst” went on to become their first Billboard #1 and also earned them a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Song.
