Tdf (producer)

Jones was born and raised in the North part of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Growing up, Jones stated how his father introduced him to Michael Jackson. He listened to Beyoncé, R&B, and Kanye West with his mother. Jones is not fond of older rap besides Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. In 2013, Jones stated that he began making music on the last day of school. He used to rap before producing.^[4]

When Jones was in middle school, he was introduced to drill rap, when he listened to artists such as Chief Keef. Jones also listened to Young Pappy. He began producing in 2017 when his mother gave her used laptop to him.^[4]

In 2017, Jones began producing music. He stated that when he started producing, he used to make XXXTentacion, Playboi Carti, BrentRambo, and MexikoDro type beats. After Carti released his self-titled album, he discovered Pi'erre Bourne, whom Jones later fell in love with sonically. As he got older, he began taking major inspiration from Bourne, StoopidXool, and XanGang. After befriending Okaymar in 2019, Jones cited how he began taking music seriously.^[4]

In 2021, Jones self-released his debut album, titled TDF & Friends 2. He would later release a sequel, followed by TDF & Friends 3 in 2022. That same year, he would also release Religion. Entering 2023, Jones reached a breakthrough with the release of his project Blueprint.^[5] Upon release, it was critically acclaimed and was listed as one of the best rap albums of 2024 by Pitchfork.^[6] In 2025, Jones released Culture.^[7]

Jones' music is identified as terror plugg, which he helped pioneer; the genre is an evolved version of plugg featuring distorted 808s and eerie melodies.^{[8][9][10][6][5][11][excessive citations]} Alphonse Pierre of Pitchfork wrote how TDF's production sounds like "post-Pi'erre" stylistically.^[12] Pierre also noted how rapper and producer Ivvys' production on "Bikini" features "Ballistic percussion that feels ripped from a military drumline… [and] apocalyptically blown-out 808s", which ties in line with Perc40 and Jones' own production styles.^[13]