In this digital age, geographical barriers no longer limit collaboration between artists and producers. Thanks to tools like cloud-based file-sharing services and communication apps such asDiscord,rappers from different corners of the world can work together seamlessly on new tracks without ever meeting...
Metro, born Leland Wayne, went from aimlessly sending beats as a teenager from his St. Louis home, to becoming one of the industry's most versatile music producers and a GRAMMY-nominated solo artist. Meanwhile Future, born Nayvadius Cash, has evolved into an international draw with a myriad ...
“But now people calling me the ‘coldest weak rapper ever,’ and they can’t stop listening to me.” In my time roaming around the lively city of 570,000, chopping it up with rappers, producers, videographers, DJs, managers, drug dealers, and comedians about Milwaukee rap’s current ...
Though given how it’s modeled after the macabre aesthetic of UK producers such as 808 Melo and AXL Beats, it seemed ready for a creative expansion. Cue “sample drill”, a colorful innovation that paired the tenets of drill music with samples of R&B and pop hits. While rising talents ...
Jesse Collins called a group of us in to help facilitate: me, LL [Cool J], Fatima Robinson, Dionne Harmon, Brittany Brazil. There's a group of nine of us who were producers. So, [part of] my actual division of labor thing was finding people to help facilitate music. This is a gen...
How come critics of today’s rap and hip-hop game don’t go after the moguls and producers that make Rick Ross and Lil Wayne possible, folks like Sean “Whatever his nickname is now” Combs, Jay-Z, Sony Music Group or BMI? Or, given my eclectic tastes, why limit this strain of cul...
We can’t front on Eric B’s genius either: His stripped-down beats accentuated Rakim Allah’s lyrics, and he was one of the first rap producers to sample James Brown’s music, leading to a lawsuit, but also opening the door for other beatmakers to sample the Godfather of Soul. You...
What’s your standard when it comes to hiring other producers? We look for an outside producer when we want to free ourselves from our strong style. But there isn’t a strict sense of hiring an outside producer. Since the ‘Movement’ [an expanded crew centered around Drunken Tiger] days...
But as I kept recording and working with new producers, the idea of a sequel to Relapse started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album. The music on Recovery came out very different from Relapse...
Standout tracks like “The Kramer,”“The Vacation From Ourselves” and “The Artistic Integrity” allowed Wale to break down topics like race and celebrity at length, his earnest explorations lobbed over gogo beats by local producers like Best Kept Secret. There’s a point on the tape where...