When I was 10 I got a Casio keyboard for Christmas. It was the real basic department store type that had no more than 16 built-in rhythms and just as many instrument sounds. It was really basic, but I loved that thing. I had no idea how to play keys or read sheet music but mostly all my spare time was spent in my room plunking away on the keys until I was able to play some simple melodies by ear. I figured out how to play the theme to Star Wars, Axel F (Beverly Hills Cop), FunkyTown and by the time I had the notes and patterns right, I had them memorized.
I was 12 when I discovered rap music and was instantly hooked. I consumed album after album and memorizing the lyrics came easy, as did keeping the cadences. In no time, I was writing my own lyrics and my Casio had a new purpose. I wrote my first original rap song at the age of 13. I had the verses and hook all written down and used the Casio’s built-in rhythm tracks and my own little melody to go on top of it but, I had no way to record any of it.
The keyboard didn’t have any kind of sequencer or record function on it and I had no microphone. However, I was a very resourceful kid. What my keyboard did have was RCA outputs and I had a cassette deck stereo with RCA inputs. I got a blank tape and recorded myself playing the 'beat' live until I had done it perfectly all the way through. I borrowed my brother's boombox that had a built-in mic, loaded it with a second blank cassette tape and dragged a kitchen chair and one of my stereo’s speakers into my bedroom closet.
I sat in there with my brother’s boombox in my lap, positioning the built-in mic as evenly I could between the stereo speaker and my face and started recording. Just outside of the closet my brother pushed play on the stereo cueing the beat I’d recorded, and I performed my song. One track, one take and it didn’t sound very clean but, once I got through the whole song without messing up, that boombox popped out my first original, recorded song. Once I figured out I could do that, I started cranking out songs like crazy. Over time, I got better and convinced myself (and everyone around me) that this was my calling. I was 15 when I first stepped foot into a professional recording studio and I began to meet studio musicians and engineers that would go on to teach me a ton about recording and production.
I’ve been using Studio One Professional for years. I like the workflow and I’m used to it. I mean, essentially all DAWs do pretty much the same thing. Even the plug-ins are all going to look different and have different names, they function the same. Everyone else I know uses FL Studio and some try to tell me I should switch to it, but no one has given me a good enough reason to go through the headache of learning where everything is. Plus, Studio One 4, the latest version, is available on Splice’s Rent-to-Own program.
I have two Roland keyboard/sequencers in my set up, the JD-XI and the FA-06 and even though it’s the smaller one and has fewer functions, the JD-XI is a beast! It can be played as either digital or analogue. I love that it has the TR 16 style step drum sequencer but doesn’t tie you down to it exclusively. I love the built-in vocoder on it and the really cool sounding vocoder presets to use with it. You can get some clean low-end 'subby' bass sounds and sizzling synths out of this board.
I recommend anyone who produces EDM to take it for a test drive. I played the saxophone in school from 4th grade to graduation and although I never got much better than average at it playing it, I bought an AKAI EWI5000 when they first hit the market around six years ago because I couldn’t think of anything cooler than a wireless, electronic saxophone with a hundred onboard voices to play through. It was expensive but worth it. It’s a one-of-a-kind piece and a lot of fun to play with. People trip when I bust it out and start ripping on it like “what the hell is that amazing instrument and where did you get it?”. I have yet to incorporate it into my live show, but I might one day.
The A.I. plug-ins from iZotope are pretty cool. The idea of having a perfectly mixed and mastered track at the push of a button is very attractive so I purchased Nectar 3 which has a gate, compressor, EQ, reverb, flanger, delay, pitch correct and more all in one single plug-in and the visual interface is interesting and intuitive to work with. While it’s not a magic one-button fix, it does get you to a really solid starting point by listening to your mix and applying the settings where it 'thinks' they should be. The only drawback is that it consumes a TON of processing, so the latency is usually pushing my CPU meter to the max, so I find myself going back to sound sculpting using Studio One’s tools. I’m also probably due for a new computer soon and then I’ll dig into it deeper. As far as my favorite plug-in for production? It’s Arcade from Output, hands down, all day.
I almost always begin with the drums which I’ve come to find out is weird to a lot of people who tell me they find it easier to build the drums around the loop or sequence after first laying down instrumentation. The best description of my music is 'New Era Boom Bap'. It is heavily influenced by the Boom Bap sound of 90’s East Coast hip-hop but sounds like 2020 and not 1990. The drums are everything and I need those to be rocking before I start layering sounds on top of them. A lot of times I’ll lay down the drums, come back to them hours or even days later with a fresh set of ears and add sounds to the track, save it and come back to it later again, each time I guess I’m making sure I’m still digging what I’m doing with it and see what I can add to it or how I could enhance it.
I have a massive library of sounds using a combination of my Roland boards, synth instruments, sampled instruments, loops and various plug-ins to build each track. Sometimes I’ll whip a track out in one sitting and sometimes it’ll come together over time. I like having a fresh ear going into putting anything down, so I don’t usually work for more than a couple of hours at a time before taking a break. Sometimes I’ll come back to something I thought was sounding great and realize it sucks. Sometimes it’s vice versa and I’ll be about to erase a track but come back to it and it’s banging.
The tracks that survive that process usually become songs shortly after. I’m always playing with song concepts as I’m making the beat so I usually have an idea where I’m going with it by the time it’s done. I don’t like to write lyrics without having the actual beat they are going to be recorded on. Trying to match up lyrics you’ve already written to a beat after the fact doesn’t always work well and can change the entire cadence of your flow and/or just not match the 'feel like it does when the lyrics are custom made for each track.
I write, rehearse and make revisions as I go and by the time I’m done writing the last line I have the lyrics and flow pretty much memorized. If not, I’ll keep rehearsing until I do because that shit is important. When I don’t know the words, I have to read them as I record, and my focus is spread instead of being 100% in the performance. I have recorded songs reading the lyrics instead of memorizing them but every time I end up coming back and re-recording the vocals after having them memorized. The track comes out sounding sharper and more confident every time.
To improve my craft, I can only listen to music. I am inspired by listening to artists and producers that bring an original sound all their own. Listening to the most talented emcees on earth fire off incredible bars, styles and punchlines makes me want to constantly raise the bar for my own lyrics. There’s no tutorial on YouTube that really teach you how to flow, however, Google and the internet have been monumental in improving my knowledge on all things music that don’t deal with the creative process.
I’ve spent the last two years learning everything I can about the new music business. The streaming revolution has changed everything in terms of leveling the playing field for independent artists, but it will only be those that learn how to leverage it that are going to succeed. I know the majority of artists aren’t taking this step because it is about as fun as punching yourself in the face repeatedly as it requires extensive research and endless reading. The publishing game alone will make your brain hurt but the information is out there and all you have to do is start looking for it and find the right places and people to go to. I’ve used the entire internet including YouTube to do this. The reality is no one is going to do this part for you out of the kindness of the soul. If artists or someone very close and trustworthy near them do not have a grasp of this stuff and they get lucky enough to have a song start to take off, they going to be someone’s golden opportunity.
There’s a guy named Adam Ivy that does great videos on marketing strategies for musicians.
Rob Level’s Smart Rapper channel gives a lot of great advice too.
If I’m going to watch any mixing tutorials, I look for the ones that feature award-winning engineers that are credited with mixing albums I’m familiar with and am a fan of. These videos are usually done with the engineer mixing live on giant screens in front of a large audience. There’s a lot of mixing and mastering tutorials on YouTube but many are just not helpful. Look for the pro stuff.
1. Don’t ask friends and family their opinions about your music. If it sucks, they won’t tell you and you’ll always wonder.
2. If you don’t get comfortable with the fact that your music is going to be harshly hated on and openly critiqued it will greatly affect the music you make, causing it to feel inauthentic and still harshly hated on and openly critiqued.
3. Your creative inspiration is easily bullied by your analytical mind. Defend and trust your inspiration, it’s always right.
4. Don’t follow trends. By the time you make the adjustments to fit in, there’ll be another trend and you’ll look like a wannabe. Be the person that starts a trend instead.
If I ever get writer’s block there are three things I do, one of which usually works.
1. Read something new and fascinating.
2. Invite an emcee friend over to write with you (they don’t have to go on the song but the creative energy in the room changes as more people are creating together and ideas start flowing).
3. Start a list of random, multi-syllable words that I haven’t used before as they pop into my head and when I have my list, I find as many rhyming words for each one as I can.
Probably the most valuable thing that I've learned is the importance of having a solid vocal chain at work in your mixes and that it's not just which plugins you're using on the vocal, but just as important is the order in which the plugins are placed. The signal is going to pass through each one of the plugins in the order in which they're chained together and that's going to have a big effect on how it sounds when it comes out the other end. The pros have their presets and they keep them guarded like the colonel's secret recipe.
If you do some digging online you can find some from amateur engineers that don't care about keeping their recipe a secret. You'll have to research and try out different things unless your uncle is an engineer at Universal or Warner Bros and even then I think your uncle would have to REALLY like you to give it away. But definitely do look and do use them and always consider the order in which you place them on each track.
I use LANDR to master my tracks. I think it’s a great tool to finish each track off. RhymeZone is also very helpful for more than just finding words that rhyme.
I would be open to getting advice from professionals regarding sound design and recording techniques, mixing or anything technical. I thank people who compliment my songs but beyond that, I don’t put any weight into personal opinions about my music or lyrics. Music is probably the most relative thing in existence. You know what they say about opinions.
Hard question. I think that 33 1/3 is one of my better tracks. I think we humans have some mixed up ways and today things seem like things are really spinning out of control sometimes but somehow I know that everything is going to work out fine. I wanted people to ride that out with me and I think it hit the mark. And I like the beat a lot.
The way I make music? No, not at all. The way I interact with and discover new listeners? ABSOLUTELY
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This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
