- I remember my first studio session,
I literally just pulled up.
"Oh, you're a singer?
Oh, you rap?"
Just that stereotype.
"No, I produce."
I didn't really let it get to me or anything.
It was just a bunch of guys and I just press play.
Let the music speak for itself.
(soft music)
I was always surrounded by music.
I had uncles who sang and my brothers
were in performing arts school.
My mother played different instruments.
My family just come from a lot of soul, introduced me to
Quincy Jones, Prince, and Michael Jackson.
Music was always around me, so I knew I wanted to be in
music, but I didn't really take that leap until I figured
out what I really wanted to do.
(looped soft music and electric beats)
Around 15, 16, I lived in South Virginia and I was heavily
influenced by Pharrell, N.E.R.D, Timbaland, Missy Elliott.
She's my idol.
I just researched yo, how are these sonics
being created, this is crazy.
I bought my first MPD16, it's a beat machine.
I worked at McDonald's, so I saved my money and yeah,
I bought a red Gateway computer
and taught myself a few beats.
(electric music)
My process, I can't create if I don't go through something,
so that's like the base.
There's ideas, there's always melodies in my head.
I use my iPhone a lot to record voicemails of me singing
and I'll go back to it or making a beat pattern
or something if I'm in the car.
I try to get out my ideas every day and then I just
take it to the studio and build it out.
(beats with heavy bass)
I'm sorry guys, that bass.
- [Woman Off Camera] No, that shit rock.
- You want me to let it rock?
- [Woman Off Camera] That's what the speakers are for.
- I try to tell stories with my production,
so for Jhene, she's perfect because her whole album
was the stories, it was a movie.
Her whole 'Trip' album was an experience for her, she
traveled to different islands to write certain songs.
The record I produced, 'Overstimulated,' that took forever.
We kept going back and finishing the record.
She has her different melodies and harmonies and stuff
and then she takes her time with writing.
I don't like to rush.
I feel like the greatest records are, you take your time.
I take my time with my music.
I had the opportunity to work with a lot of producers.
Building the relationship is most important,
versus trying to take technical stuff.
It's literally a relationship, so that's what we build.
The time I met No I.D. it was my first LA trip.
Two of my friends knew Big Sean and we were going to
his house studio just to play him tracks,
so I was already nervous.
We were waiting in the lobby area, they finished, and
walked out.
You know, No I.D.
So I'm already having a fan moment.
"Yo, this is the G.O.A.T.
What am I gonna to do?"
So my friends introduce me and he was like,
"Oh, you're a female producer?
Okay, what do you use?"
I'm like, "I use Logic."
He was like, "Oh, you need to use Ableton."
I was like, "Okay!"
That right there was like augh.
I think he hit my friends and were like, "Yo, who was that?
I wanna hear more of her music, I wanna learn more."
I kept going back to LA and sitting in his sessions.
We literally continued to build our relationship.
Crystal Caines is the homie, like literally!
We produce, we collab with each other a lot,
even just through life.
We're friends first, so I guess that's what makes our
relationship awesome is we navigate
through the game together in a sense.
We bounce ideas off each other, advice and stuff.
I produced on her early mixtapes and stuff.
There aren't many female producers.
There's a small group of us.
It's not really competition in my eyes,
it's more so we have different career paths
but we support each other.
I really just want to show women, they don't have to
oversell themselves.
They don't have to be overly sexual.
Just do what you want, just be yourself,
be your most authentic self.
I think that's important when building your career.
Try'da be your most authentic self.
That's what's going to sell and people are gonna
latch onto you and love you, just who you are.
Oh, Ye?
- [Woman Off Camera] Yeah.
- I forgot to mention that, I met Ye.
(laughs) Sorry.
- [Woman Off Camera] Wait, wait, you have to tell the story!
- He had a show in DC and he just pull up.
The show was crazy, you saw the show, did you see the show?
Like, who has a floating stage where everyone's raging?
So, after the show we just went backstage.
"Dawg, I think he was venting about a bunch of stuff.
He talks a lot, but yo, this moment.
(laughs)
Sorry, I'm just having a little fan moment.
I hear a lot of horror stories with my producer friends
not being credited, not being paid for their tracks.
It's a problem, it's still a problem today.
I don't know why producers are on the short
end of the stick.
These artists get these crazy budgets and I was like,
"Man, we have to do something."
PAY US TODAY is a movement, a collective.
First it was just apparel and stuff.
'Pay the Creatives,' 'Pay the Producers,'
but we're expanding it to an educational platform for
other producers and creatives in general.
I'm really interested in the educational side,
I really wanna get into the workshops and I recently
did a panel at the NAMM conference with
Women's Audio Mission, which is a non-profit organization
out of San Francisco who caters to
female engineers and female producers.
I just want to help.
I want to use my voice.
Any chance that I get, I hope to touch somebody.
I feel like that's my purpose.
If I inspire one person, I've done my job.
The money, all of that is last.
I think my purpose in life is to inspire.
(soft music)