Em changed my life, you know what I'm saying?
He didn't have to believe in my sound so much in ‘Kamikaze’.
Fact that he did
I'm forever loyal to Em.
So you got a problem with him, you got a problem with me.
I'm like, "All right."
"That's how we gon’ rock?"
I'm gon’ give Em the hardest beats I could find.
When I originally started the beat for “KILLSHOT”, it actually was for Giggs.
He always asks me for these horror movie beats.
That's what I was thinking when I made the “KILLSHOT” beat, it was just something
mean, gritty, grimy.
When I realized it was going to go to Eminem was the morning that MGK dropped “RAP DEVIL”.
I was in Miami with my girl, on vacation celebrating ‘Kamikaze’, and I see “Eminem MGK Diss.”
I'm like, “What?”
So I clicked on it.
I'm like, “Damn, that's how it is, Ronny?”
You know what I'm saying?
Right away I went into my folder, and tried to find the hardest beats possible.
And then, I sent him like two beats.
It was like 8:00 at night.
I’m like, “Yo."
"I sent Giggs some crazy shit.”
Hit Giggs, and he told me what beat he used.
He didn’t use that one.
I sent that one right away.
Like “Yo, here’s one more.”
So when I first started “KILLSHOT” the first sound I used was this piano that I found
from a loop pack from 2DOPEBOYZ.
It was the chord progression that really stood out to me.
It was really theatrical, like some ‘Phantom Of The Opera’.
I wrote automation on it to make it breathe a little bit.
it gives it like a pumping effect.
I usually do a hi-hat after I do the melody, but this time I wanted a snare.
I knew I wanted something with a lot of pop to it.
I added this plugin Sausage Fattener, makes it really stand out in the mix.
Once I felt good about the snare, I added a couple of hi-hats.
This is the first hi-hat.
But it didn’t go with the rhythm of the piano.
So I didn’t want all that.
I just wanted the tripled effect at the beginning.
Just to give it a little bounce.
Second hi-hat was a lot more involved.
I picked two of them because the first one is short and has a tripled up effect.
Then the second one has a reversed cymbal after the first triple up effect so it gives
the track rhythm.
I tried like four different kick patterns but this is the one I finally decided to go
with.
Once all the drums were there and the sample was moving like I wanted it to move, and everything
was fitting together like a puzzle, I was like, “Alright perfect."
"Now I can go and do my favorite thing, the 808.”
You know what I’m saying?
That thang!
It’s hitting in between the kicks, and it’s actually following some of the rhythm of the
sample.
So there’s rhythms that somebody that’s technical can just jump all over.
Since I didn’t use a lot of sounds in this beat, I used the ranging to build the drama
and build the crescendo of the beat.
I took the sample and then I half-timed it.
This is the sound by itself, and this is it with it on.
It gave it a dramatic breakdown and he used it perfectly.
I added my tag.
Then I was like alright.
This is perfect.
Em is definitely somebody I look up to as a lyricist.
I think, pretty much, everybody who's a fan of rap, is a fan of Eminem in some light
because he's the top technical lyricist ever, you know what I’m saying?
And he's on the Mount Rushmore of rap.
You can't take him off there.
The greats said it, JAY-Z, 50, Kendrick, Kanye.
Everybody that we look up to has said he's top five.
For me this has been like the biggest blessing that I've ever experienced, you know what
I'm saying?
I'm forever grateful, forever loyal.