As dedication to his influence and impact to the rap industry, 2 Chainz honored Lil Wayne by releasing the Collegrove album last month. Someone who has been quietly working behind the scenes for both rappers is engineer KY. The Kentucky native says he recorded about 50 percent of Collegrove and he mixed the entire thing. Having worked for both Weezy for about two years and 2 Chainz for about seven years before this album, KY explains why this project was a special one for him.
“It was just a cool project to finally see two artists that really even were very pivotal and big in my career, to actually work on something together was cool,” he says in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX in promotion of UnMasterClass. “I also know Wayne’s workflow, of course I know Chainz’s workflow, so it wasn’t a difficult thing, I didn’t have to really go too far out of my element because I’ve definitely worked with both of ‘em and gave both of ‘em sounds and worked on hits for both.”
Even though his name is not on the top of headlines as 2 Chainz’ and Lil Wayne’s have been, KY knew coming into his career that engineering would not be the most glorified role in the music industry.
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“Honestly, I picked engineering to be basically an unsung hero anyway,” he says. “Honestly, me even being known in certain ways is kinda still like weird to me because I did pick engineering to be in the background. That’s why I picked it. I’m cool with being an unsung hero. I think just a lot of times it needs to kinda balance out on the other side as far as the money side and stuff like that. When it’s getting pub and stuff like that because we put so much into these records. That’s kinda my sort of thing, but being an unsung hero, honestly, I’d still be doing the same thing if I was known or not because that’s kinda why I picked to do what, I wanted to be behind the scenes.”
Prior to having any recognition by Billboard (Collegrove debuted as the #4 project on the publication’s Top 200 albums chart), KY recalls seeing his first credit, Kia Shine’s 2007 song “Krispy” appear on BET’s 106 & Park.
“I was just super excited about it,” he says, “just to actually see my name on an album cover and being able to google my name. 106 & Park was super big back at that time, too. They actually debuted, they used to do the videos and stuff like that, so it debuted on 106 & Park, so I just thought that was cool that something that I worked on actually ended up on BET, a show that I watched.”
KY works with some of the biggest names in Rap now including Meek Mill, The Game and Waka Flocka Flame, but he reminds aspiring engineers that it didn’t start out that way. It took him years of work to even get his name on “Krispy” and he tells aspiring engineers to not strive to work with someone who’s already hot, but to build with someone who is committed to their craft.
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“They’re trying to get to the artists so that you can get the artists that maybe have budgets and you can kinda get paid more or maybe travel with the artists and stuff like that,” he says of people who ask for his advice. “I mean kinda the thing for me, the only established artist that I’ve ever really worked with that was kinda doing they’re thing was Lil Wayne. Every other artist, was kinda, they were grinding and nobody knew who they were at the time. They were grinding so I also got to build with those artists… Nobody really knew who they were like that. They grinded and then they got to the point where they were big. Then once they were big, from them already dealing with me back then, of course they’re still going to deal with me when they get this label deal. So that’s what I try to tell other artists. At the end of the day, you’re not gonna just jump into a studio and automatically just work with the big guys. You have to build your way up. It’s really just a patience thing. You have to be patient. I’m not the most patient person, but over time in doing this, you’ve got to learn to be patient with a lot of things. Even just looking back, when I look back at how I did [‘Krispy,’] and stuff, looking back from there, that’s so long ago and I’ve done so much more since then, it’s like it took so long to get to even have to, before I seen a song of something that I did on the TV or actually in an album, so it’s like you kinda got to do that. It’s just more of a building process.”
Unlike most engineers, KY says that he enjoys helping others along in their musical journeys. He explains that the engineers’ world can be very isolated, but he’s trying to create a sense of community and encouragement.
“The engineering world, it’s a different world,” he says. “I don’t really operate like that, but a lot of engineers don’t really like to share their secrets or really give you game honestly. That’s kinda how it goes. I understand that, but I don’t really operate like that because I do got a lot of guys that are watching me and watching me over the years and stuff like that and I don’t have any problem telling ‘em, ‘Hey if you do this, that’ll help you out.’ I still like to work in your own way, but I kinda like to show you how I do it.”
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He cites Young Guru, Jay Z’s engineer, as someone who’s inspired him to put on for the profession. Hov would shoutout Guru before jumping on a track. This is widely recognized as the first time an engineer has gotten shine outside of album liner notes.
“People don’t really know who engineers are most of the time,” he says. “You might just see their name in the credits or something like that, or back in the day when they were releasing CDs you’d see their names in the credits and so it was just cool, then when Jay Z would be like, ‘Guru, turn me up!’ and stuff like that. I just thought that was always cool, I knew who the guy was that was recording him. So when I got into it, I kinda was moreso, really kinda thinking in that vein, ‘Yo, I kinda wanna represent for engineers.’ We do a lot for a lot of these records. A lot of these records wouldn’t even sound like this if it wasn’t for engineers.”
KY continued this vision by opened his own Bass Recordings Studio in January in Atlanta. This enables him to have a stable work environment and continue encouraging upcoming engineers to work on their craft.
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“Me actually having a studio, that actually gives me time to help out others and give them some work and help them get their credits up,” he says. “Ima have a whole bunch of artists coming in and of course I can’t work with them all. Also a lot of people, they always want to assist me, but kinda like I said with the technology. Then, kinda the way I was moving around, I might go to four or five studios in one day. If you’re just trying to assist me and intern, I’m not going to pay for your gas to get to me and that might wear you out after a while just trying to follow me around. It makes it cool that I’m in one place now and working and so if somebody does want to come and watch and assist, I’ve kinda seen them out doing their thing and grinding, then I don’t have a problem with them coming in and sitting in and watching and like I said, possibly getting them work or whatever. It’s about the whole thing with the engineers us uplifting together really at the end of the day. That’s why I’m just kinda happy that now I have a place where I can really put my skills and share my skills with other engineers and at the same time, they can teach me something. They might do something that I haven’t even really ever even thought of.”
A time recently when KY got to learn from others is when he was a resident professor at Georgia Tech for the 2014-2015 academic year.
“That was a great experience actually ‘cause for me, for one, I didn’t actually go to college and you know just being at a great, respected university like Georgia Tech, is just cool that they would actually like take me in,” he says. “That also let me know how far I had came and what I had done because the whole college, university, they’re inviting me in to basically help their kids do a project.”
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He hosted an interactive class where the final project was “Sounds of Atlanta.” He led the students as they explored sound in five different neighborhoods of the city and created tracks utilizing sounds that they heard, whether it was a train driving by or bongoes in Little Five Points. The audio engineering students collaborated with architecture students, who built little tributes to each neighborhood. The final projects were then presented to each neighborhood.
“It was pretty cool,” KY says of the project. “It was something different for me. It wasn’t moreso me kinda teaching them Pro Tools and stuff like that.”
Even though he was the professor, KY felt like he learned just as much as the students did.
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“I also like to learn a lot from other people even if they’re not necessarily on my level of doing what I’m doing at this point,” he says. “But I feel like sometimes, they might say something that I might not have even thought about that way. And they might spark that just saying something. So that was kinda moreso the thing with that. But I learned a lot from ‘em. They actually had a lot of cool projects and stuff going on over there, so I just wanted to be involved in what they had going on and it just taught me a lot about leadership also, just to direct class and make sure we were doing what we were supposed to be doing. Having fun at the same time ‘cause I don’t like stuff to be uptight, so we was having fun at the same time. So we was having fun at the same time, but it was still structure also at the same time.”
Fun is something that KY has never had a hard time finding in his job. On his website, he describes himself as a “super-fan” of music and says that even if engineering didn’t end up as his career, he still would have found a way to incorporate music into his daily life.
“It doesn’t feel like work,” he says. “I mean I’ve done it for years to even get to this point. I did it for free. At the same point, yes, I would like to get paid to do it, but I would do it for free anyway like even if I had another job, I would still try to do music for free even if I was doing something else because it’s something that I just love. I’ve always loved music, so that’s why I say I’m a super-fan. Hip Hop is of course my number one love, but of course, I’m really into R&B and different stuff like that. It’s just super cool just to be into the music.”
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Continuing in KY’s spirit of giving back, HipHopDX will be opening the UnMasterClass Mixing Contest on May 2. Aspiring producers and engineers will have three weeks to mix a track and take a six lesson, step-by-step mini-class from Young Guru. With credits including Jay-Z, Eminem, Notorious B.I.G., Beyonce, Alicia Keys, T.I. and more, Young Guru has established himself as one of the most prolific engineers in Hip Hop. UnMasterclass will be your chance to learn to mix in your home studio, win cash, tons of prizes, a feature on HipHopDX and an opportunity to have your submission heard by Young Guru himself. Go to HipHopDX.com/unmasterclass to sign up for contest updates and check out DX on your favorite social media sites using #UnMasterclass.
