Boi-1da: When I think about “Lucky You,”
it just gives off this ominous kind of vibe
to it.
I don’t know like a bad Christmas or something
like that.
I don’t know if you were naughty or nice,
I don’t know.
Whatever. It just had that energy to it.
It sounds kind of evil to be honest.
Jahaan: I started working on the beat for
“Lucky You” in a hotel room I think.
I was just playing some stuff on the keyboard
and I was like, “Yo this is cool.”
I called 1da and I was like, “Yo I made
something cool.”I played it for him and
I was like, “Yo I think this is cool.”
He was like, “That’s hard.”
And then he was like, “Yeah send me that.”
I sent it to him and 1da just threw some crazy
stuff on there.
Boi-1da: Did a little something.
Jahaan: Yeah nah.
A lot of something.
Boi-1da: So when Jahaan first played me the
beat, I listened to it a few times.
I liked it a lot.
It had these Christmas type elements to it.
I ended up just speeding it up and just putting
that slap to it, you know?
So I ended up sending it over to Joyner ‘cause
I knew he was gonna go work with Eminem.
My first album I’ve ever bought was 'The Slim
Shady LP' so you know, for years I’ve been
studying Eminem, studying his music, his style
and everything.
It was like a real case study for me.
Jahaan: So the first thing I did…
I got this plug in called Philharmonik.
I used this Glockenspiel which is just some
bells.
Jahaan: I was really just playing something
on this instrument.
I had a midi keyboard and I was just like,
“Okay cool.”
Finding something out.
And I thought that the key was too bright
so what I did was I converted this to audio.
So I used this thing called sound-shifter.
I dropped it down 3 semitones and it ended
up sounding like this.
Jahaan: So after I had these bells, I was
like, “Okay."
"I’ma take some high end off.”
So I took some high end off just so it’s
not as bright.
Plus I know when I work with 1da, 1da likes
darker stuff so I was just like, “Yo…"
"Let me darken this up a bit.”
And I was like okay, that’s pretty much
the loop.
So after I got the sound all dark and stuff,
I pretty much just slowed the bells down like
half time.
Jahaan: Those together just sounded like…
Jahaan: After I had those two other bells,
I just added one more bell.
Boi-1da: And that’s when shit got real.
Jahaan: I got it more serious and just added
these trombones.
Jahaan: At that point, the bells sounded like
an orchestra to me.
I was going in that direction so I just said,
“Let me just stick with this orchestration
vibe I’m going for.”
So I just was like, okay, trombones sound
good.
I added some french horns.
Jahaan: So I just used that for a little melody
in the background.
Boi-1da: Genius.
Jahaan: Nah.
Jahaan: Then I added this bass.
Then after that, I added this bass from Omnisphere.
Jahaan: This all sounds good, and I listened
back to it one more time just to be sure.
Boi-1da: When I heard that section in the
beat, that shit just sounded like…
You know in a movie when something’s about
to really go down, like it gets scary at that
part.
So it’s like literally the perfect set up,
the perfect build up for a beat.
Boi-1da: That was the complicated part.
Now we get to the slap.
Alright.
Let me show y’all this stuff.
Boi-1da: I got the idea for it immediately.
It was all in my head.
I put it right into Fruity Loops and I sped
it up.
Boi-1da: The hi-hats kind of direct the rhythm
a little bit so I…
Jahaan: Keep that same energy.
Boi-1da: Yeah that energy.
We gon’ keep it the same over here.
Boi-1da: It needed some rumble to it so I
found this 808, this BWB soundkit.
Shout out to BigWhiteBeatz.
Boi-1da: When I heard everything that Jahaan
had done with the orchestration, you know
it’s really smooth.
Although it sounds ominous, it’s really
smooth and Christmas-y sounding so I felt
like it needed the most ugly percussion to
kind of uh…
What’s the word I would say?
Jahaan: Juxtaposition.
Like balance.
Offset.
Boi-1da: Yeah exactly.
Offset it.
So I found this really ugly clap.
Boi-1da: And then I added a snare just to
give it that little extra bop.
Boi-1da: And when you put it all together,
the pattern sounds a little something like
this.
Boi-1da: It just sounded bouncy.
And it’s just such contrast with Jahaan’s
beautiful french horns and the Glockenspiels
and all that stuff to these gritty, ugly drums
that like are kind of wild and obnoxious so
it worked perfectly together.
Boi-1da:That wraps up basically what me and
Jahaan added to this song which is mainly
the first part of the beat and then IllaDaProducer
and Eminem did the rest of it which is the
second half of the beat.
Then it transitions back into what we did.
Jahaan: To hear that caliber of rap is just
amazing to me.
Like on the same thing.
Boi-1da: Yeah it really doesn’t get much
better than that.
Just the skill level there, the flow, the
energy, the song, the hook.
It just all came together as one big ball
of energy and I’ve been waiting for Eminem
and Joyner to do a song together for a minute
so it’s a perfect matrimony.
