So the first time I heard the song, shouts
out to Khalid.
I was actually with him in the studio in LA.
The album had dropped and I had anticipated
it so much ‘cause I hadn’t heard the song
up until the release so I heard it with everyone
else and it was like the happiest time man.
Just to hear something that for me has been
going on for a long time and just to have
it out in the world in a way that I was proud
of…
It was like a good feeling man.
So I got to the studio in LA.
This was the first time I’d ever met Needlz.
First time I had met Nija.
After playing each other a couple of songs
and getting familiar with each other, I pulled
up the vocal sample.
I was playing a bit quiet.
Just trying to quietly feel out my sounds
and Needlz was like, “What’s that?"
"Turn it up man.”
I turned it up and everyone was like, “Cool."
"This sounds tight."
"It’s a good starting point.”
So I pulled that up and the first sound and
the main sound in the song is this vocal sample.
So yeah I just cut that up, pitched it up,
threw it in here and now we have…
I wanted it to sound brighter so I had just
cut out the low end, added some effects.
I got like a flanger and a chorus on it.
Once Needlz had added his hi-hats…
I added some additional hi-hats that I thought
would compliment it.
It kind of gave it like a little bit of a
trappy edge.
Once we had that, I just added a snare.
Like a snare from a drum kit I had.
I just put it in.
It’s one of the snares I use a lot.
We had locked in at the tempo of 106 which
is pretty much like R&B slow rap.
Needlz had this MPC.
He was working on the drums and was figuring
out the groove.
He had found a good pocket for the track.
I had asked him to make the kick follow the
chord progression that we had going on.
After having the drums, we added additional
sounds just to complete the chorus to make
it feel bigger than the verses.
So we had this piano from the output synth
called Signal.
So that only comes in on the second half of
each part of the chorus just to make it feel
like you’re hearing new things every now
and again.
And together with the vocal sample, it sounds
like…
I specifically put it on just the step chords
just to bring out that section more.
At this point, we had got the groove and the
extra synths that we wanted and then we just
needed the body of the track.
Normally, I would get like an 808, a typical
808.
I didn’t wanna do that in this track.
I loaded up this Taurus bass from Omnisphere.
We side chained the bass so it’s almost
giving it like an EDM feel.
To compliment the first bass, I added a second
bass from Omnisphere as well called Shock
the System.
It was rich in high frequency so together,
I felt like it helped the bass cut through
and that’s what I was looking for sound
wise so together it sounds something like this.
One thing I like to do with higher frequency
bass sounds is add a sample delay.
It just makes the sound feel wider so you
can hear the high frequencies clearer and
It gets out of the way of the middle so it’s
not competing with the vocals.
At this point, we’ve built our chorus and
we went on to structure the track.
The hook has all of the elements in with all
the frequencies and the verse, we kind of
took a taking to cutting out a lot of the
higher frequencies.
We decided to pitch the vocal sample down
an octave just so when it gets to the chorus,
you’re hearing the same sounds but in a
different way.
It’s really simple but there’s a lead
sound.
This again compliments the vocal sample.
Together, it sounds like this.
Crazy as it sounds, I think that is it.
For me, I can relate this back to my upbringing,
just hearing different types of music, different
genres and just being able to put that into
a song where you’re just mixing and blending
different genres.
It’s like making something that feels new
and fresh.
Cardi B, she brings like a lot of relation
to the track.
Kehlani came through and she killed it man.
I think they both brought like uniqueness
to the song.
The version you hear here is the version that
got released.
We didn’t get to do any additional production
on it but it was like a blessing in disguise
‘cause simplicity is key man.
For me, it was like just happiness man knowing
that I was able to share something I was proud of
with the world.
I'm just a young guy from East London and I came to LA and was able to make a song with Cardi B
so I think anything is possible if you just keep working on your craft.
