Boi-1da (2013)

Noz

Sitting with us on the couch today is a man who is predominantly known for his work with a little rapper named Drake, but has also produced for a few other little-known rappers like Eminem, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross. Everybody give a big round of applause for Boi-1da.

Boi-1da

Thank you.

Noz

Let’s start at the very beginning. You were born in Jamaica.

Boi-1da

Yep.

Noz

You moved to Toronto at a very young age.

Boi-1da

Yeah, I moved to Toronto at the age of three. Me and my family were in Jamaica. They just wanted to get out of Jamaica to create more opportunities themselves, so we ended up moving to Canada. Willowdale, Ontario. I still live in Canada. I’m 26 years old now. I’ve been living there ever since.

Noz

There’s a big Jamaican population in Toronto, correct?

Boi-1da

Oh, yeah. A huge Jamaican population. They won’t let the Jamaicans into America, so we have to go to Canada. I’m just joking, but I’m not.

Noz

How has that influenced your music? That heritage?

Boi-1da

Definitely, I grew up listening to dance hall music my entire life. I still listen to it. There’s a different swing and timing to it that I think I bring to my music, which kinda fuses with rap. At the same time, me and another producer named 40 [i.e. Noah “40” Shebib], with his sound and my sound, kind of helped bring that to Drake, and we created his sound, production-wise.

Noz

How did you end up transitioning into becoming a hip-hop fan?

Boi-1da

I didn’t listen to hip-hop for a very long time. For a very long time, when I lived in Toronto, I was still listening to dancehall music. Beenie Man. Stuff like that. I started listening to hip-hop when DMX started getting popular, actually. I didn’t like rap before that. It was just straight dancehall. I think Roughriders Anthem was the first rap song I ever liked. Then after that I kept on listening. I was a little late into the rap game, but I’m a hip-hop head, and I love hip-hop. I got into it big after that.

Noz

When did you realize that production was the route you were going to take?

Boi-1da

I was always interested in production, especially when I was in high school. I was always inquiring and wondering how beats are put together and structured. It was just a big mystery to me, and I always wanted to learn. I was having a conversation with some friends, and they were telling me about this program called FruityLoops. It sounded funny. It was easy to remember too, Fruity Loops. I was like, “OK, cool.” I went home and I downloaded it. Illegally. Sorry. I didn’t have any money at that time. I was literally a 16 year old kid in high school.

I downloaded it. Started using it. To be honest, it became like an addiction to me. It was just so fun. The process of just making music, and being able. I was so excited and fascinated. I was like, “I’m making my own beats. This is the craziest thing to me.” I would literally just do that the majority of the day. Nothing could stop me from doing that.

I used to get in trouble too, and get grounded. My mom would tell me I was allowed to go outside, watch TV, and play video games, I just wasn’t allowed to make beats. That was my punishment. I wasn’t allowed to go on the computer. That’s how much I loved production and FruityLoops.

Noz

You’re still rocking with FruityLoops today?

Boi-1da

Oh, yeah, yeah. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Noz

Have you had a chance to experiment with other software or hardware?

Boi-1da

I’ve tried the Maschine before. It was fun to use. I just recorded, somebody was just recording me on ProTools, making drum patterns on Maschine. I’ve tried to use Reason. It’s funny, my mom started making beats. The weirdest thing ever. She just started making beats on Reason one day, and she was trying to show me how to use it. I was like, “This is confusing. I don’t know man. I’ll just stick with what works for me.”

Noz

Does your mom have some bangers?

Boi-1da

Yeah. She had one that was kind of crazy. It was kind of sloppy and all over the place. But it was going somewhere. It was pretty cool. It was my mom, a 40 year old Jamaican woman. It was just the most hilarious thing to me.

Noz

What does she think of your production career?

Boi-1da

She loves it. She’s very critical of my stuff too. It was hard before, because I was going through high school, and music production was literally the only thing I wanted to do, the only thing I cared about. I didn’t really care about going to school for anything else. I was just trying to go to school for music, and she was really like, “Uh, you know, you’ve got to have something else. Because it’s not a sure thing.”

But I loved it that much that I just kept pursuing it. It was hard for her, but she ended up seeing things actually happen and progress and come into fruition. She’s very exited about what I do. She actually works with me as well. She and my sister assist me with my career and stuff that I have to do, and make sure I’m on point and stuff. She’s heavily involved with what I do, and she loves it.

Noz

On a slightly different note, you came up doing beat battles, correct?

Boi-1da

Yes, I did.

Noz

Could you maybe explain to people who don’t know what that entails?

Boi-1da

What a beat battle is, the ones I used to go to had 32 participants. A bunch of producers. It doesn’t matter what you use. You can come with anything as long as you have beats. What it is is just one-on-one competitions of who moves onto the next round, and then they pair you up against each other. It’s who has the better beat, and who gets the crowd to react more to the best. There’s judges as well.

The first one I ever went to, I was terrified out of my mind. I was only 17. It was pretty nerve wracking, because I’m a 17 year old kid coming from my basement. My boy literally just read a news ad and said there was a beat competition, and I should join it. I tried out, ended up making it. When I went there I was the youngest person there. It was a bunch of grown men. We were in the room all talking, and everybody’s like, “Yeah. I use the ASR-10 45 gigabyte 12 combobulator.” I was really intimidated because I’m just like, “OK. I’m just using Fruity Loops. These guys’ beats are probably crazy.”

I just went out there, and I kind of killed everybody to be honest. I joined three years in a row, and I won all three of the competitions. It was called Battle of the Beatmakers Toronto. I ended up winning three years in a row.

Noz

I imagine that opened some production opportunities up for you?

Boi-1da

Yes, definitely. Because I met a lot of people through the competitions, and just talking to people. I didn’t have a manager before. I met up with a guy that, “I know this person and that person.” Things ended up escalating, from me meeting people in Toronto from Saukrates, to, these are local Toronto legends. Saukrates, Kardinal Offishall. Then I met up with one of my production partners named D10. Through him is where I met up with Drake. That’s where that started.

Noz

Let’s talk about that a little. What were your first impressions of Drake?

Boi-1da

The first time I ever even heard about Drake was from my boy D10. He used to be in a band with Drake. It was actually Drake, another guy named Voice, and Melanie Fiona, were a group. He would tell me about Drake, like, “You might know him from, he’s that light skinned guy from Degrassi. Don’t watch that, though. He can actually rap.” This was a time when 50 Cent was popular. In rap music it was popular to be hardcore, so I was just kind of like, “Uh, I don’t know about the light skinned guy with the afro from Degrassi, if he can actually rap.”

He ended up connecting me with him, and we were talking through messenger for a long time. He sent me a song. The first song I ever heard from Drake was a song called “Money.” The way he did the song is, he’s talking about money like anybody else would be talking about it, but it was in his own way. It was just different. He was just being himself. His rhymes were amazing, and the beat was dope. He picked a dope beat too, and the song was really good. I kind of understood what he was trying to do.

It was pretty interesting, because it wasn’t music that you have to turn down around kids or your mom or anything. It was really relatable. It related to me because we were similar kinds of people. I really understood his vision, and what he wanted to do with his music from there. We started working on his first mixtape from there. That’s how everything came together. That’s how we started working with each other.

Noz

Shall we play something from that mixtape?

Boi-1da

Sure.

(music: Drake — unknown / applause)

Yeah. Old school Drake.

Noz

I noticed you chuckling a little when I put that on.

Boi-1da

Yeah. Just because he’s so different from what he started out as. He’s just changed so much as an artist, so I hadn’t heard that song in a really long time, so it was just funny to hear it. His little drops on the DJ thing was pretty funny too.

Noz

Tell me a little bit about kind of your process together. Did you guys click real quickly in the studio?

Boi-1da

Yes. We clicked immediately. That was actually the first song we did ever. He actually wrote that verse, and I did that beat in like maybe 20 minutes. Actually, I was doing that beat and we used to work in this kind of run-down studio. The power went out so I had to remake that beat. When he came in, he was already writing the song, and the power went out and I was remaking the beat. He was writing to it while I remade it. It was just like a half an hour process just for that chorus and a verse and the beat altogether. It was just like immediately clicking, clickage, you know.

Noz

What kind of reception was that stuff getting locally when you put it out?

Boi-1da

That got a huge reception. It was in heavy rotation on Flow 93.5, which is like Toronto’s main urban radio station. That was on heavy rotation. A lot of people, like back in the days, Toronto had this sound that was like, honestly kind of terrible to be honest. You could just notice when it was a local song on the radio. It’s progressed a lot from now, but you could tell when it was a local artist. A lot of people didn’t know that Drake was even Canadian, because it was just really good compared to other... Not to really like crap on anybody locally, but it was just on another level from any of the local stuff, which is like, that’s why it was getting really high rotation out there.

Noz

Well there are Canadian mandates that require Canadian music to be played on radio there, right?

Boi-1da

Yeah, definitely. It’s called CanCon. I think it’s 30% of the music played has to be Canadian, on the radio, at all times. It’s pretty cool.

Noz

Tell us a little bit about the formation of kind of this production unit that evolved around Drake with you and 40, and T-Minus.

Boi-1da

Funny as it is, me and T-Minus actually went to the same high school. He was two years younger than me. He was just like a guy like me. We’re just both like beat nerds, and just talk about beats all day. Around the time I was working with Drake, I was doing a lot of mentoring with T-Minus. We did a lot of old stuff together for Drake as well. We did a song called “Replacement Girl” that ended up... Him and Trey Songz ended up going to Atlanta and recording it with Trey Songz. During that time, at the same time too, is when me, Drake, and D-10 ended up meeting with 40. That’s when 40 kind of added his touch to everything. When 40 came in, he was just like... He was engineering at first, then he always made beats and stuff too, but then on the So Far Gone mixtape is when he finally, he kind of came into his own and started doing a lot of production for Drake.

Noz

Yeah, it seems like you guys have developed a very unique sound in hip-hop. It’s definitely different than a lot of what was happening at the time.

Boi-1da

Yeah, definitely. We just felt... Me with my production, I was just trying to just be something different and bring something hard-hitting to what Drake was doing. 40, his sound is just like, it’s on, you know? It’s just different texture. It’s a different style of R&B. I feel like he kind of changed the sound, the R&B sound. He kind of brought that to Drake and he put it out. It was really cool. With that So Far Gone mix tape, a lot of people, their response was really good to that mix tape because it was just something fresh and different and it was lyrical and the beats were good. It was a pretty dope time.

Noz

Let’s play the break out hit from that tape, which you happen to produce.

Boi-1da

Sweet.

(music: Drake — “Best I Ever Had” / applause)

Thank you.

Noz

What do you remember about the making of that track?

Boi-1da

I remember when I first made that track, I was doing just a bunch of, I was working on a bunch of different stuff. This was around the time when Drake started going on tour with Lil Wayne. He just met with Lil Wayne and stuff. He decided that he wanted to start this mixtape. I was just working on stuff and sending him. He was really like, “Yo man, we gotta finish up this mixtape. I need like... just like send me anything.” I literally like, I did the beat for “Uptown” first. Then I honestly slapped that beat together and I sent it to him. I didn’t know that he would react so much to it, but he was really just in love with that beat. It was really plain too. I didn’t really add much to it. He just reacted crazy to it, sent me a song back in literally, I think it was like eight hours he took to do that song. I was like, yo, this is a hit. This is like dope.

Noz

So you were kind of still up in Toronto while the whole Drake explosion was happening.

Boi-1da

Yeah. I was still there. We kept in heavy contact. I talk to him every single day, so he was just like, yo man tell me what he’s doing. You know the story of everything’s happening, how he’s at a barber shop and then Lil Wayne called him and everything. There’s a lot of people back at home, so it had everybody excited and everybody was just working. It was just a really good time. It was a great time.

Noz

Did you see kind of an explosion creatively in the Toronto scene after that?

Boi-1da

Yes, definitely. The quality, ever since Drake started doing his thing and really blew up and became really successful in rap, the quality of music in Toronto really got better. It was like a real motivation for everybody, because being from Canada, being from Toronto, I used to come to America, and people would ask me like, “Do people rap in Canada?” People have this weird perception that we all live in igloos and have pet polar bears and stuff like that, which is weird. People actually thought that. It was just great because we had no outlets, like zero outlets. There wasn’t any... The Canadian labels were not really catered to urban music. There’s not that much urban acts. We had like Kardinal Offishall, Saukrates. That was like our big hip-hop acts. We had like I think Deborah Cox, and a few other people that did it, Nelly Furtado that kind of did their thing too, but there was really limited outlets especially for hip-hop music. I just felt like that whole surge that we created was just a huge motivation for a lot of people in Toronto. It really stepped up the quality of music, because like I was saying before, you could literally tell when it was a local Toronto song on the radio. Now I’m hearing songs on the radio when I’m driving and I’m just like, yo. The quality’s matching with what’s out right now. It’s pretty amazing.

Noz

I assume that tape also opened up some career opportunities for you, personally.

Boi-1da

Yeah, yeah. Yes it did, definitely. It was like winning a beat battle almost. People just started calling my phone and asking for tracks that sound like “Best I Ever Had.” I was just like, oh man, I have to make like 30 “Best I Ever Had”s. I didn’t do that. I really just like to progress and move on to other things. It was a really... It was definitely a huge opportunity. With Drake exploding as an artist and me traveling with him sometimes, you just meet people. Drake, that’s my boy, he’d introduce me to a lot of people. Word just got out and it was really cool.

Noz

Were there any artists in particular that reached out that were either unexpected or very exciting?

Boi-1da

Yeah. Around that time too, I think Outkast. Not Outkast, Big Boi from Outkast had reached out. I ended up producing a song for Outkast. It was supposed to be the Outkast like comeback song. Because of some label predicament, the song actually never got to come out as an Outkast song. It just got put on the internet because their labels couldn’t agree to get it on the album, because they’re on separate labels or something like that. That was a big one. I got requests from like 50 Cent, a lot of people, like Nicole Sherzinger. A lot of people were reaching out for records. That was really cool.

Noz

Should we play that Outkast record perhaps?

Boi-1da

Sure.

(music: Big Boi feat. Andre 3000 & Sleepy Brown — “Lookin 4 Ya” / applause)

Noz

One of the things I like about that is how well it modernizes kind of the classic Outkast sound. Are you a producer who is tailoring beats directly for the artist you work with? Or are you a just “knock out a bunch of beats and see where it lands” type of guy?

Boi-1da

I do that sometimes, but I find that when you actually try and tailor something for somebody it just never really works out. I kind of just aimlessly create. Afterwards, I decide that, and then I try to paint a picture with it afterwards and see what I can do with it.

Yeah. I like just aimlessly creating. I just feel like great music will always just find a home anywhere, whether it’s you have an idea for this. And if it’s great, then it’ll find a home. Just being a producer, you just got to make sure the best song possible comes out on top of it. Somebody like Outkast, that was just a track I sent into them. I literally just sent that one, because that was maybe the most out-the-box beat I had at that time. They ended up using it.

Noz

Now, do you try to push yourself out the box a lot?

Boi-1da

Definitely. Definitely I like to push myself out the box, just because I like to keep an open mind with music. Especially me, I have a hip-hop background. I’m a huge hip-hop head. A lot of the hip-hop today, it’s very much so similar, like everything almost sounds the same right now. I try to be that guy that separates and does outside-the-box music.

Noz

Let’s talk about another pretty famous rapper who reached out around the same time. How did you end up linking up with Eminem?

Boi-1da

When I actually got up with Eminem was I found the manager that I’m with right now. He has very, very close relationships with Eminem. He would always tell me that. That was right after I did the song called “Forever” for Drake, which Eminem was also featured on that song with Kanye West and Lil Wayne. 40 had actually ended up going out to mix the song in Detroit with Eminem, and Em asked 40 who did the track for “Forever.” He told him it was me. Coincidally, my manager ended up talking to him about me, and he ended up asking for some tracks. I sent maybe about 12 beats to him, and he ended up taking two of them for the Recovery album.

Noz

Have you guys gotten a chance to work together in real life?

Boi-1da

I haven’t got to work in the studio yet with him, but around those times, it was a lot of over-the-phone kind of stuff, like for the mixing of the songs, and stuff like that. We haven’t actually got to get in the studio yet with each other, but probably soon. I met him maybe three times. He’s a very cool guy. Yeah. But a lot of the time, it was I just sent stuff into him and he ended up taking it.

Noz

I’ve heard rumors that you might also be involved with Dr. Dre’s Detox.

Boi-1da

Yeah. That was another thing. I met up with Dre. It was just mind-blowing to me, because Dre is one of the reasons why I started even producing, because I was a big Dr. Dre fan. My same manager has close ties with Dre and Eminem and all those guys. I ended up going into a session with him and we talked. I got to play him tracks. I was just so nervous. I played him maybe 10 beats. He liked them. That was just my first opportunity at... I don’t know what’s becoming of it. I have no idea what’s going on with Detox, but that was just a cool time in my career too. I got to meet Dr. Dre, and play him tracks, and hear tracks that nobody heard before.

Noz

Did he give you any wisdom while you were out there?

Boi-1da

Yeah. It was more like motivation, you know? He’s just like, “Yeah, just keep going, man. I’m a fan of your stuff. Just keep sending me stuff. I like your sound.” It was really motivating. When I left, I was kind of doing cartwheels and stuff on the low, because it was cool to be...

Noz

While you’re making these large leaps career-wise, do you have any advice you could give people on the business side of things?

Boi-1da

Yeah, definitely. On the business side of things, I would say, if you’re doing any transaction, paperwork, or anything, make sure you have a lawyer definitely present to read over things, because that stuff can get really tricky with fine-lining and words in between and whatnot. I’m a music guy. I can’t read those contracts. I’m pretty sure people here that are really involved in music, you’re not going to... I mean, some people do go out their way to learn a lot of that stuff, but it’s really crucial that you have a lawyer and make sure everything is on paper. Yeah. That’s really crucial. Yeah, definitely, for the business side of things.

Noz

I also wanted to ask you about a recent project, which was a record you did with Bizzle.

Boi-1da

Yes.

Noz

That’s an interesting project for a couple of reasons, one being that I believe it’s your first top-to-bottom, full-length production.

Boi-1da

Yeah.

Noz

What goes into that, when you’re making a full album with an artist?

Boi-1da

A lot of time. That album was actually two years in the making. Bizzle is actually a Christian rapper that... I heard his song. He had a song that was on WorldStar where he kind of went at a few rappers, like some Illuminati conspiracy kind of song. I thought it was really interesting, what he was saying, and the way he raps and gets his message across. It was really dope. I’m also a Christian as well, so I ended up hitting him up on Twitter, and we just connected and got the whole idea to work on an entire project with each other. Doing that entire project really took a lot of time, and the whole mixing process, cutting songs.

He was just a straight, raw rapper. I had to show him a few things, like not making the songs too long. But for the other part of it, he did a great job. We just put it out, I think, it was a few weeks ago. It debuted number one on iTunes for hip-hop and rap albums. It debuted on Billboard at number 11 rap albums, and number two gospel albums with no money behind it, no push or anything like that. It was just really Twitter, word of mouth, and just the fact that his music was just touching and just amazing. It’s just something different, you know? He’s talking about something different in his songs, just growing up as a Christian, a guy believing in God, and the fight, and the struggles that he had to deal with. It was really cool and interesting. I thought a lot of people caught onto that.

Noz

Yeah. It seems like there’s kind of a low-key renaissance in Christian rap happening right now.

Boi-1da

Yeah. I just feel like in rap music right now, people are just calling for something different. There’s a lot of the same thing happening over and over again, so it’s really different, outside the box, and in a lane of its own. It’s relatable to people, you know? Sometimes people just want to hear music that they relate to. I know there’s a lot of guys at church with not much to listen to. I remember there was a few years where I was heavily in church, and I didn’t really have much to listen to. It was really good to put a commercial sound on him, and do what I do for all these other commercial people to him, and bring that to a gospel rapper. It just ended up being a really dope project that a lot of people are vibing with right now.

Noz

Well, let’s play something from there.

(music: Bizzle — “Wonder” / applause)

Noz

Now, when you’re working with an artist like Bizzle, or another Christian rapper, and I guess being a Christian yourself, how do you rationalize those values with the slightly less pious work you’re doing for, say, Rick Ross or whatever?

Boi-1da

Yeah. A lot of the stuff that I’ve done that are coming out now is stuff I’ve done a long time ago and it’s just coming out now. It gets difficult sometimes, because I’ve been working with these people for a long time, and I’ve been listening to hip-hop for long, so it’s hard for me with it being my job to stop working with them. It’s kinda my fight and my way of even relating to what he’s talking about, which is something that I’m battling with myself right now.

Noz

Do you ever get flack? With an artist like Bizzle, like you say, he’s rapping about the Illuminati and all that stuff, which we won’t debate the existence of here. I think that’s a conversation for another day. But I imagine guys like that are looking at a lot of the artists you work with as being part of something negative.

Boi-1da

Yeah, I just believe that the Illuminati is something way bigger than the music. You know? I don’t think that anybody... I think people have a weird perception of it. I just don’t think that the people who run the world want anything to do with people doing music. Something on such a small scale. That’s just my thing with it. I don’t believe it’s that small scale kind of thing.

Noz

Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring the Illuminati into it. They’re gong to shut this whole thing down in like five minutes.

Boi-1da

The lights are just going to turn off. I’m gonna disappear.

Noz

You’ve also been doing some documentary work as I understand it?

Boi-1da

Yes. Yes.

Noz

Tell us a little bit about how you got into that.

Boi-1da

I actually scored a film called Lenny Cooke. It’s about a basketball player named Lenny Cooke that, he was a prospect who was ranked higher than LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony when they were in high school. He’s a high school basketball player and it’s just a story showing how he took the wrong path. He got too popular and it just all went to his head before he really buckled in and honed in on his real basketball abilities. It shows him going from his glory of being ESPN top prospect to not making it, not being selected in the draft, to being now a 290-pound guy who sits on the couch and just watches LeBron. Sobs every day because he could’ve been that. It’s really, I got introduced to a guy named Adam Shopkorn who actually filmed the whole thing and did all the production and whatnot. I just heard the story and they asked me if I was interested in scoring it. Joakim Noah was an executive producer of it as well, who plays for the Chicago Bulls. He’s the center.

I was really interested in it. I’m a huge basketball fan, I was really interested in getting involved in it. I was a fan of basketball and I enjoyed the story and I thought that a lot of, not a lot but I think every high school basketball player or anybody doing anything should actually watch it. It just shows you what not to do when you’re in that kind of situation.

Noz

Now musically, how do you approach scoring a project like that? Is it much different than making rap beats?

Boi-1da

Yeah it was. they actually selected scenes that they wanted me to put music to. I had to just sit down with the scene and vibe with it. What I felt kind of music or beat or anything would be appropriate for the scene. It was just something different; I had to see what was going on, people’s emotions and reactions, and put music to it. It was really fun because I’ve never done anything like that before. It was amazing.

Noz

Let’s talk a little bit about this new Drake album that’s in the works.

Boi-1da

Yeah.

Noz

Are you at liberty to speak on it?

Boi-1da

Yeah, I could talk about how good it is. It’s amazing. It’s pretty good.

Noz

Unbiased opinion, I imagine.

Boi-1da

I’m a realist. Obviously if it wasn’t good I’d say it wasn’t. It’s Drake. I think he’s right now one of the greatest rappers in the world. The project, after he made Take Care I was like, “Man this album’s really good. I don’t know how you’re going to make an album better than this.” Man, he just keeps growing as an artist. He’s really doing his thing on this album. This album’s really special.

Noz

What’s the vibe like in the early stages on planning a project like that? Do you guys all put your heads together and plan out a direction?

Boi-1da

Yeah, definitely. He just does his thing. What we do, what I do with him is I just play him. I just come and vibe with him, he just make stuff on the spot. I just play him stuff that I think will work for what he wants to talk about and what he wants to do. It kind of has no blueprint on how we do it, we kind of just get together as friends and just talk. He always has something to play me first. He’ll do something with 40. Just start an idea on his own. Yeah. We just get in and make it happen.

Noz

Is there every a point where you hear stuff he’s working on with other producers and that makes you want to change your direction or try something different?

Boi-1da

Yeah, definitely. He works with 40. 40’s production is so amazing. Every time I hear a new 40 track that he does with Drake, he’s always evolving and it’s this motivation. When you hear something really good and you just want to get into the studio immediately and make something, that always happens when I hear something new that Drake and 40 does together. Makes me want to do the same, and contribute what I contribute to Drake’s story.

Noz

Do you think we should play “5AM in Toronto”?

Boi-1da

Sure.

(music: Drake — “5AM in Toronto” / applause)

Thank you.

Noz

It’s a lot of subliminal shots being sent on that record.

Boi-1da

Yeah. I don’t know.

Noz

Is that every something as a a producer that you worry about trickling down to you? That you might be collaborating with outside of that might take the wrong way?

Boi-1da

I don’t think anybody else worries about that. I’m a music guy. I’m not really saying anything on a song. That’s how he feels and he says what he says on his songs.

Noz

What other projects do you have in the pipeline?

Boi-1da

I’m right now currently working on Drake’s album obviously. I’ve been working with an artist from Toronto that I’ve been working heavily with. A brand new, totally different sound that I’ve been doing. His name is Ben Stevenson. We’re working on this music called stadium soul. We’re trying to make our own genre. It’s coming out rather incredible. You might hear some stuff from that pretty soon, he’s spectacular. He’s about to have — you’ll hear about it.

Noz

Explain stadium soul a little bit.

Boi-1da

Stadium soul. Man, it’s kind of a thing. It’s like modern day soul on a big level. I don’t know, the name kind of explains itself. It’s stadium big, but it’s soul music. Pretty self explanatory.

Noz

What made you guys want to go down that path?

Boi-1da

Myself as well, a lot of guys I work with, like I said, I’m a hip-hop head, but I also love just music in general. I’m always up for evolving and changing sounds. Just doing different stuff. When I met Ben, he just was, his voice was so different. I didn’t want to assimilate him with anything else that was already going on because it doesn’t make sense. We’ve been working for almost three years now. But we sat and really found a lane and our own sound for him that’s pretty amazing. I don’t want to give anybody anything that they’ve heard before. Like, “Oh just another Justin Timberlake. Just another this.” I want to do my own thing, and always be known for that.

Another person who’s a master reinventing himself is Timbaland, who’s a huge inspiration for me. He’s one of the guys who I try to model myself after as well. It’s just something different for me. It just keeps my mind open and it’s just fun to get out of your comfort zone sometimes.

Noz

What else do you draw inspiration from?

Boi-1da

I draw inspiration from a lot of movies and video games as well. I watch a lot of action, fantasy movies, play long, drawn-out video games sometimes. I don’t know why but it just inspires me to make music after I watch a great movie or I play a game that was really good. I don’t know why, I’ll just feel like going to the studio after. I draw a lot of my inspiration from that. Just spending time with my family and talking with people that are grounded. Stuff like that. I draw inspiration from that.

Noz

Is it tough staying grounded when you have many gold plaques on the wall?

Boi-1da

No, definitely not. It’s just the way I am. I was never that guy who was out saying that they’re the best. It’s just not in me to do that and act... I don’t know. I see some pretty outlandish producers doing some pretty crazy stuff. It’s just not me. It’s not in my character. I just don’t do it because if I did do it, it wouldn’t be me being me. I just stay in my own lane and just do what I feel is right. Just not a message or just not a way that I would want anybody else to carry themselves, or show anybody up and coming to act, just because I think it’s stupid and expensive.

Noz

Well, on that note, maybe we should open the floor up to questions?

Boi-1da

Don’t raise your hands too fast.

Audience Member

Hey there, big fan.

Boi-1da

Hey. Thank you.

Audience Member

For Drake Take Care, he worked with a lot of other producers and kind of went outside the rap producer realm. He worked with like Stevie Wonder and Jamie xx. Did he keep you involved with all of these new collaborations that he was doing?

Boi-1da

Oh yeah, definitely. I talk to Drake almost every single day. He’d be like, “Yo, I’m going in with Stevie Wonder.” He’d always ask if I had anything, an idea or anything to spark anything off. I think it’s good that he finds different sounds and goes outside different producers. He made an amazing song with Jamie xx. He made an amazing song with Just Blaze and DJ Khalil. I’m a fan of other producers, so it was great to hear him on other people’s stuff.

Noz

Hello. Word has it that you used to rap way back. Are we going to hear anything from that?

Boi-1da

Unfortunately, I used to rap. You probably won’t ever hear me on the mic. I guarantee that. I have nothing to talk about as a rapper.

Noz

I don’t know. I think the people want to hear it. You got something to bust?

Boi-1da

I’m going to rap about watering my garden and stuff, I guess. If anybody wants to hear that. Or taking my daughter to school. I don’t know. I don’t feel like I have anything like super interesting that anybody wants to really hear about.

Noz

There could be a lane for taking you daughter to school rap. I wouldn’t count it out.

Boi-1da

Yeah, a whole genre for it.

Audience Member

Second question. This room is filled with upcoming, amazing producers. I wanted to find out how easy or how is it that you go about shopping beats. How can people like us get to shop beats to people on a higher scale, and thereabout?

Boi-1da

With the internet, the internet obviously makes it so much easier than back in the days to get your music out through outlets like SoundCloud and Twitter. Even Facebook, MySpace, a lot of things like that. As well as just looking out in your city for local events to go and network with people. Just go out there and just get known. Obviously, this is an event too. When everybody’s out here, just get familiar with people and just rub shoulders as well. Don’t be afraid to talk to anybody. Don’t be afraid to ask for somebody’s email or anything. Just dive into it really. There’s a lot of ways. There’s not one specific way to get places. There’s just like tons and tons of ways to do it now.

Audience Member

Thank you.

Audience Member

Hey, what’s up?

Boi-1da

Hey.

Audience Member

Is there anyone in particular, a rapper or someone outside of rap music that you’d particularly like to work with in the future?

Boi-1da

Outside of rap music you said?

Audience Member

Well, either outside or rap music, or a rapper like, anything really.

Boi-1da

Outside rap, I’m definitely a fan of Rihanna. I like Rihanna’s music. I think she makes a lot of hit songs. I definitely want to do a song with her in the future. Try some different stuff. I also like Justin Timberlake. I’m a huge fan of Justin Timberlake. I want to definitely work with him. I loved his new album. Who else?

Audience Member

Did you ever work with any dancehall MCs perhaps?

Boi-1da

Oh dancehall? Oh yeah, yeah definitely. Like ... shoot anybody. I like a lot of those guys like Mavado. I actually did a song with Mavado on DJ Khaled’s last album. That was pretty cool, because I’m like I’m a big fan of Mavado. My dad, he’s like a huge dancehall head. He loves Mavado, so he was hyped about that. Anybody really.

Audience Member

Cool.

Boi-1da

Thank you.

Audience Member

Hi man.

Boi-1da

Hey.

Audience Member

You said you draw inspiration from video games.

Boi-1da

Yep.

Audience Member

Which video games did you find particularly inspiring?

Boi-1da

Particularly inspiring, I was playing of a lot of those Batman Arkham City games. The latest one I played was Tomb Raider. That was pretty inspiring, the new one. I also be inspired from handing out MBA 2K ass whoopings as well. That’s very inspiring to me. But yeah, other than that, I like those games like Tomb Raider, games that are long and have a story, because there’s always music and everything in it. It’s like you’re playing a movie, so it’s pretty cool. I get inspiration from that.

Audience Member

OK, cool. Thanks.

Audience Member

Sorry, it’s me again.

Boi-1da

Hey.

Audience Member

Sorry. You mentioned you worked with DJ Khaled. Can you talk about what the whole process was like working with him?

Boi-1da

Working with him, it was pretty dope man. He’s such an energetic guy. Man, it’s like he’s doing a motivational speech at all times. He just amps you up to. He’ll come with an idea or something and amp you up to do it. He’s a very motivational guy and what he’s doing is pretty big.

Audience Member

When you were working with him, was it with Mavado, and then Mavado was like, “Yeah, we’re going to put this with DJ Khaled,” or was it with DJ Khaled primarily?

Boi-1da

I connected with him through DJ Khaled, but it was just like a thing where DJ Khaled would be like, “Yo, I’m in the studio with Mavado tonight. I need a moooovie.” You know, like he would say something crazy and I’d just be like, “Yeah, cool.” Then I’d either work on something or I would just have something already prepared. I liked working with him because he’s just motivated at all times, up at all times, energetic at all times.

Audience Member

Did you ever ride a speed boat with DJ Khaled?

Boi-1da

Not yet, not yet, it’s very likely though. That might happen pretty soon. [laughs] Speed boat...

Audience Member

Sorry, when you’re not making music, who’s the regular, everyday Boi-1da?

Boi-1da

The regular everyday Boi-1da is... I really just chill. I have a two year old daughter that I spend a lot of time with. If I’m not making music, I’m trying to do stuff for her and do activities for her. I’m heavily involved in her life. We do lots of things, like science centers. We go to a lot of places to learn and just do things to stimulate her mind. A lot of my life is revolved around her and my family. I’m very close with my family, so I spend a lot of time with my sister and my brother and my parents. That’s primarily what I do other than music. Oh yeah, I’m a basketball head. I just love basketball. I’m always watching games. On the low, I have like hoop dreams and I feel like I’m going to make it to the NBA one day, play for the Raptors. Because we need a super star, so I’ll be that, for sure.

Noz

Anyone else?

Audience Member

I feel like one of the trends today, and even in the past, too, has been that coming up with an artist is like not necessarily a sure-fire way to make it. But if they make it, it’s a great way to basically boost your career into this level that a lot of times feels like it’s untouchable. You’re working with people like Bizzle and then the guy that’s doing the stadium soul stuff. Even with Drake, it’s like what I guess has really like shocked you and stood out and been like, yo, this dude can make it? Or something that you look for to be like, yeah, I think this is on to something?

Boi-1da

Yeah, that was actually another thing that I didn’t mention too with that was answering your question. Finding an artist as well to work with and come up with. I don’t know, it’s just usually when I see certain people, even with Drake, you just got to get it as a musician or producer or writer or anything. You just got to understand the vision and what you guys both think together just makes sense.

With Bizzle and Ben Stevenson and well... With Drake to start off I just thought it just made perfect sense. He was a dope rapper and I just got it. With Ben, his voice was just different, you know? I felt like a different voice like that needs his own kind of sound. With Bizzle it was just like my experiences being in church and how much of his music that I relate to and the questions that he’s asking in his songs that I ask all the time.

Just being like there’s no lane really for Christian rappers and me just wanting to contribute to that really. It’s just like you’ve got to understand it and just have a vision and really just paint a picture with everything.

Audience Member

Cool. Thanks.

Boi-1da

No problem.

Audience Member

Yeah, you were talking about how back in the day Toronto, the local Canadian hip-hop, just you could really hear it immediately when it came on the radio. It wasn’t up to the quality or whatever. Do you feel like rather than necessarily it has to sound exactly like American rap, that Toronto could have its own sound? That there’s something in its identity there, the make-up of the city there that the hip-hop should sound different coming from that?

Boi-1da

Yeah. Now I feel like Toronto has its own sound now. It’s own sound is like Drake, it’s like the Weeknd. There’s a new guy too that’s making a lot of noise up there too named Party, Partynextdoor. They all have this sound. It’s like that cold, north kind of almost emo, but not really, you know? I feel like that’s our sound.

As you can hear, a lot of people in music are doing it. That sound originated from Toronto. It started with Drake and it’s taken its turns and transforming into different things. You know, I feel like it will happen again with somebody else. Just music lives forever and it keeps changing, you know? I definitely think now we’ve definitely created that sound.

Noz

Anyone else have any questions? Yeah, there’s someone in the back.

Audience Member

Hi. Sometimes I feel like the roles get confused, but can you explain the importance of the relationship between the artist, the engineer and producer?

Boi-1da

The artist, the roles of the artist, engineer and producer are. I’ll start off with the role of the engineer. Well, the engineer is somebody who records the music of, records the artist and assists the artist’s vision in how he wants to portray himself on the song. The engineer is the person who really landscapes for the artist a little bit and records him obviously, adds the effects and makes his, what do you call it? The things that he’s imagining him doing come to life with effects, reverb and all that stuff, leveling and whatnot.

The artist is obviously the person vocally who’s doing the stuff on the song and with the idea, who comes up with the ideas. Most of the time because the artist, it’s the artist’s song. He comes up with the ideas and the songs obviously. The producer I feel like is the person whether you work with the artist — some producers work with the artist on painting the picture and assist or some just bring a canvas there and the artist kind of...

It’s like painting. It’s like the producer is almost like an artist as well who brings the painting there and the artist does his thing on the painting as well. That’s how I look at it. Some people like to paint together. Some people like to paint separately. That’s how I could best explain it, the difference between all of them. And the producer, you know, with different songs comes arranging and mixing, which producers do a lot of that stuff as well.

Noz

Anyone else? We’ve got one in the back.

Audience Member

Thank you for being here.

Boi-1da

Thank you.

Audience Member

My little brother is just starting to make beats, which is very exciting for me. He sends me his stuff. It’s been nice to see him grow and develop. He definitely abuses some sounds, like he loves the hey. What would be a bit of advice for a young kid starting out? What would be your tip?

Boi-1da

For a young kid starting out, definitely when I was young and starting out, I definitely obviously tried to imitate songs. I would remake beats just to learn to... I don’t know, it teaches you something just when you try to remake a beat. I used to try to remake all the Neptunes hits and stuff like that. You just learn how to structure songs. You notice that, “Oh, this changes here, the bass drops out here.” You start learning things like that.

I’d definitely say recreate some stuff, mimic some stuff. Definitely keep an open mind. Just tell him... don’t put the hey on everything.

Audience Member

Exactly.

Boi-1da

Yeah, I’d definitely say listen to a lot of music. Keep your mind open and don’t be afraid to go outside the box and just do your own thing because that’s where a lot of people figure out their style and their sound, from just doing weird things and listening to weird music and assimilating that into their own, mixed with somebody else. It just all can come together and you can just figure something out.

Audience Member

Thank you.

Boi-1da

No problem.

Audience Member

Hey man. How you doing?

Boi-1da

Good. How are you?

Audience Member

Good thanks. I was just wondering if you read much at all and if you did, what inspires you?

Boi-1da

Yeah. I read a lot of comics and stuff. I just bought all those Walking Dead comics because I’m addicted to that show. I really like comic books and things like that. I don’t know, I try to read novels and stuff like that, but it sometimes gets, it doesn’t get my attention. I like a lot of visuals and stuff. That’s why I choose to read comic books and whatnot, just because I like those kinds of things. I’m kind of like a nerd, you know?

Audience Member

Cool.

Noz

Any other questions? Why don’t we, we skipped over a few big records. Why don’t we play, what do you think, “Forever”?

Boi-1da

Sure.

(music: Drake, Eminem, Kanye West, Lil Wayne – “Forever” / applause)

Thank you.

Noz

Pretty stacked lineup on that record.

Boi-1da

Oh yeah. It’s pretty cool.

Noz

When did you find out that that was going to be the lineup for that song?

Boi-1da

Originally that song was supposed to be Drake and Kanye. They asked for a song for... That song is actually on the LeBron James movie soundtrack. He came out with a movie about his life before he made it to the NBA. That was on the soundtrack of it. Originally I was pretty hyped already. I was like cool, Drake and Kanye. Then after Drake hit me and said that Lil Wayne was going to jump on the song too. I was like wow, pretty amazing.

Then after maybe a week after, before the song’s coming out they said Eminem was jumping on it. My manager ended up telling me that. I was just like... because, I mean, I’m a huge Eminem fan. I think Slim Shady LP was the first album I ever bought ever so I was really hyped for that. He went crazy on that. It was pretty cool. I was, yeah, I was in shock.

Noz

All right, if nobody else has any more questions, anything else you wanted to add?

Boi-1da

I don’t know what else to say.

Noz

Everybody give a big hand for Boi-1da. [applause]