Monday, May 09, 2011
360 - THROW IT AWAY
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
VIDEO: RYAN LESLIE CREATES AT HIT FACTORY, MIAMI.
R-Les comes through again with a super enjoyable production clip. This time working out of Miami's incredible Hit Factory Studio.
I love how dramatic he makes everything, its hilarious yet captivating...
Friday, June 04, 2010
DRUMMA BOY - THE STORIES BEHIND HIS BIGGEST HITS

Speaking on "Put On":
"Jeezy kept telling me he had a surprise for me. I didn't hear that shit until it hit radio. I didn't even hear the mix. I knew it was a wrap, the way the boom drops. It's like a movie as soon as you push play. Just hearing Kanye on it through the radio, my whole body had goosebumps. That's a "wow" moment. I remember Mizz Shyneka of Hot 107.9 was the first to play it. Shout outs to her."
Check it out below
Drumma Boy: The Stories Behind His Biggest Hits
Saturday, May 15, 2010
VIDEO: JUST BLAZE & ALCHEMIST TALK BEATS THAT WERE PASSED ON
Everything in this music business is forty percent talent, sixty percent people skills. – Just Blaze
via Crate Kings
Thursday, February 11, 2010
WEST COAST THEORY: FOCUS
I think I posted about the West Coast Theory documentary at some point last year. Well here are some clips from it. I'm yet to find a proper rip online, but I cannot wait to check the whole thing out
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
WAVES MULTI-RACK
Waves have created a program that enables you to send any of your Waves plug-ins to a mixer, where they can be controlled to achieve the sound of your studio mixes in a live environment.
This will ultimately replace rack mount EQ's, Reverb Effects Processing Units & Compressors etc in a live setting. Especially if your priority is portability. Bravo.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
KELLY CLARKSON - "THEY'RE RELEASING IT WITHOUT MY CONSENT"

Kelly Clarkson - Already Gone
Beyonce - Halo
Now an article on Kelly Clarkson by CBCNews reveals Clarkson's reaction to the similarity of the two songs and her disdain of RCA's choice to use "Already Gone" as a single. Here's a portion of the article:
Now, here's where it gets interesting - if I remember correctly, a portion of a Ryan Tedder interview with PopJustice conducted in June of 2008:If you’ve been listening to the radio lately, it’s possible you’ve heard the soaring strains of Already Gone, the newest single off All I Ever Wanted. It’s very likely that you thought you’d heard the epic song before, albeit in a slightly different form. Kelly Clarkson collaborated with Ryan Tedder on the track, a dramatic ballad driven by a pounding heartbeat, twinkly piano and swooping strings. Unbeknownst to Clarkson, Tedder used suspiciously similar elements when he produced another recent mega-hit, Beyonce’s Halo.
“Ryan and I met each other at the record label, before he was working with anyone else,” Clarkson begins, gritting her teeth. “He’s from Oklahoma, I’m from Texas; we got along really well and had some of the same influences. We wrote about six songs together, four or five of them made the album. It was all fine and dandy. I’d never heard of a song called Halo. Her album came out when my album was already being printed. No-one’s gonna be sittin’ at home, thinking ‘Man, Ryan Tedder gave Beyonce and Kelly the same track to write to.’ No, they’re just gonna be saying I ripped someone off. I called Ryan and said, ‘I don’t understand. Why would you do that?’”
The palpably frustrated Clarkson claims she “fought and fought” to try and prevent her label from releasing Already Gone as her third single, out of respect for Beyonce.
“In the end, they’re releasing it without my consent,” she sighs. “It sucks, but it’s one of those things I have no control over. I already made my album. At this point, the record company can do whatever they want with it. It’s kind of a shitty situation, but.… You know, you learn.”
Do you have any emergency global Number One songs up your sleeve?I think its safe to assume he was talking about "Halo", right? So to give you an idea of what has happened here from the perspective of a songwriter/producer:
I would say yes. At any given point in time I have one or two songs for other people that I do believe are quite massive. I'd love to go on record right now with one of them but what I'll say is that a massive artist just cut one of them and everyone's freaking out on it. I told people I was sitting on a smash and now everyone's gone nuts.
What's the initial of the song title?
H. It's one word.
Tedder wrote/produced "Halo", he knew he was sitting on a great song/sound so instinctively the tracks he was making around the same time sounded similar and one of them happened to end up being Clarkson's "Already Gone".
At the end of the day it might be a nightmare for an artist that takes pride in their craft like Clarkson, but its a dream-come-true for RCA.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Thursday, March 05, 2009
THE CREATIVE PROCESS VIA R-LES
Ever wonder why you download a leaked song from an artist like James Fauntleroy or Keri Hilson etc and half the song is mumbling?
For those of you who're interested in the creative process of a Pop or R&B record, watch this video of Ryan Leslie creating his track "Gibberish".
As a songwriter/producer, my process almost identically parallels that in the video above, minus the little trumpet and abundance of keyboards. Almost all of my songs start with unintelligible syllables to form a melodic guide which I then fill in later with lyrics.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
OPEN LABS - TEDDY RILEY x TIM & BOB
With Damon from the Underdogs hanging out towards the end. I'd love to see this once they really got the rhythm going.
I just couldn't resist posting this video of Teddy performing "No Diggity" entirely on the talk box. Incredible.
Friday, December 12, 2008
DIDDY & T-PAIN: HIT BUTTONS
T-Pain is a hilarious dude. He's like Chappelle in just the way he talks makes you laugh.
Do some shit.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
FUTURE MUSIC x FREEMASONS

While I'm not a huge fan of Freemasons Alanis Morrisett cover single "Uninvited", I can definitely appreciate the work and musicality that went into its creation.
The good folks at Future Music Magazine have collated some of the clips from their In The Studio DVD footage, the most interesting & educational of these is the Freemasons footage. They basically go into the creative process of making "Uninvited" and give alot of insightful information on EQ, Compression, Mixing, Mastering and Vocal Recording. A must watch for any producer, DJ or fan of Dance music.
I've posted my favourite clip below but more can be found here or by searching Google Video.
ENJOY!