July 2009 – Board Game: Boi-1da
By Randy Roper • Aug 21st, 2009 • Category: Board Game, July 2009 510 views
Before producing tracks for Drake, Toronto, Canadian producer Boi-1da had a discography that already included Kardinal Offishall, the Clipse, The-Dream and G-Unit. But since hooking up with Drake and producing Drizzy’s first single “Best I Ever Had,” this 22-year-old beatmaker, like his counterpart, seems to be so far gone.
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Production Credits: Drake “Best I Ever Had,” Drake f/Bun B & Lil Wayne “Uptown,” Kardinal Offishall f/Dr. Dre & Pusha T “Set It Off (Remix)”
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My first major placement was on a record with G-Unit, “Red Light, Green Light,” which they eventually ended up using in their X-Box 360 video game Blood In The Sand. That was about two years ago. I also did “Set It Off” for Kardinal Offishall and Dr. Dre ended up jumpin’ on the remix. [But] “Best I Ever Had” by Drake was pretty much my biggest song I’ve ever done.
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I met Drake through my boy, [who] would always tell me about Drake. He was like, “I know this guy that raps, he used to [play] Jimmy on Degrassi.” And I was like, “Jimmy? The wheelchair dude?” I kinda questioned it. I had seen him on TV and I’m like, “This dude doesn’t even look like a rapper.” But we were instant messaging, and [Drake] sent me a few songs. He sent me this song called “Money”; that was the first one I ever heard from Drake. Ever since I heard that song I was like, “Yo, this guy is nuts.” I was blown away by the music.
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After we connected, I was at the studio one day, and Drake told me he was gonna come by. He came by when I was doing the beat for “Do What You Do.” We met there and he liked the beat, he came in and was like, “Yo, man, let me drop a hook on this.” While the beat was playing, he went into the next room and wrote the first verse and the hook in about twenty minutes. It was crazy. I was like, “You take this beat with you, finish this song and let’s do this.”
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Drake has always been that lyrical genius. Ever since I heard him, he’s always had those witty lyrics. When I first met him, he was doing more soulful music, records with Dwele and Little Brother. When he met up with me, we started getting in to the more mainstream vibe because that’s what I do. I produce stuff that everybody can relate to. He kinda switched his style up. He was like an underground rapper; he had the whole underground aura going on around him, and he switched it up. During the Comeback Season, he put out that mainstream music that all people could relate too, not just the underground crowd. To go from that to So Far Gone, he’s just experimenting with songwriting and writing R&B and rap music. And one of the records leaked that he was referencing for another artist, and people took on to it and loved the song so much that he just ran with the whole style of the singing and rapping. So, he put something different out there. It’s something that has never been done before, but he does both very well.
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I produced “Best I Ever Had” and “Uptown” on So Far Gone. The whole process [for "Best I Ever Had"] came when Drake was instant messaging and [text messaging] me on his Blackberry, like “I got this idea for a song,” and he kinda rapped out the hook to me, and he asked me to make a beat for him. He gave me the whole vibe. He wanted the beat to sound very classy, but with that rock feel to it. The next day, I was going through some stuff on my computer and there was this sample in this folder. It was weird because this sample was in a folder by itself, and I listened to it. And I was like, “Yo, this could work.” The sample I used is called Frank & Joel Hamilton ["Fallin’ In Love"]. I chopped everything up and did the beat, and sent it to him. And he sent the song back in about six or seven hours.
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It’s an amazing feeling that people actually love the song. People are singing the song, making YouTube videos and stuff. But, I don’t let it get to my head, ‘cause I do realize that there is more to go, and there are a lot more goals to accomplish. I just keep on striving for more, although it’s a great accomplishment. I’m really proud of myself and I’m proud of Drake that we accomplished that and we are on the Billboard [charts] I don’t let that seep into my head and get me too into it. So, it’s an amazing feeling and honor, but I just think I’ve got more stuff to do. //
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[...] I Ever Had,” “Uptown,” this song and a bunch of other sh!t. You can view that here if you wanna. Posted by: Randy Exclusive Filed under: Music Comment (0) Article tags: Drake, [...]