Artist's Reaction To Tracks :: 20/20 Vision For Producers

Hi guys, welcome to 2020 Vision for Producers. Um, today we're gonna talk about something that's a little bit challenging for a lot of producers because a lot of producers are artists and many producers are very attached to their work, sort of like children or babies, right? You create something and you're kind of attached to it. When a rapper or a singer does not like a track, it doesn't mean that they're saying you're whack or that your production is whack. They're just saying they're not feeling the track. When an artist is choosing music to rap over or sing over, they're actually looking for something that creates passion in them or creates movement. So you might be playing a track for Future— to just randomly pull a rapper out of the air, right? I don't know why I picked him, but I'm picking him. So you're in the studio with Future and you make a beat for him, and you just know in your heart of hearts that this is a hit fucking record and that Future will kill it and he will sound perfect on it and it will be wonderful. And as you're playing it for him, you're sitting there all excited and he wants to hear the next track, and you're like blown away because like, why wouldn't he like this track? It's perfect for him. It doesn't mean the track is bad, and it doesn't mean that your music is bad and doesn't mean that he's going against your judgment or your opinion. It means the track isn't speaking to him at that exact moment. You might play it for him a year later and he thinks it's like, oh my God, the most mind-blowing hit, but you're not reaching him at the moment in the mindset that he is. And again, it doesn't mean that your track isn't good. It means it's not reaching him. So if you can take yourself out of that whole, um, judgment thing where you think when you're playing beats for an artist or you're sending them a, a, um, pack of beats and they don't want any of those beats, it doesn't mean you're not a great producer, and it doesn't mean that the music was bad or that they thought the music was bad. It's that it wasn't what they were looking for in that moment. When you spend time with rappers, you learn— and singers, you learn that they have a certain mind frame that they're in, and they're looking for a song that's in that mind frame. And then another way that I see producers shooting themselves in the foot— and, and today I'm really talking about like your mind state and your mindset, because if you're trying to sell tracks, this is a business. It's like me trying to sell you this pen.. It's not whether this pen is good or whether this pen is bad, although this is my favorite pen. I think this is an amazing pen, but it's the person that I'm trying to sell the pen to. What are their needs, and am I filling their needs? This is a black, really fine point pen, and if they're looking for red ink and they're looking for a fat line, it doesn't matter what a great pen this is, they're never going to be happy with it because they want a red fat line, and in a million years this pen will not produce a red fat line. It's a black fine tip point pen. So your beats are kind of the same way where an artist is looking for something, even though they're telling you, no man, I'm not looking for anything special. They have something in their head, whether they know it or not, that they're actually looking for. So let me get back to the other way that I see some producers shooting themselves in the foot, and I'm hoping that this isn't you guys. And in case it is, just kind of keep this in the back of your mind. Sometimes you'll make a beat and you'll think, um, man, this is a great Pop Smoke sounding beat. And you'll go into the studio with another artist and you'll say, yo, I've got this beat that you'd be perfect on, it's got like that Pop Smoke flavor. And you shouldn't say that because in their mind they may not see themselves as a Pop Smoke type of rapper. So you could be shooting yourself in the foot before you ever play the beat because in their mind they cannot get rid of the fact that you just said, this is like a Pop Smoke flavor. You're saying the right thing, but they're not receiving it in the right way. So if you would just play it and shut the fuck up, you might sell a beat. You might be able to create the most magical hit record with this artist on that beat. And then somewhere down the road in an interview, you can laugh and say, yo man, this is like a— for me, I made it, it was like a Pop Smoke feel. And then when it came out with dude on it, like, it sounds nothing like Pop Smoke, but it's It's a hit record, it's a great record, and it made me $7 million. So you can either be right or you can run a business and make money. So my advice would be, don't— don't— unless the rapper says to you, dude, I'm looking for like some Pop Smoke type beats, don't preface your beats by saying anything. Just play whatever you feel in your heart is best for that artist. And if they start to pass on those beats, don't take it personally. Switch up. You know you've got beats that have a million different flavors. Switch up to another flavor and try something in a different lane or a different sound or a different feeling to see if they like that. And if they don't react to that feeling, maybe try another feeling. That's only if you're in front of them. The great thing about beat packs— I know many, many of you hate sending them, but the great thing about beat packs is they don't have the producer there in front of them, so they don't run the risk of offending anybody. And then secondly, they can skip through them pretty quickly, and they don't have the editorial content of, yo man, you know, I was on a couple of perks when I made this beat, and yo man, this beat would be perfect for Lil Pump, I think you should get on it, or you know, this is a Pop Smoke type flavor, 'Yo, remember Onyx back in the day? This beat would be ideal for them.' Like, all of that editorial content really doesn't help until afterwards. That's the stuff that you save for after. Even if the artist asks you for like some Pop Smoke flavor type beats, then you have an idea of what they're looking for and you can start there. But don't suggest it to the artist because it's going to pre-color your beat. You might be playing one type of Pop Smoke sound and they're picturing a completely different Pop Smoke song because you both have different ideas of who Pop Smoke is, right? And I don't know why I'm picking on Pop Smoke. I don't know why I'm picking on Future today, um, but I'm doing it in a positive way to make my point. But I think that you guys get it, like sometimes producers can be their own worst enemy, and I don't want to see you sell yourself out of out of tracks. Um, I spent yesterday in the studio with two different producers playing beats for a rapper, and I just kind of sat back and just watched and kind of picked up on what was going on. And I learned a lot from it. And it also reminded me of another time that I was in the studio a couple years ago. This didn't happen yesterday, but a couple years ago, um, it was an artist who was very new and he wasn't comfortable speaking his mind. So every beat that the producer played, he would be like, yo, that's fire, yo, that's fire. So he kept like saying that he liked everything. And the reality is, when you're in the studio with the producer, they might play 50 beats. And, and this would happen even with Dr. Dre. Like, they might play— and I use him because I think he's a great producer— um, they might play 50 beats and you only like one, and that's okay because you found one out of 50. You didn't have to go through 5,000. You found one that you liked as an artist. So as a producer, your goal is to sell tracks, make money in music. It doesn't matter whether somebody likes the first beat you play, the fifth beat you play, the 50th beat you play, or the 100th beat you play, as long as they like something. So just Get in there and, and build that relationship and build that vibe. And as you get to know what they're passing on and what they're not, you're going to get to know them better. If you're just sending a beat pack and they don't like anything, don't be like, fuck that motherfucker, I'm not sending anything else. Send him more. Like, get on the phone if you can and figure out like what he likes and what he doesn't like. What kind of mood is he in? What kind of vibe? And he might not know. He might say to you, man, I don't know what I'm looking for. I'm looking for some trap shit. And then you, you know, you send him a beat pack that has all kinds of music in it, and he comes back like wanting to buy 3 club tracks or 3 emo tracks, but he asked you for trap beats. So artists don't always know what they want. It's, it's not that they want a song with a label on it. They want a song that makes them feel a certain way so that they can put lyrics or vocals or, or whatever to it. That's what they're looking for. So don't shoot yourself in the foot before you can even build that relationship or before you can make some money. I hope that was helpful. Go and do some research, spend time with other producers, talk to them, find out what they're finding to be true and, and correct. Do the research. The internet is a wonderful, wonderful place, but there's a lot of misinformation on the internet too. And thanks for tuning in. This will be here on my Instagram Live all day, and then tomorrow when I post the next episode, I'm gonna put this one up onto my YouTube so that you can, um, check it out there. Thanks for tuning in, guys. Have a good day.