Urban Top 10 Notes and Commentary – Friday May 2nd 2008
Lollipop by Lil Wayne is on top with production by Deezle and Jim Jonsin. The sound is right on trend with the sining rapper and vocoder. From a beat business perspective, it’s interesting to note that the track was reportedly originally produced for Danity Kane and pitched to two or three other artists and potential collaborators before ending up with the final lineup. Jim Jonsin is noted as a BMI Urban Songwriter of the Year with “Show Stopper” by Danity Kane and “Your Body” & “Grind With Me” by Pretty Ricky making big impacts in 2005/2006. Listed co-producer is out of the Cash Money camp and last year produced a number of tracks for Making The Band’s “Chopper.”
Touch My Body by Mariah Carey is next up and notable as another hit in the resurgence of Christopher Tricky Stewart. Production credit here goes to Stewart, Terius “The-Dream” Nash, and Carey. The team of Stewart and Nash should be familiar to everyone after Rihanna’s Umbrella. This track could pass for a Jermaine Dupri production easily and fits well with Mariah’s current style of up tempo song. Nothing really ground breaking or trendy here, just a solid bit of work.
Love In This Club has Usher back on the chart with a production Polow da Don. This track continues the evolution of synth leads being featured heavily in hip hop and r&b these days. The beginning was of course Lil John’s string of hit’s which included Yeah by Usher, among others. It’ll be interesting to see how far this goes in terms of chart success. You can hear it at almost every tempo but there hasn’t been any real innovation in the way the sounds have been used yet like in the dance music genre. So far the basics have been covered to produce decent results so far but nothing classic yet. There is a denied rumor on Polo’s wiki page that the track is based on stock loops from Apple’s Garageband software. Specifically Euro Hero Synths. I wouldn’t be mad at that myself. Any source is game if you’re game to use it.
The Way That I Love You by Ashanti marks another long awaited return of another former r&b chart topper. Produced by L.T. Hutton who has to the whole Death Row, Ruthless, Interscope camp and a list of west coast and gangsta credits a mile long. Sonically, the track is actually pretty bold as it has a foundation of skilled piano work in the main riff. On the business tip, wiki says he co-owns a label name “The Program” with L.A. Clipper Elton Brand.
The Boss by Rick Ross is a sonically unique production by JR Rotem. That would be the same “JR!” that Sean Kingston is always yelling about. He’s got a long list of credits and is reportedly starting to build on his roster for his Epic distributed label, Beluga Heights.
Sexy Can I by Ray Jay is produced by Noel “Detail” Fisher according to wiki. Not a lot online about “Detail” but he does appear to have a few credits out there. I’ve heard Ray Jay speaking on primarily using his own production team for his work so perhaps “Detail” is a crew member. Have to keep an ear out for more on this one. The track is sparse but the elements that are laced throughout make it move along with the vocals to keep you into it the whole way through. One technique that is definitely against the grain is the fact that the track doesn’t feature a hi hat and works it’s beat off of a simple kick and clap successfully.
No Air by Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown is in my heavy rotation these days. The Underdogs created a masterpiece with this one. The vocal production is amazing and the soundscape is intricate without sounding busy. Even after many listens there’s still more for the focused ear to hook into. Of note in this production is a use of synth leads that pull you into the current sound without being blatant about it. There’s also a lot going on in the rhythm track that doesn’t stand out but really makes the track a lot more dynamic than your average r&b production. Throughout the verses, there’re a couple of kicks used to pull you along under the pulsing synth pad then to build the tracks energy later into the song, there’re are live drums layered over the already layered electronic drums. This is an all around pro level production in my book on par with the production you get from Jam and Lewis.
On the business end, The Underdogs were getting advanced $25k per track (not hearsay) just over a year ago which seems low when you compare it to the unconfirmed reports of guys like Timbaland or Swizz Beats but the producers advance is only a small slice of the pie when you’re looking at writers credit on a platinum hit like this one. Their other stated reason for not charging the much higher advance is that you get to do more tracks and have more chances at getting a hit out of the same $100k that may go into one song by another producer. In that scenario, the business relationship can become strained if you’re into a producer for $100k on a track and it doesn’t perform. The idea of another 100k going to that same producer in that relationship is not as likely as if the risk is only $25k. That’s straight from The Underdogs so don’t argue with me if you don’t agree. It’s working very well for them so you might not wanna argue at all unless you’re Timbaland. Their label is sub of J Records and I received an email recently that they’re looking for songwriters to work with so there’s an opportunity there. There online at: underdogentertainment.net
On the technical end, these guys use Logic and ProTools. They use all the sound sources in Logic and they make their own sounds within those plug ins so if you were ever wondering about the sonic possibilities with Logic, you can check out work they’ve done with Avant, Chris Brown, and all the Idols as example.
That’s plenty for this time around. Look for another look at the chart in a couple of weeks and be sure to check back or watch your RSS reader for our monthly feature on some of the players on the other end of the chart.
Comments?? Let me know if you’ve got more on any of these producers business or technical facts.
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