9th Wonder Says “Everybody Is A Producer”

A classic interview where 9th Wonder explains breaking into the music industry as a new producer, the musical challenges involved in sampling, and his views on the currently crowded producer market.

Notable Quote:
"Now the internet is flooded, I mean truly everybody is a producer.  You’ve got all types of people with beat machines in their house.  I got Reason, I got this, I got that… tinkering around with the beats because they think it’s easy."

[via SC]

705 thoughts on “9th Wonder Says “Everybody Is A Producer””

  1. Haven’t seen the interview yet, but 9th is right, it’s a saturated situation…it’s not just about throwing sounds around and following rules, you really have to have the music IN you…

  2. “now this time-period People see music before they hear it”
    I wish less “regular people” would think like that.

    Real Talk 9th

  3. “I didnt know what DJ Premier looked like for 8 years” (c) 9th Wonder

    ^ dude never looked at a Gangstarr album cover?? lol

  4. Great interview! He touched on a lot that I’ve been feeling.

    I’ve always felt that the music needs to speak for itself, but he’s 100% right…folks don’t relate to that anymore.

    I think most of us feel that the internet has been over saturated with beats for a long time. The internet has been a blessing and a curse. We’ve become empowered, but at the same time the music has become devalued, in-a-sense. I’m not sure whether to look forward to the bubble bursting or fear it.

  5. He ain’t saying nothing that hasn’t already been said in regards to the “Saturated market full of wackness”-Guru. Well at least for any cat over 35yrs. old. Only diff is when he says it, he’s not labeled as a hater or hating so to speak? Why is that?
    Also in a perfect world the wack shit would get balanced out by the hot shit? And since this world ain’t perfect, all the wack shit is shining or worst cashing ridiculous publishing checks!!
    I hate. Only diff is I’m not paid or on a pedestal so my hate will be taken as cat hatin’ on such and such. Realness will neva get it’s due in a phucked up “gimme now” society. So we’ll just have to continue to tread thru the bullshit after bullshit of songs/beats to dig into the “underground” and find what’s really real.
    But that’s just me. Remember I’ma hater!!!

  6. Furthermore, 9th spoke on technology. Again, old heads have been down this road already. Cuz I remember when you had to break at least $3000 off to get a decent sampler, mixer and turntable setup. That meant you wasn’t not flyby night cat. You were serious about your craft and art. Fast forward to today, we got torrent sites and voila. Bobby Brewster is now bangin out beats on his family’s PC for nathaniel (“nothing” in East Oakland slang). Technology is a muthafather. Yeah we can downsize our rack modules. That was cool and saved space, but what if Bobby Brewster ain’t neva touched a real compressor or any outboard gear for that matter? How’s he gonna know what settings to tweak? Problem solved, “presets” they dumbed it down so an ape can make beats and record in 24-bit. This had to be the mindset of some of these instabeat/psuedo mastering program designers. Give the masses more for less and let them create.

    I digress and step off the soap box cuz shit ain’t gonna change. Sam Cooke was wrong in this regard…oNe…

  7. ^No Sam Cooke was RIGHT! My change will come!

    But 9th wants more props, trying to preach…doesn’t matter how many ppl start making beats, it only matters is the ones who don’t quit making them. If your in it, nothing going to stop you, so to talk about ppl even trying to do something bc they think its cool, isn’t smart to me.

    Lupe – “You gave me a baby, but what about lately”?

    Let keep music running…and I don’t care what a young head thinks, I was young and ain’t nobody care what I thought either…

    Peace

  8. I think you guys are missing the point…. even if you are a hott ass producer and your beats are straight fire . there still is less than 1% of you making it in the game. like 9th said ‘ when he started there was less people on the internet making beats.now you got sites like soundclick . hell a record exect could get beats for free all day !!!!!!!!!! iv’e even seen peopl sell beats fr 5.00 and it was straight fire!! If you know what your doing you can make a studio quality beat in fruity loops or reason alone ! with nothing ealse ! 9 th made jayz a hit with just the demo version of fruity loops. and so did some other cat i read about.this cat had one a major beat battle with that shit . so yeah times are hard for us producers beatmakers ‘ whatever you wanna call it.but i would say this… do it for the love and if the opportunity ever comes have both guns loaded. the good news is most labels don’t accept unsolicited material. that means you gotta get known to get blown.ya dig.
    TONY TRAXX
    http://www.myspace.com/bigtonyproductions

  9. 9th wonder does not get the props he deserves this dude is one of the illest he has his own creative technique but reminds me so much of j dilla & easy moe bee the way he chops samples. im a real hip hop head i was around when it all first began. when it was all about expression and a message .it was’nt about what you had,big cars big houses, or how much drug money you had and murdering your own kind & sex, i think 9th wonder is one of the last real hip hop producers in the game that incorporate soul into his music with versatility. 9th wonder infuses old school with new school with a twist …. listen up people MUSIC SHOULD BE FELT NOT HEARD .. if you new cats want to survive in this business ,theres three steps (1) LOVE FIRST (2) THE GIFT (because everybody cant be a rapper or producer having a drum machine dont make you a producer ..and putting together words that rhyme with skill or a meaning does’nt make you a rapper ) (3)IF YOU POSES THE FIRST TWO THEN THE MONEY WILL COME. if you put money in front of love , or skill then it becomes corporate you done lost the game that creates greed one hit wonders and lack of direction

  10. Big Band was a form of JAzz. You won a grammy. Take a few minutes a buy a music history book. Hey while your at it why dont you give Hans Zimmer some credit for creating the music you sampled. Cuz that Black Album track would have been garbage with out the gladiator soundtrack behind it.

  11. why are you playing , singing the same old shit? rap had its day . guys do you think your shit is gonner yes gonner last for ever ? just like old bullshit music back in the day. your grand babies will be thinking what the fuck was grandady thinking.

  12. I bet only 1% of all of you can sing a note or play an instrument. If you need all this crap to call yourself something so you are”cool” you are a cop out poser. If you can stand up and sing a song you wrote or sit at a piano and belt it out. THEN you are a musician. Using a mathematically perfect software grid and PRE RECORDED beats or musical passages and arranging them on a timeline does NOT make you a “producer” . That phrase is used so loosely now it makes me sick. Oh yes I bought some aspirin for my Mom because she has a headache. HEY IM A DOCTOR !!!!! Please. Go get a degree for gods sake.

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