You’re about to embark on a journey inside the mind of Bangladesh and you’ll find he is not your average Super-Producer. He sat down with Singersroom to catch us up on some of his latest projects and really drop some knowledge on us consumers of music on business of music and why it is falling by the wayside here lately.
Nonstop Work… “I’ve been working alongside Dr. Luke. Dr. Luke is the biggest pop producer of today… [he is] working with Ke$ha, his artist. [I] Been working with Nelly, Beyonce, I’m working with this Australian artist Jessica Mauboy. She’s on Sony, and the song is called “Get ’em Girls” and it’s featuring Slim Thug. I worked with R. Kelly and have been working with Ne-Yo. And Brandy also, I’m working on her album…”
Expectations for Brandy’s Project… “Well because she’s been away so long. I guess people’s attention spans are short now, and she comes from an era where music was more organic and everybody had they own sound, people were doing different things and albums were selling. So, we’re just trying to re-invent or recreate the sound and mesh the two together. What I do and what she does I think will be up-to-date…there’s something about her tone and her vocal skills…that [people that]can really sing love her. I always wanted to work with her and she reached out to me so we’re going to make it happen.”
Keeping Inspiration… “Well nowadays, I just got to inspire myself; it’s really nothing that’s inspiring as far as music for me that gives me extra spark or extra creative juices. I’m the one setting trends right now, so I think for me personally I just have to challenge myself to be creative.”
Changes In Music… “When I was first inspired to make music, it was the mid-nineties, late-nineties and probably the whole nineties era…when I was little. There was like a variety of things, things were new and everything that came out, you could go to the store and buy that artists music because that artist is the only one making that kind of music. The difference in then and now, now you have a lot of people doing what somebody else did. Like nobody’s being a trendsetter there’s no more trendsetters everybody is followers. All the big time R&B artist in the game right now probably immolate R. Kelly, so it’s like if I wanna hear R. Kelly I’m going to buy R. Kelly CD I’m not going to buy everybody else that’s sounding like him.”
Lack of Albums Sales… “Because nobody has their own artistry about them. Nobody does anything for people to go buy that. Because it’s been done already…they done heard it…like you’re emulating…see this is what it is…scientifically each generation gets younger. If ten years ago music was one way and it was a hot song that R. Kelly might have did, the generation of today never heard this so what artists do [is] they recreate what they grew up on and what they heard and the new consumers of today think it’s original. They think they’re the creators of that sound, they think [these artists] are the ones that invented that song. But really music is like…you get inspired by people so that rubs off in your music. If R. Kelly inspired me you might hear R. Kelly all day. There’s a lot of people sounding like people. Everybody of relevance today took something from that person.
Lackluster Artistry… “The key is today when you really listen to the Hip Hop and R&B stations the music is dumb-down. It’s dumb-down a whole lot because it all stems from your household. If you were raised a certain way, you might have a one parent household or no parents in the house. You might have a parent that ain’t ready to be a parent and don’t know how to parent so you raising a kid that doesn’t have direction. A lot of kids today think being dumb is cool. They think not knowing is the cool thing. So music is more of a hustle now, it’s less artistry it’s more of a hustle. Now you have hustlers rappin’. It ain’t rappers, they’re hustlers. They see this rap game for a hustle so they hustled it. So you got your Soulja Boy, you got all these little groups with the new dance songs that only have one hits and you have the thugged out music: you have the thugs and trap-stars like Jeezy, Gucci, T.I., Plies and Rick Ross. You have these people that the kids are looking up to and they think what they’re talking about is true so with no parents in the home with no correct parenting, they’re being parented by what they admire. They admire the rappers they admire the flashy cars, the being on TV the “ice” the girls, this is what’s raising the kids so that they’re standards are low.
Industry Masterplan… “If you have somebody kicking some knowledge in a song, it’s not going to get played. I’m not knocking that music that’s going on now, there’s just not enough variety that’s accessible to you. You have to really dig deep and really try to find this stuff.Really hip Hop fell into the plan of the man, because they didn’t have control of what we were doing in the beginning. They are taking over the industry to make soulja boy the hottest rapper, because they want our kids, with tattoos all over their faces and look like they’re dead, and wearing skinny jeans and looking like girls. They wanted to really contaminate the positive things that we had going for ourselves. And they accomplished it…”
Staying on Path… “I just know there’s a high creator and I know in my heart through my journey, I know who is truly talking to me through situations you know what I’m saying and I know that God got me to where I’m at. And I know this because I felt it. Like, people want to know how you got to where you going and if you sum it up as simple as God. It’s not enough story for them so if you tell the story: “so one day I was working with this person and then this person…” It’s God though. So, I can’t say that I’m a Christian or a Muslim or none of that. I just believe. I believe if you’re doing the right thing you’re working hard. Shit’s going to happen. I don’t believe in negativity. Negativity only brings more negative. I think everybody can be successful it just takes the power of the mind. Nobody wants to do nothing, nobody wants to work nobody believes in God, nobody does the right thing they all expect things to just happen. So I don’t know if you would call that spiritual but I’m not going to argue with what I feel and that’s how I feel about my music as well.
The music to me is about the feeling. Nobody was really understanding this music I was making because it’s different, it felt good to me and I know this eventually was going to work. I wanted to change the game, because I was inspired by a game-changer (Timbaland). That’s why I say there’s nobody inspiring right now. What I do, It’s different, people want to hear different shit. Nobody wants to hear the same thing, like artists coming out with the same songs. Come on! MY thing is what I say, what I like the people will like. Artists and producers it’s the opposite, they do what they “think” the consumer wants. That’s what I make, organic shit, which creates substance. So that hit is going to last forever because it’s organic, it’s against the grain.”
—— By: Interview By Lauren Walker
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