Hip-Hop In The Studio
Hip-Hop And The Studio:
Forget What You’ve Heard
To many, the idea of hip-hop artists in the recording studio evokes a threatening image. Most common is the hostile rapper whose sole mission is to give engineers a headache. Now if you ask just about any engineer, they’ll probably tell you rowdy clients do exist. What they’ll also tell you is this type of clientele doesn’t exclusively derive from hip-hop.
When Illinois Entertainer spoke with three Chicago-based engineers, we discovered both rock bands and MCs can be bad apples. They can also both be music visionaries. As Michael Kolar, owner and chief engineer of SoundScape Studios, says, “I’ve had some hip-hop clients where some things got unruly, but for every one of those, I’ve had a band do the same. I really find the two no different.”
But when it comes to how hip-hop acts actually make use of the studio compared to full-on live bands, the process couldn’t be more different. “With a rock band, you’re setting up drums for an hour, getting drum tones for an hour, getting takes, getting bass tones — it’s a lot of setup,” explains Zach Goheen, an engineer at the famed Studio Chicago. “Whereas hip-hop guys can just come in, load up the tracks, do the vocals, I mix it, [and] they’re out the door.”
Despite their oft-swift sessions, hip-hop musicians can be more spontaneous in the studio than live bands. “Some [MCs] don’t even come in with any lyrics — it will happen on the spot,” explains Kolar, who has worked with a first-class roster of rappers including Rhymefest, Naledge, and Lupe Fiasco. “I’ve never had a band come into a studio and have no material prepared. I’m sure back in the heyday of jazz music that was totally acceptable, but [with hip-hop] it’s just a whole different idea of what the studio is.”
Ad-libbing isn’t just an MC thing, either. While hip-hop producers like Memo of the Molemen often come into SoundScape with beats already mapped out and sequenced, they also come ready for on-the-spot improvisation and alterations.
“For a band a studio is a means to an end; for a hip-hop artist, it’s a creative environment where there’s really no pre-described rules or methods and they all kind of do it a little bit differently,” adds Kolar. “It’s about the vibe and getting it in the mood and seeing what strikes them as being appropriate at that moment in time — the exact opposite of a band.”
Beyond the creative process, spontaneity exists for hip-hop artists even in the way they book studio time. Unlike rock groups who typically block out several days of time in a row to record, MCs and producers are known to bounce from studio to studio, sometimes recording/mixing just a single at a time. “With hip-hop, it’s, ‘Hey, we’re gonna do this song tonight,’ and that’s it,” says Goheen. “They come in and spend however many hours to do a song and then you never see ’em again.”
Kolar shares a similar experience, but also receives a decent amount of returning clients. “The increase of hip-hop guys coming in with one song — that’s through the roof,” he says. “That’s my bread and butter.”
The reasons for this transient form of recording vary. Some blame limited recording budgets; others cite restrictive studio hours. But whatever the reasons may be, hip-hop artists’ tendency to move back and forth between different studios isn’t generally problematic for engineers. Rather, it’s a welcome challenge.
“If you want to be a successful hip-hop engineer/mixer you really need to play well with others and record things in a very logical manner so that no matter who the ProTools file ends up with, it makes sense to more than just you,” explains Kolar.
On-the-go hip-hoppers not only make engineers’ jobs more interesting, they also bring future clients with them. Yes, the stereotype of hip-hop artists rolling in with an entourage is often true. As Kolar says, “You get a lot more people in the studio and a majority of them like what they see and come back with their different projects and collaborations. You know, Naledge comes in with Bump J, Bump J likes the studio, then he came back with Broadway, and Broadway liked the studio. So if anything, it helps.”
The word of mouth practice Kolar speaks of is common in hip-hop, especially in smaller studios. Keith “K-Kruz” Kruser, chief engineer at EV Productions in Evanston, has seen his share of MCs like LongShot, who bring fellow artists into the studio. “There’s so much word of mouth sometimes I can’t fit new clients in fast enough for their needs,” says Kruser. “So definitely, the entourage generally pays off in the long run, and I feel like there’s more MCs and more people doing it in Chicago than there has been in awhile.”
As the amount of artists wanting to record grows, so has the need for these acts to get their names out quicker. And so in the last five years, thanks to affordable mixing software like ProTools, the amount of do-it-yourself MCs and beat-makers has skyrocketed. But most engineers will tell you it’s damn near impossible to get a quality sound if you don’t have the proper equipment and/or training.
“I think more than ever, everybody’s opting out for the shortcuts and you can hear it in the sound,” says Kruser. “As technology is catching up so much faster, you can download a program that you can make beats on, that depending on your skill level, sounds very live or not at all.”
Goheen, for one, is easily put off by those who feel programs like ProTools will provide the answer to all of one’s mixing needs. “There’s a huge difference between an engineer and what I call a ProTools jockey,” he says. “There’s guys that know how to use ProTools — they are not engineers. I’m not saying that I have holy knowledge that nobody else can learn, but ProTools is one-millionth of my job. Needing ProTools, and being super talented on ProTools and all that — it’s only a tool.”
Kolar doesn’t disagree. On the other hand, he sees the usefulness of programs of the sort. “I encourage all my clients to buy a ProTools rig at home,” says Kolar. “I might lose some money on the short run [because] they can go home and do their own radio edits and stuff when they could have been on the clock [at SoundScape]. But once you show that you care about the project and not the hourly rate, they’re loyal to you forever.”
In an age when hip-hop artists rarely stay put in a studio for more than a day, loyalty from artists is vital for a studio. Sure, the fact more acts are recording at home is changing the relationship between hip-hop acts and engineers. Yet it’s a relationship that doesn’t look to be going away anytime soon.
— Max Herman
