L.A.-based multi GRAMMY nominee and multi-talented platinum-selling producer, songwriter, composer/arranger, educator, and instrumentalist. He co-produced and wrote “Good Kisser” for R&B singing sensation Usher, which climbed to No. 1 on the US R&B/Hip Hop charts and garnered his first nomination for Best R&B song at the 2015 Grammy Awards. His songwriting and arranging were also featured on the 2020 Grammy nominated Album of The Year, “Thank U, Next,” by Ariana Grande, and he is a voting member of the Recording Academy. He is a Los Angeles College of Music Songwriting and Music Business faculty member who has also worked with Lizzo and with H.E.R.
“On the east coast, where I kinda grew up, in the wintertime there’s nothing to do. You’re snowed in, it’s cold, that kind of thing. So, during the wintertime is when we started to really ramp up our output and just kinda making records and things of that nature.”
“I started sitting down at the keyboard and played these chords and that was the genesis of the song – in the middle of the winter, at 2am – I didn’t want to be there, but we kinda stuck it out and from that point we started creating the song. I think maybe about a week later we had sent it out to some A&R types at RCA, and Usher heard it, and he absolutely loved it.”
“I’d had some big records before. I did a record with… Nicki Minaj.”
“From 2012 to about 2015, I was literally in the studio six days a week… I certainly put in well over ten thousand hours in that time period.”
“American popular music is made up of… three distinct cultural branches. Like, there’s the European… there’s the Latino… and then, of course, there’s the Black, the sort of African base, sort of branch, and all three of those things, those three branches have come together to make American popular music.”
“When you write music for film and you apply it to that medium, there’s no, like, sort of limitation to the genre.”
“I got the call that, ‘We’re going to start doing some touring stuff for LL Cool J.’ And I was like, ‘Ya’ know what? I’m gonna do it! I’m gonna leave school!’ … We toured with LL, we did, like, BET performances, we did… the Essence Festival in Houston, opening for Earth, Wind & Fire.”
“About 2018 or ’19, Pop called me and was like, ‘Hey, we’re going into the studio with Ariana.’ And I’m like, ‘Ariana who?’ Somebody says that to you it’s like, ‘Yeah, right. This can’t be Ariana Grande!’ At a certain point your heart drops into your stomach for a little bit… This is Ariana Grande. This is like a top five pop artist in the world!”
“The GRAMMY nomination came at the top of 2020, so I went to L.A. to the GRAMMYs. And after the GRAMMYs – that was the year that Billie Eilish won everything, so we didn’t win anything for that particular ‘Thank You, Next’ album – but I said to myself, ‘Man, look at the amount of success I’ve had traveling back and forth from the east coast to the west coast. I need to move to the west coast, to L.A., and make this happen, strongly’.”
“You need to be proficient at your craft… What I can’t teach you is mojo, is the creative energy, is that magic.”
“Some things are a slow grind, they are a slow burn, right? And you have to put the time and the effort in and when your opportunity comes, ya’ have to be ready for it.”
“Everything in the music industry is relationship. Everything is. Right? Your, sort of, your reputation and who you are is so paramount.”
“Good Kisser” (by Usher)
“In My Head” (by Ariana Grande)