Image via Complex Original
The producer of "I Don't Like" and "Love Sosa" selects his own greatest hits (so far).
This feature is a part of Complex's "Finally Rich" Week
Young Chop is only a teenager but he's already seen his stock rise significantly in 2012. Not only did he produce two of the year's biggest songs ("Love Sosa" and "I Don't Like") but he has diversified. With help from longtime Common producer No I.D. (and one of the primary creative minds behind Nas's acclaimed Life Is Good), Chop's production chops have grown by leaps and bounds since "3hunna" first broke his name in January. He's put in work with artists ranging from Gucci Mane to French Montana, Big Sean to Mikkey Halsted, and his catalog keeps expanding. So without further ado, let's take a look at Chop's personal list of his best beats to date.
As told to David Drake (@SoManyShrimp)
This feature is a part of Complex's "Finally Rich" Week.
Related: Young Chop's 25 Favorite Beats
10. Big Sean "Guap" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: Hall of Fame
Label: G.O.O.D., Def Jam
“Epic. That was my first day in LA. Man, Key Wane went in. At first the beat didn’t sound like that. We had to do other—you know, tweak it a little more. Took us a couple, like two or three months to get it to where it’s at right now. We was in the studio. I was in another room, he came over there. Really, he had the idea in his head, and he just went on his MacBook, and put the little [hums melody], and after that I just start adding stuff. Drums, little instruments, going crazy. That was my first ever day I went to LA. I gave him ‘Guap,’ we did ‘Mula,’ I did ‘Woke Up.’ I did a couple of joints with him my first day.”
“I love LA to a certain extent. Sometimes I be missing home, sometimes I be, ‘Oh I’m in LA!’”
9. Big Sean f/ French Montana "Mula" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: Detroit
Label: G.O.O.D., Def Jam
“I love that damn beat. I made that beat in Chicago, in my room. I did that beat a minute ago. I did that beat a long time ago though. Not that long—probably about in the beginning of this year, 2012. That was when I was becoming... when I was building up my sound. That was the original beginning of it, of making the sound. That’s why that beat’s so special to me.”
8. French Montana "Devil Wants My Soul" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: Mac & Cheese 3
Label: Coke Boys
“That beat just so hard. I love that damn beat. It was simple. Actually, the beat wasn’t even done when he did the song. I was like, ‘Damn!’ He didn’t even call me or tell me he was doing it. It’s just so special cause it was 20 or 30 minutes when I did that beat. A couple of months ago—it was real quick. I wanted to do more on it, but it just came out how it came out, and I loved it. The beat they did have no tag in it, so that’s where you know it was just a little simple beat. It was like a minute long when he had it, so they just scratched it.”
"[The first time I heard it I thought] 'oh, it’s a fucking hit.' I knew it was a hit. I just know it’s like a street hit. I just knew it instantly, because it’s got that vibe of ‘Love Sosa’ a little bit.”
7. Fredo Santana "Gang Bang" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: It's A Scary Site
Label: GBE
“It was just some straight gangbanging, crazy, Fredo getting-out-of-jail-next-day type music. That beat just so epic, cause when I was making it, he was just going crazy with the hook. It took him a long time to come up with the hook though. That beat one of a kind. You can’t make nothing like that no more. It’s just hard. You can’t make nothing like that no more.”
6. Chief Keef "Everyday" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: Back from the Dead
Label: GBE
“‘Everyday’ was something epic. Keef actually came up with the melody, and I just came up with the sounds. It was like, ‘Man, I want to do a song called ‘Everyday.’ He just started humming it, and I was just playing along with it, and the song turned into ‘Everyday.’ After we had like 5 million views with it on YouTube—good song. That’s actually on his album. Just a bonus track.”
5. Lil Durk "Right Here" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: Life Ain't No Joke
Label: GBE
“I did that one beat like last year, 2011. That’s pretty old, like in-the-crate old. I just dig so many up so quick, like, ‘Man, I want to do something crazy and epic and big.’ I just ran through a bunch of old beats, and that one just caught him. We did that in Paris Bueller front room, which is my partner in BandKamp.
"Durk a workaholic. He don’t stop. That’s how I work, that’s how I know. I’m a workaholic too. We met through a friend. I was little, 13 or 14. Man, they was like real older than me. I was making beats, but I wasn’t really getting to learn the programs. So I was just sitting at home, just going through everything, just trying to find my way. After that, they hit me up like, ‘You want to get into BandKamp?’ and I was like, ‘C’mon, let’s get it.’”
4. Chief Keef "3Hunna" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: Back from the Dead
Label: GBE
“That was the beginning of that whole sound. The whole everything. I was just in a whole 'nother world when I was making that. I was just on some straight kill-all-these-niggas-with-one-song. That’s what I was on.
“I went in on that motherfucker. I took my time with it. I made it in like 20 or 30 minutes though, but I really took my time with it as far as instrument-wise. Making it real big, like the sound’s real big. The 808’s big, the kick’s big. As far as how it’s mixed, it’s just right. Crispy. How I wanted it."
3. Lil Reese f/ Lil Durk & Fredo Santana "Beef" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: Don't Like
Label: GBE
“That was just a simple beat too. Made that at Reesey crib. We was real... I was sleeping when I made that beat. I was just throwing that beat together to be honest. It just came out the way it did.
Who do you think got the best verse on "Beef"?
“Oh my god. I say Fredo. He different. He’s like totally different. It was crazy as hell, like I wouldn’t even say no shit like that. ‘3Hunna will take your life, run up on you with that fucking pipe!’ How he was talking on that was just crazy.”
2. Lil Reese "Us" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: Don't Like
Label: GBE
“Epic. I love that beat. When I was making that beat, it was more of a futuristic, but I had to go back in there and switch it up and make the kicks more hooder, more heavier. The beat was really different, and I just made it to how it sounds right now.
“I really didn’t even use a keyboard. I used the damn—you know the regular keyboards for the computer? That’s what I made that beat on. That’s what I make half of the beats on, like ‘3Hunna,’ ‘Don’t Like’ were all made on the keyboard like that.
"I taught myself [the keyboard]. You know in school they gave you a music class? That shit was just stupid. It was not teaching me. It wasn’t telling me about what I wanted to do. It was some whole other orchestra type shit, like opera. I’m like, ‘No, I don’t want to hear that.’ But I put it in my beats."
1. Chief Keef f/ Lil Reese "I Don't Like" (2012)
Producer: Young Chop
Album: Finally Rich
Label: Interscope, GBE
“I never liked the ‘I Don’t Like’ though. I hated that song so much. I never listened to it. Like when we were finishing up the mixtape, I never played the song. It being the biggest song on there, that’s what made it so crazy. It’s a really like poppy beat with some hood sounds, like hard 808. That’s what it sound like.
"I don’t know how I came up with that damn melody. I just started off with them bells [hums melody], and then it just had like a rock-star sound to it. Added that hard guitar, made it just big. After than, I knew what I was doing. The 808s, hi-hats—it’s a big song, but next thing you know it just blew up. Like, ‘Damn? Really?’ Reesey he the one like, ‘Man, let’s shoot the video.’ The next day, we shot the video. Now we at 19 million views, hit Billboard, Kanye West—it’s been crazy.
“When Kanye called and said he wanted to get on it [was when I realized how big it was]. We was already at like 4 million views in on it on YouTube. I knew it was going to be big though. Cause back then, I’m like, ‘Damn, 4 million views? He ain’t never got this many damn views.’
"Pitchfork was a really big show for me. [Standing on stage] I was scared as hell, like, are they gonna love this song or what? And then after that, they just started going crazy. I’m like, ‘Oh shit, they love it.’
“[I missed Lollapalooza because] I actually was asleep. They kept calling me to come to it. I’m like, ‘Man I’m sleeping.’ I be working! Then when I seen it on TV, it was over. That’s when I knew it was official. Like, ‘Damn, this shit all over TV.’
"I'm in Chicago right now. I'm about to go to Miami for a couple of weeks. Work. 24-7 work. I love it. Some days I might stall or something. Even might have to come to my hotel room. They might have to drag me up out of there. There just be them days when I don't answer the phone. I just need alone time, damn! Let me be me right quick! Because they try to work you 24-7.
“Man, my family think it’s crazy. They see I got a fan base, people want to take pictures. I can’t walk down the street. I can’t go nowhere, and I’m just a producer. They know my face. I’m like, ‘What is going on?’
“[I was in Chicago and they just started running up to me. I think I was on a corner or something, at the corner store. Getting something to eat or something, and then, all I know, it’s just a whole bunch of little kids just coming up to me, hugging me, wanting to take pictures. I was in my neighborhood, and it was crazy. I’m like, ‘What?’”