Image via Complex Original
Boi-1da Tells All: The Stories Behind His Biggest Hits
There are definitely perks to being one of Drake's go-to producers. Matthew "Boi-1da" Samuels discovered this after going from virtual unknown to one of the hottest producers in the game mere months after producing the hottest MC's smash, "Best I Ever Had." Since then, the Toronto native has produced four Top 20 hits—including the power-packed "Forever," featuring Drake, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Eminem, as well as Eminem's new single, "Not Afraid," which debuted at #1 earlier this week. We spoke with the producer with the golden touch and got him to tell the true stories behind his biggest hits: why he doesn't like to sample, who he really wanted to give the "Over" beat to, and how two different people can end up with the same beat...
Drake "Best I Ever Had" (2009)
Boi-1da: "It was December ’08 or January ’09 when I made that beat. I found that sample on my computer and I heard the intro and I thought it was cool. My boy gave me a folder of a bunch of samples and I heard it in there. The sample on it is very smooth. It’s a quicker tempo than a lot of the stuff I do.
"I was just envisioning a song about a girl. It’s an emotional kind of beat so I figured it would be a girl song. I thought it could work for Drake. He was finishing [So Far Gone], and he said he needed two more songs. I had just done the beat the day before—I sent him that one and he just killed it.
"He sent it back, and I knew it was a hit the first time I heard it. That beat took me about 20 minutes. And in a few hours he finished the whole song. That one was just wham, bam, thank you ma'am."
Drake f/ Lil Wayne & Bun B "Uptown" (2009)
Boi-1da: "I made that beat a little bit after I made “Best I Ever Had.” Drake wanted to do a song called “Uptown” since Wayne was from Uptown, so he said, “Use Billy Joel’s 'Uptown Girl.'” I found it and we just killed it. We actually did that one in the studio in Toronto without them. I wasn’t with Drake or anything.
"I used a program on my computer called Adobe Audition to chop the sample up. It’s kind of confusing for me to chop samples up on Fruity Loops, I haven’t mastered that yet. I found a certain part in it that I liked and we used that part. I was slowing it down, giving it that Dirty South, Louisiana, Houston feel."
Drake f/ Eminem, Kanye West, & Lil Wayne "Forever" (2009)
Boi-1da: "That one was made in the basement two years ago—I think it was October. I wanted to mix it up between the South and the East. On the hook, it kind of sounds like the South. I just use The 808s and the hi-hats, the whole 808s sound kit. But on the verses, it sounds like an East Coast beat. And the East Coast got those raw drums. So it’s just a mixture of the two.
"I made the beat and I gave it to Drake. I’ve known Drake for years, so we've got that relationship where I just send him beats and he does what he does. He did a hook on it at first. At the time he was doing a lot of hooks for me. I sent the beat with the hook to Kardinal Offishall, he liked it.
"He recorded on it, but it didn’t end up making his album. At first [Drake] didn’t want it. Maybe a few days after that, he ended up playing it for Wayne. Wayne liked it and Wayne got on it with him originally. So Drake ended up using it. But both versions leaked very shortly afterward. So it wasn’t anybody's. [Kardinal] didn’t pay for the beat and it didn’t make his album.
"That stuff happens in the music industry all the time: two people get their hands on the same beat and they end up using it, but whoever wants to get it first, gets it first. It wasn’t a big deal. People on the Internet make a big deal out of it and make up these stories like how they have beef, but nobody really cares. I’m like, you can’t sell beats twice. It's not possible."
Drake "Over" (2010)
Boi-1da: "That was actually made in the studio in LA. My dude Nick Bromgers makes sample quality music. He’s a genius. That was one of the things he sent me, and I made a beat out of it soon as I heard it. He’s playing all of the things melodically, the entire orchestra was him. I added the bassline.
"I sample sometimes, but I try not to. It’s better to do it when it’s not a sample. When you sample stuff, the people on the song can sue you for all your money that you make off of the song. Or I work with someone else because you just pay them instead of paying somebody unknown who gets 100% of your song just because you sampled their song.
"I just wanted it to be a huge record for somebody. I knew it was big, it sounded like somebody’s comeback song. The beat sounds like the king has returned to the kingdom. When I made it, I had Jeezy in mind. I think Eminem had the best freestyle on it, [but it] sounds like something Jeezy would kill.
"But once I made it, Drake had got a whiff of it and he liked it. I sent it to him. He took about a week to get the song done—he was busy, so he recorded it in pieces and finally finished it. When he was done, he hit me up over Skype and played it for me on the video."
Eminem "Not Afraid" (2010)
Boi-1da: "That beat was done last summer in my basement in the late afternoon. Just me and my dude Matt having fun, playing around with some instruments, cracking jokes. He was playing the strings and the choir. I added the percussion and the arrangement. I sent it to one of [Maino’s] A&Rs and they played it for him. At first, Maino liked it. He actually did a song on it last year. After that, I never heard anything back from them.
"That was just a situation where I’ll make a beat and an artist will say they like the beat. They’ll say, “We got to do something with it.” But they don’t end up using it. So you don’t really wait on anybody. If anybody else wants to use it, they’ll want to use it. But on the Internet and a lot of people are saying that the beat was sold twice and it was shady or whatever.
"Like I said, beats don’t get sold twice. It’s just something that happens in the industry all the time but doesn’t get out there a lot. You know like, Cam’Ron had the “H To The Izzo” beat first but then Jay-Z came and did his song on it. That’s just how the game goes.
"So the beat was floating around but the beat wasn’t purchased or anything. Then [Eminem] heard the beat and got on it immediately. He ended up buying the beat, putting everything down, and putting it on his album. The beat sounds like he’ll do something serious on it.
"I figured he’d make a deep song, or an emotional song on it. He put the piano in there. He added that and the church choir singing along with him. So three months ago, we were at dinner and my manager, Fake Work, got a text from Eminem’s manager, Paul Rosenberg, that said, 'Eminem just bodied this beat!'"
Drake f/ Lil Wayne "Miss Me' (2010)
Boi-1da: "That was [made] a few months ago. That one was just another sample that I heard, Hank Crawford’s “Wildflower.” That one was on my computer, just something I was listening to—I just listen to old songs sometimes. I just heard that like, “That needs to be looped!” That beat was made really fast, maybe like 10 minutes. It sounded like something Drake would like. I pretty much just sent him a bunch of beats and he liked that one and he ended up writing a song to it."