It is a blessing when remarkable people that we admire make time to speak with us. Those shared interviews are reflections of us both, that’s why it’s imperative that what we ask them matters.
As longtime fans of Red Alert Studios’ award-winning producer/recording artist Sam Rhansum, we spoke with him about his TOP 5 favorite producers. He responded with incredible detail and insight about their influence on his career. Our discussion didn’t stop there.
With this series we wanted to applaud Rhansum for his incredible accomplishments in the music, movie, and television industries, so during our conversation we asked him THIS GOOD QUESTION: What are your TOP 5 favorite placements?
His second answer was, “Scoring episodes for seasons 2 and 3 of American Gangster for BET/A&E/Crime Network.
This one means so much because of how much it scared me.
All I knew of licensing placements was you make your music, and people wanna put it in their movie, show, game or whatever. You make the music you want, they like your music and wanna use it.
But American Gangster was scoring music to a show.
You were creating around what you were seeing. And this wasn’t a song or two, this was entire episodes of music. The show featured a specific gangster or crew each episode, and each episode was from different eras. And you make music that fits the scene. You may be covering New York in the 70s, or Oakland/Compton in the 80s, back to the birth of Jazz Clubs in Harlem and stuff.
My agent was like, ‘You get to cover all this musical history. You know all these genres and you love everything.’
I got off the first call with them and freaked out. I straight looked at my girl and said, ‘I can’t do this. I’m a rapper and a Hip Hop producer. There’s no way I’m gonna embarrass myself like this.’
Yeah, I knew the music, but I never made it. But she was like, ‘You can and you better.’ She was my rock on this. Ride or die.
So, I studied old funk for days, 60s-70s club tunes, jazz and acid jazz, then documentary scoring cues like underbed drones, and light percussion with an occasional impact hit for drama. I scored around 45-50 minutes of music. Almost 50 separate cues in various genres and styles. I nervously turned it in and was called back to do more episodes and then another season.
I learned so much from that creative stretch, and to this day I use techniques I was forced to learn to make older sounding music.” |THIS.
[By M.J. Walker]
“My five favorite placements for my music is a hard one too. Each time I get some kind of a placement deal I’m honored that someone saw that what I create was worthy of repeating, and that they wanted it to be part of what they are creating as well.
The licensing game is one where you have to leave a little bit of your ego behind with an understanding of what the whole industry is. It’s not always about the music you make, or you, or your quality. All of those are important, but the one thing you gotta learn is it’s about where its being put.
Does it fit the scene, or the show, or the game, or the ad? All of that matters, and my career has had way more almosts than successes.
Deals have been made and/or lost in a matter of minutes, and for minor things. If you are quick, versatile and have a good work ethic you just keep stringing along the successes to build that resume. I also had/have agents on my side that believe in my abilities and continued growing diversity. They know what I can do, and often challenge what they think I might be able to do. I’d shout them out in a heartbeat, but I always respect that they do what they do behind the scenes and only make connections when they approve.
They know who they are and that I appreciate them like mad.” – Sam Rhansum
