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 third answer was, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine on FOX and NBC.
A few years back an agent called me and asked for Golden Era 90s Hip Hop joints. They said, ‘Make 4-5 and send to me. I may have some shows that are looking.’ I turned in about 25 tracks. I always overdeliver!
I got out the record collection and started listening to all the hits back in the day. The problem was that was crazy sampling days, and licensing agents and music supervisors don’t like samples. At all. Too much money to clear, and too much hassle to get all the approvals.
So, I took what I learned from American Gangster and made my own samples. Filtered, dirty, worn out, run through cassette decks, and put them back in. I took the top 10 drum loop samples of all time – ‘Funky Drummer’, ‘Apache’, ‘Impeach the President’, etc., and recreated my own tweaked version of them. Multiple versions and patterns and mucked up in all ways. When the agent hit back, he was like, ‘These are fucking stellar! Let’s do some full songs. Put some vocals on em.’
I was living in the Philippines at that time and had been dying to put my Pinoy fam on some tracks that could get some exposure. I sent out the track to ‘Blood, Sweat, Tears’ to my boys Knowa Lazarus and FlavaMatikz of Q-York and they turned in hot verses within a few days!
Man, that quickness paid off. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, MTV’s Ridiculousness, Fantasy Factory, A&E’s Big Smo all picked the song up within weeks of each other. I loved creating classic sounding joints with fam I respected. And LOVED being able to break them off on royalties for years.” |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
