When it comes to working with French, I think
what really helped us kinda push the boundary
and push each other to reach new levels was
seeing a belief in each other when we first met.
Because when we first came together musically,
we weren't polished.
We were just like this raw thing.
This is the perfect record for Remy and French
to do together because it has that New York,
Bronx feel.
It's a effortless kind of pairing.
It was easy.
Records like this remind me of like Flatbush
and being a kid.
In the summer, coming out the train, being
mad hot, going into the store, getting a fucking
icee, coming out.
Somebody's out there like that you look up
to or you don't even know who they are, but
they got a crazy car and they're playing some
shit.
That's like what these are to me.
So when we came across this sample...
It’s so raw, you can hear someone talking in the back.
So we took it and pitched it down.
It’s literally a one bar loop.
Like so many great songs that we love, it’s
just the one bar loop with all this stuff.
I got that and then I wanted to do a bouncy
snare.
You know I love claps.
Like with these, I don’t want the bass to
resonate for too long because you need the
bass to hit and then pull out.
You know, so you rock to keep you moving.
If it makes it move your neck forward along
with the bop and the forward, you’re good.
So this is fire but like, I can’t just let
that play for 3 minutes and like call it a day.
It needs to have dynamic and things moving
in and out.
So I probably added these hi-hats next.
Sounds like that are kinda like what is familiar
to our ears of the current wave so to speak.
And these are the things that make it feel
really modern.
The next thing I wanted to do was that counterpoint
that I keep talking about of that hi-hat that’s
in the sample.
Now at this point of the beat, it’s starting
to get a little bit buried so what I wanted
to do was kind of just emphasize that with
a shaker.
I just wanted to have variation and it was
really hard to have variation with just that
one sample rocking.
You know, let’s have like a break that comes
in.
Just something that’s gonna break it up
that has totally different drums hittin’.
So for that part, I took a different snare,
a different clap.
On some like EDM shit almost.
So then like throughout the track, right?
There’s like some spicy little hits that
I have just going on.
In the hook section.
I want there to be like little magic tricks
that you don’t know why you’re grooving
to it in that way.
You ever go to like the Make-Your-Own-Sundae
place?
So like if you go to the Make-Your-Own-Sundae
place and you just put all this shit on it...
It’s trash.
You gotta like sprinkle the sprinkles over
this layer and then like put the gummies on
the top and shit.
It has to have… you know, like that vibe.
You can’t just throw it all in.
So that’s kinda the same thing here.
I’m not throwing shit just to throw it.
It has to serve a purpose for me.
A lot of times, I’ll go through and make
a loop and then be like, “Yo let me go through
every sound and make sure they really need
to be there.”
Cause sometimes it’s what you take out of
the beat that makes it amazing.
I had this like little Korg synth at the
studio and I pulled this patch.
That’s not really a sound that you hear
but it kind of comes in and out to kind of
like build up the horn and then kind of like
pull out a little bit of the horn.
So like okay, at that point, I’m like, “Let
me filter the sample out.”
I like to leave like the distortion and everything
that the filter and plug in creates just to
like texturally change what’s going on.
So then I’m like cool, I have the breakdown.
And I have to add the air raid.
You gotta be lawless with this shit.
You put boundaries on yourself, you’re gonna
fuck it up.
If you don’t have boundaries, it’s like,
whatever you create, it sits on its’ own.
It’s its’ own thing.
It’s this thing that you made purely.
To me, in my mind, this is what I hear.
If I say French Montana, Remy.
This is like yeah…
What I said before, of like trying to give
them the best thing I could give them.
I feel like I did that.
