Vibing with Matt Ox

Matt Ox was one of the first big artists I was able to interact with at Musewav. He had actually reached out to me first as I was abiding by studio protocol (aka mind your business to appear professional), and we chopped it up from there. We talked about his recent tour in China which Musewav had partnered with him in bringing about, and a music video shoot he had done in one part of China. Eventually he asked to hear some of my beats and after I played some of them to him he asked for my contact info. This was a great first step for me in terms of networking with major hiphop artists, and I definitely plan on creating a record with him.

It was also cool to watch the creative process of a top artist like him in real time, and as I've engineered at different studios with smaller artists, I've definitely noticed the difference in what separates a professional artist (in particular rappers) from an aspiring one. Professional artists tend to finish songs at a fast pace while maintaining great quality. When the music industry is saturated with talent, at one point it becomes more of a race of quantity as the quality is already present in all the music. The legendary painter Basquiat was always creating, and the same principles must be applied for artists of Matt Ox's caliber. You must always be creating songs and not pause to overthink your art to waste precious creative energy. While engineering for small, independent artists at studios like Luxor Studios, I've noticed that the artists there complete around 3-5 songs within 6 hours of recording. They scrutinize the details and are not prepared for recording great quality takes. Meanwhile Matt Ox would have finished 3-5 songs within an hour of studio time. Creative energy oozes from Matt Ox as he freestyles his lyrics into the mic. Aspiring rappers need to develop more consistency and experience in songwriting and freestyling to match this pace, and more importantly create their own world of sound that you cannot find in another artist's songs. Demand is limited in such a saturated market of hiphop, and you need to have your unique palate of sounds and lyrics that uniquely define you. While Matt Ox's music and delivery style can be viewed as polarizing to some, that is what helps him create his own niche market in the hiphop world and makes him so successful.

[Me with Matt Ox and his crew!]