Smells Like Rampage up in Here!!
Ok, so i got into storytelling mode last night, and got some funny emails today asking for more. i could blog for eternity about the crazy things i've seen happen in studios, but here's one of my favorite stories. You young folks may be too young to remember the artists, maybe not. so here's a little setup. for years i made records with an amazingly talented producer / songwriter who's identity i'll protect due to the nature of the story, we'll refer to him only as "Mr TP", but anyone who finds the album and looks at the credits can probably learn his true identity, he produced the song. The artist was Zhane (they got famous for a minute with the song "Hey Mr DJ" which i did not work on. If you look at my credits, you'll see what song i did work on. I recorded and mixed the song, but the story here happened during a vocal session at Soundtrack Studios in NYC, in Studio E, with both Jean and Renee from Zhane. This was 1997.
Studio E has a really small vocal booth, two people in the booth at once is about all it can take, but Jean and Renee sing very well together on the mic, which is uncommon. They've both got beautiful voices. Hold up. Stop. More story set up. Ya'll know who Busta Rhymes is right? I have only worked with Busta a few times but he's so gifted. He will be a true hip hop legend one day. Does anybody remember (i think) his cousin who had a deal for a minute, named "Rampage"? Yeah, i would have forgotten about him too if not for this story. OK, back to Zhane. so all the music is tracked, and Jean and Renee go into the booth to cut vocals. They put the headphones on and start riffing with their voices to start warming up. I've already got the vocal mic set and sounding good so Mr TP and i can hear every word coming from the booth. We start the first vocal take and a few lines in, (i think it was Renee) stopped the take, starts sniffing the microphone popper stopper and says "Oh My God, it Smells Like Rampage was up in here". Now before the session i had just talked to the assistant and who'd have thought the following knowledge would have come in handy. My response in the talkback mic was "Girls, Rampage was up in here cutting vocals last night, you just called out his breath!!!!"
I swear to god thats how it happened. I think we laughed for the next hour straight. I'm sure it was just late and Rampage just needed a breath mint after a long night of rhyming, but it made for a very memorable session.
-Ken
Studio E has a really small vocal booth, two people in the booth at once is about all it can take, but Jean and Renee sing very well together on the mic, which is uncommon. They've both got beautiful voices. Hold up. Stop. More story set up. Ya'll know who Busta Rhymes is right? I have only worked with Busta a few times but he's so gifted. He will be a true hip hop legend one day. Does anybody remember (i think) his cousin who had a deal for a minute, named "Rampage"? Yeah, i would have forgotten about him too if not for this story. OK, back to Zhane. so all the music is tracked, and Jean and Renee go into the booth to cut vocals. They put the headphones on and start riffing with their voices to start warming up. I've already got the vocal mic set and sounding good so Mr TP and i can hear every word coming from the booth. We start the first vocal take and a few lines in, (i think it was Renee) stopped the take, starts sniffing the microphone popper stopper and says "Oh My God, it Smells Like Rampage was up in here". Now before the session i had just talked to the assistant and who'd have thought the following knowledge would have come in handy. My response in the talkback mic was "Girls, Rampage was up in here cutting vocals last night, you just called out his breath!!!!"
I swear to god thats how it happened. I think we laughed for the next hour straight. I'm sure it was just late and Rampage just needed a breath mint after a long night of rhyming, but it made for a very memorable session.
-Ken
posted by Protools Mixing at 4:19 AM
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