He is man known as “The Sound of New York” we’re proud to present our interview with Jay-Z’s Official DJ and recording engineer Young Guru. He has recorded over 10 of Jay-Z’s albums and has had the pleasure to work with other artists such as Notorious B.I.G., Little Brother, Talib Kweli, Kanye West, Eminem, Drake and many more. We caught up with Young Guru when he came to Canada for a mini DJ Tour and he was lecturing at Google Canada headquarters in Toronto. We touched on Piracy, the Lord Finesse and Mac Miller lawsuit, if Jay-Z is ever going to retire, Young Guru’s new headphones, the art of the album and much more, check out the full interview on The Come Up Show TV below.
Young Guru first explains to us how piracy has greatened our culture and if it wasn’t for piracy that Hip-Hop wouldn’t exist.
Basically pirates are showing a hole in society, something that they people want but we aren’t giving it to them.
Instead of fighting a pirate you should see what it is they are servicing to the people and figure out how you yourself can service that. In dealing with digital downloading and the era we are headed in….with the internet you can’t just attack people, there is got to be a way to figure out what am I not doing that the pirate is doing and how can I monetize that simple as that. Young Guru.
We continue the interview by asking what he thinks of the listening patterns of our generation since we have become saturated with new music everyday. He goes on to explain that our attention spans have gotten faster, records used to have a 3-4 month life span, those are the positive and negatives with the internet.
All of that has been there, you just never heard it, I used to hear 100 demos a week, now the whole world gets to hear it because the artist is posting it online. It’s always been there just the access is greater now, our listening span especially the younger generation, the 18 & under, they are more eclectic, they aren’t just getting one album and saying this is my favourite, they listen to all genres. The way the internet is, you don’t have to buy the whole album you can just listen to your favourite songs. It’s a good thing that people can get their music out there faster but it’s a negative because people aren’t really paying attention to the art of an album. You have artists like Kendrick Lamar and show you why there should be the art of the album and now those kids understand, this is what a complete body of work is and every song makes sense and there is one great idea behind it.
On to the next question that Guru answered so masterfully is that Jay-Z is about to turn 44 years old and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, is it possible if we are going to hear Jay-Z rapping at age 50? For that answer you will have to watch the interview! Young Guru also told us about his new headphones that are especially made for the home studio artist, engineer and producer. “The focus is to mix records in their house, most headphones are for enjoyment, mine are to give musicians a proper listening environment and to give the home artist a great environment to reference their music.”
Let me know what you think of our interview with Young Guru and all the topics that we touched on and make sure to subscribe to The Come Up Show TV so you don’t miss out on any future interviews! Special thanks to Caroline Lessire for the photography she did an amazing job make sure to check out her flickr channel and her website. I would also like to thank Jaztoh for providing the instrumentals in the interview make sure to check him out on the bandcamp account.
