(Producer Interview) Behind The Music: JB Made It

In a recent interview with TK of Finesse Foreva, the golden age of UK drill came up. This discussion would be incomplete without mention of fellow Finesse Foreva co-founder JB Made It. The Croydon native's humble demeanor belies an impressive roster of artists he has worked with since starting his music journey in his school studio at age 15.

UK drill is an ever-evolving genre that has gained substantial commercial and mainstream recognition since its early days as an offshoot of Chicago drill, a sound pioneered by the likes of Chief Keef. JB helped bridge the gap between the scenes by producing Pitbulls, a track that saw Chief Keef collaborate with UK drill duo Skengdo & AM.

With the changing landscape of our nation's raw rap subgenre, it's more important than ever to acknowledge the list of producers who have been at the forefront of the sound since its first wave of popularity and have molded it into what it is today.

JB Made It is at the top of that list.

Split60 caught up with him to discuss the future of UK drill, bridging the gap between the US and the UK and the Drake placement.

Tell us a bit about yourself, how would you describe yourself?

"My name is JB. I run my company, Finesse Foreva, a music label that also deals with music education and live events. We have been involved in records such as Body, Keisha & Becky and, obviously, with Skengdo & AM, who are drill pioneers. We did their 2Bunny tape with them, and they've been with us ever since. As for myself personally, I am a music producer, born and bred in Croydon and have been doing this since I was 15. I consider myself a producer, not a beat-maker."

You initially started as a drummer. How did that transition into music production?

"Drumming was the gateway to music for me. I was always fascinated by what a drumkit could do and its role in music. Drumming was everything to me. I started playing in church, and I still do now 20 years later; it made me feel alive, and I think that's how I knew that music was the career path I wanted to go down. I started music production by chance. My story is very serendipitous. One of my guys in school knew I was a drummer, but he didn't know any producers, so he just came to me and said let's try something in the booth; bear in mind this was in P.E., so nothing music-related. We were playing cricket, which was not for me. I thought it was trash, so we said stuff this, let's see what we can do. At lunchtime, we would go to the studio, which lit up something in me because I never knew the mechanics behind how a song is made."

What is your creative process like when you make a beat? If you know you're working with an artist, do you pre-plan? What do you initially start with when you make a beat?

"It depends; if I'm working with a rapper, my thought process is, let me just have a few beats they can jump on prepared. This goes for singers too but in most of the sessions I have had with rappers, it works like that. With singers, I am more likely to make it in the session. I prefer sessions, that way, we create a vibe together; once you're part of the creative process, you become attached to it. But it depends, there is no set way of doing it, the same goes for making the beat as well there is no

real process. If I have a set amount of time, I might start with a sample to quickly do what needs to be done, but I do it all, man."

You have worked with artists from the US and the UK. Do you approach production any differently when working with international artists?

"I would probably say no. I just make what I make. I think what's important is to keep your signature sound, it's not for us to make the song sound different, that's what the artist does. You can give an American artist a UK drill beat, and they might make it sound completely different. It won't sound exactly how you think it would. Where you might tailor your approaches is with singers and rappers. I don't think continental differences make much of a difference because, ultimately, if they are coming to me for a beat, they are coming for a sound that I already have; the vocal production is more important than the production."

Do you have a favourite artist that you have worked with or a standout moment in your career so far?

"I don't have a favourite artist, I'll be honest, every artist is unique, and we all have different ways of connecting with artists. There will be sessions where we get in there, do three songs and it's lit, we worked on point. There are sessions where we might get half a song done, but we connected in such a way that it became a positive experience. In terms of moments, touring with AM & Skengdo and hearing my song Attempted being sung back by thousands of fans is something I'll never forget. The Drake placement too, how that happened was out of a movie."

You touched briefly on the Drake placement there. Can you tell us how that came about?

"I was doing a camp in New York, I got invited out there alongside Hargo and Ghosty, shout of them guys. I was working with an artist called Snubbs, who was the first American to jump on one of my beats; in one of our sessions, there was an A&R who wanted me to work with Sosa Geek, who was in the studio too; everything went pear-shaped after that. The speakers stopped working, the studio stopped working, and someone got shot around the corner of the studio. It was just madness. They eventually got the speakers working and said just play anything. I was under pressure because I wasn't well-versed in drill at this point. One of Sosa's boys asked me if I had anything with choirs in it. I had one beat that I made on the plane, I thought it was trash, to be honest, but I played it, and suddenly, everyone was rapping and dancing in a circle in the studio. I went to the toilet, and one of my business partners, SK, was banging at the door, and the way he was banging it, you would have thought someone had been shot. He was standing there just talking gibberish, saying, 'Drakes on FaceTime!' I get back in the studio, and there are 40 man just staring at me.

A few come up to me and say, 'your life is about to change'. It wasn't until I spoke to my boy, who told me Drake loved the beat and was trying to find out who the producer was, that I realised what was happening. Two months go past and a clip goes viral on Twitter, one of my friends messaged me and said 'Is this your beat?' I look at it, and it's Drake's verse on the beat with Sosa Geek and Fivio Foreign vibing to it. My lawyer called me a week before the release and said to sign this contract now, a week later the track came out. The craziest part of the story is that right before that session

even happened, I got asked who my dream artist to work with was, and I said, Drake. Two hours later, it happened."

You have been at the forefront of the golden age of UK drill. What are your thoughts on the drill scene now, and where do you see it heading in the next few years?

"It's changed from the original sound. We will never get that original feel back. Drill has become much more creative; it is no longer just a piano, a drum beat and a bassline. It's evolved so much, and that's a great thing because a genre has to evolve to stay relevant. We are now less susceptive to just hearing stuff like ching man down, we're not trying to listen to that anymore. Maybe it's lost some of its spice, but drill artists are getting charted now, so it's an exciting time. I see it becoming more commercialised, and what drill allows is for people to jump on drill without feeling like they have to do something to prove themselves, and that's always a positive."

You have worked on US and UK crossovers such as the Chief Keef and Skengdo & AM track Pitbulls. What value do you see in these international collaborations, and why do you think we rarely see them?

"I think there should be more of them. For countries that speak the same language, we are very disengaged. Nowadays, we are more aligned, which is fantastic, and you've got to give props to artists who are bridging the gap. It's good for both cultures because we are synonymous with one another. I think consumers just need to be ready for it because consumers can be fickle. A lot of back-end stuff also makes it hard for them to materialise, like people charging 100k for a feature. I think both sides just need to be smarter about it."

What advice would you give to an aspiring producer?

"First things first, don't delete your beats because there are probably some goldmines in there. I say this in a lot of my interviews but you need to have patience in the process, the process is there to ensure that when you get to these big positions you don't make mistakes. Had I given up on music when I didn't feel like doing it, I would be in a school trying to teach music right now. I'm not dissing people who do that in any way, but my life could have taken a dramatic turn if I'd just packed it in. It took me 10 years to get my first paycheck from music. Would you be willing to wait 10 years? These are the questions people need to be asking themselves. Use the process as much as possible. It's painful and arduous, but it will teach you things you won't learn at the top, so trust the process and love it, love where you are now."

Is there anything you are working on at the moment personally or with Finesse Foreva that you are excited about and want to share?

"Working with new artists and honing in on their sound is exciting in itself. Still, with Finesse Foreva, we are launching our next-gen series online. Our music business has been very successful, so we want to be able to give that back to the people. I recently returned from the Caribbean as I was doing a camp there, so fingers crossed something comes out of that. There are a few releases and other sick stuff in the works, too, but I don't really like to talk about things unless I know for certain they are coming out. Not to be too private; It's just always best to let it come out before I say something."