Over the last year I worked on several of Cardi’s tracks, like ‘Lick’, ‘Washpoppin’ and ‘Foreva’. “I met him a couple of years ago at Daddy’s House Recording Studios here in New York. LaRay’s work with Cardi B also came about through a personal connection: her manager Suga Shaft, who is also a producer and has worked with Lil’ Kim, amongst others.
I love creating, so if I’m asked to record, I will, but of late I have really enjoyed mixing, because I have more freedom to do things on my own terms.” I’m active as both a recording engineer and a mixer.
I also work with a lot of unknown artists from the Bronx. For example, I work with The-Dream, with Velous, who worked with Kanye West, Drake and Chris Brown, with Miles William, with Tru Life and Belly. So I often link up with a producer, who then has all the connections to Future, or Jay-Z or whoever. I work really well with creators, and that includes artists. “I work with a lot of producers,” explains LaRay, “and my sessions mainly come via them. Over the last few years LaRay has clocked up an amazingly long list of credits, which includes Akon, Desiigner, French Montana, Future, Migos, Ne-Yo, Scott Storch, Travis Scott, Wyclef Jean and many others. He graduated there to become a fully fledged engineer, also worked as an assistant engineer at RC Studios, and since June 2015 he has been freelance, working for most of his time as head engineer, tech and manager at Fight Club Studios. I love art, and there’s something about how engineering allows you to draw with sound.”Īs a result, LaRay went on to study at the Institute of Audio Research in New York in 2013, and he also became an intern at Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Entertainment. I really enjoyed making my friends sound good and doing creative stuff with their voices. My friends and I used to do battle in making beats, and obviously I lost, but once I figured out how I could change the sound of an 808, add distortion, reverb, delays, EQ, edit music, I fell in love with that, instead of with programming and playing music. Some friends of mine started rapping, and I decided to build a studio in my house so I could practise creating beats. “My mother plays piano, and my brother is a rapper, and my little sister is a singer, and I was like: ‘I can’t sing or play the piano, but I love music, so what can I do?’ I went out and did some DJ’ing and I found out about Fruity Loops and a lot of other programs. From his mix room at Fight Club Studios, located close to Times Square in New York, LaRay elaborates on his background, and on how his mix of ‘Bodak Yellow’ helped steer the song to the top spot. ‘Bodak Yellow’ is his first number one, and has helped earn him a nomination at the 2017 Pensado’s Place Awards for Break Thru Mixer: no mean feat for someone who has only been mixing professionally for a few years. And as a mixer, I had to make sure to enhance everything and make sure that it translates.” Fight To FlightĮvan LaRay is a young engineer and mixer who, like Cardi B, originates from the Bronx in New York. When you hear that part in a club or in a car, it moves you. The second 808 sound almost functions like a bass. The producer, J White, put in some amazing drum sounds and 808 textures, with a lot of energy. It’s a simple beat, really just the main synth, the 808s and the hi-hats. The vocals are what makes it a great record, and the beat and the vocals together control the song. I don’t think anybody else could get on that beat the way she does, and then there’s what she wrote and raps about. Declared Single of the Year at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards, it’s been nominated for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song at the 60th Grammy Awards.Įngineer and mixer Evan LaRay explains its appeal thus: “With ‘Bodak Yellow’ it is Cardi’s vocal performance that really takes the record to the next level. Three times platinum in the US, it has had 357 million YouTube views at the time of writing. ‘Bodak Yellow’ also remained at the top spot for three weeks, which made it the longest-running number one by a solo woman rapper to date. Amazingly, in fact, Cardi B is the first female rapper to have had a US number one solo hit since Lauryn Hill in 1998 with ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’. Yet the fact that, besides Cardi B’s rapping, it contains nothing but some 808 kicks, trap-influenced hi-hats and a simple synth arpeggio hasn’t stopped it topping the US Billboard singles charts. With no recognisable melodic hook or musical structure, and no bass, Cardi B’s ‘Bodak Yellow’ is one of the more minimal rap tracks ever to become a hit. Mix engineer Evan LaRay explains his role in taking Cardi B’s ‘Bodak Yellow’ to number one.
When a track contains nothing but beats and vocals, the vocal mix has to be perfect.
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