![]() And the one I found wasn’t even great, though. I think I tried something like 15 808 until I found the right one. And Beyonce was like, “It needs 808 in it.” It’s a tough task to merge an 808 with a live bass. When I first presented it to her, there was no 808 in it. She wanted that bottom end, she wanted to dance. That’s the one you guys hear.īeyoncé wanted the track to be a little more hip-hop-friendly. And he’s like, “Nah.” And then he went back in and did another version. So he went in there and he laid something completely different. And then he went to the booth and he laid it down, and it was a different rap. He was sitting down in the chair, listening to it over and over again. Jay doesn’t write his words down on paper, of course. He was trying to catch the beat, ’cause the beat is a little unconventional. I remember when Jay first went in the booth. Next thing you know, Jay’s in his booth and he’s laying down verses too, and I was like, “Whoa, this is becoming bigger than what I thought.” And I was like, what? I had to go back to New York. We did the record and then I got the call that Jay was gonna rap on it. You’re just like, whoa, she nailed it - and she did exactly what she said she was gonna do. Next thing you know, it turns into, like, a 13, just that quick. It could be a little bit something extra, maybe just a little rasp or something in it. And she’ll say, “Let me get that again.” And you kind of look at her like “B, you nailed it.” And she says, “I can get it better.” It’s a 10, and she’ll keep going. You can push her and she wants to be pushed, but she pushes herself too, because there’s moments where she’ll do something and it’s flawless and everybody in the room knows it’s flawless. And the thing about her too, is she pushes herself. She has that same type of intensity in the booth. I’m telling you, when I work with her, it reminds me so much of working with Michael. That song had a lot of harmonies and notes that were somewhat unconventional for regular, mainstream music. We had Auto-Tune, but we didn’t use it on her. You gotta remember, we weren’t using Auto-Tune. She attacked things so raw and in your face. But I watch it and it just blows my mind. And one day hopefully in my documentary, the world will get to see it. Sometimes I go back and watch her and Jay-Z in the booth. I just remember Beyoncé blowing our minds in the booth. Then she came up with the whole idea of the whole intro. I wanna make this really big.” And she was like, “Let’s do it.” And of course, when I played it for Beyoncé the first time, I’m like, “Yo, I want to put live horns on this. I was already envisioning the live horns and everything, because I was playing synthetic horns. Instead, I wanted you to be able to listen to the instrumental and it takes you on a journey. A lot of music is all about that quick four-to-eight bar loop that just keeps going the whole way. ![]() I wanted to give her that Michael Jackson change, going to a major seventh chord. Next thing you know, between Deia Thomas and Mekeba Riddick, the vocals and the lyrics started to come together quickly. I started playing that and Jon-Jon started playing that crazy bass line. This slippery-sounding lick includes the 9th (A) and 11th (C) of the chord (known as ‘chord extensions’ or ‘tensions’) which provide more colour than using basic chord tones it may take some time for the legato phrasing and the trill to sound entirely even (at least, it did for me) – start slowly and don’t allow yourself to speed up until the sound becomes consistent.We were listening to the Off the Wall album, listening to “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.” My studio was not even five minutes from 7-11, and on our way back, we went right to the studio and I started going “da, da” - that little guitar-line, with a guitar sound I had on my keys. The main bassline is built on a syncopated two-bar pattern that outlines a Gm7 chord, including a chromatic approach from the b7 to the root followed by an ear-grabbing, high register legato fill. Released in 2006, ‘Déjà Vu’ bucked the trend of heavily programmed R’n’B in favour of predominantly live instrumentation – the only programmed element is the 808 drum machine – with bass coming from John ‘Jon Jon’ Webb (better known by his producer moniker of Jon Jon Traxx). At least, I used to file this song under ‘guilty pleasures’ until I realized that I shouldn’t feel any guilt whatsoever in enjoying it from the moment that Beyoncé says ‘bass’, it’s clear what the song is all about. The bass part of Beyoncé’s ‘Déjà Vu’ is definitely one of my guilty pleasures. ![]()
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