Boi-1da is a Toronto, Canada based self-taught producer that has worked with many big named artists in the game such as Gucci Mane, The Game, G-Unit, Kanye West and Chris Brown. He is also a in-house producer for OVO Sound so he works closely with artists such as Drake, Rihanna, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Kendrick Lamar. Boi-1da assisted with Drake’s second album, Take Care. in an interview with HipHopCanada.com back in 2009 Boi-1da said when he’s working he uses FL Studio 9 and a laptop, I’m guessing he’s using FL Studio 12 right about now. 

In an interview done by The Fader they ask: Is production a solo or team sport?

“It’s always about your vision, but no one does anything by themselves. I mean, sometimes—I think Miguel produced “Adorn” and wrote the whole song and performed it himself. But most songs, and a lot of hit songs, are a collaborative effort from a lot of people: producers, songwriters, everything. Your favorite producers—Timbaland, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, all these people—they work with a lot of co-producers. Producing is definitely a team sport because not everybody has the blessing of knowing every aspect about music. I have certain aspects that another person doesn’t have and what I have complements what he has.”

When it comes to work flow when making it varies because on one hand he can spend two days working on a beat to make it right, on the other hand he could take ten minutes to make a beat. “A song I did for Meek Mill’s last album called “Tony Story Pt. 2” took like two days. I took like windshield wiper sounds and all sorts of crazy stuff, you know. “Up in Flames” for Nicki Minaj, that took days because we got live choirs, live piano, drums, sequencing. You can make a ten-minute beat, but I like to just put a little more effort into my stuff. “Headlines” for Drake, I made that in ten minutes. That’s a ten-minute beat.”

Working under the label of OVO Sound and with Drake, Boy-1da spends some time scanning for beats. The two day beat from Meek Mills album that he had done was originally an idea from drake as he wanted something that reminded him of driving at night. In which he found a windshield wiper sound. “I was trying to be like real creative. We ended up combining the original sounds with the real windshield wiper recording. The beat just came alive when we had the proper windshield wiper sound.”

Nahright.com done an article about Boi-1da and he really opens about his sound and work flow.

“I went from using a tower computer to a laptop, which I have equipped with a MIDI keyboard, and a hard drive for my sounds. I load all my sounds onto a hard drive because I have gigs and gigs and gigs of sounds, and it would take up too much space on the computer.

“I buy sounds off of different miscellaneous websites where you can pay for kits. I don’t have a go-to site. And sometimes, I’ll take little sounds out of songs, and load samples here and there. I get sounds from anywhere. The other day, I heard a sound on a YouTube video, and I ripped it from YouTube. I get sounds from wherever. I have a 1.5 terabyte hard drive I’ve been using for four years and it’s still not filled. I just keep loading it up.

“I trade sounds with producers as well. I have a buddy who’s a producer named Jazzfeezy who I’ve done a few beats with, I trade the most sounds with him. I’ve gotten sounds from T-Minus, Hit-Boy I’ve traded with as well. A guy named Glass John, he produces for Beyonce and [some other big artists]. I got some sounds the other day from Illmind. I got some from Havoc from Mobb Deep. A lot of people that I meet up with and get in contact with I trade sounds with. It’s a producer thing. When you get up, you trade a few sound kits with each other. It’s just a thing that we do.

“I’m more of a new aged digger, like an mp3 kind of guy. I’ll rip from YouTube, and other online stuff. I may have ripped one or two samples off actual vinyl, but it’s a task to get something from vinyl to mp3. It takes so much longer. I’m a guy who likes to put things together quickly. And there’s no process, it can [start] from anything—a sound, a drum, it’s always something different.”

Studio Set-Up

“For the most part, I make a lot of my beats at my house, in my basement. I have a regular set-up. It’s just an empty room, with a couch and a table, and some KRK Rokit speakers and a huge subwoofer. It’s just a basic set-up, nothing fancy. I lock the room door, and do it the old-fashioned way. My walls are not even soundproof.”

Daily Routine

“The way I work is I just vibe out, and figure things out on the fly. I never try to say, ‘I’m gonna make this,’ or, ‘I’m gonna make that.’ Whatever’s in the moment, I’m gonna try.

“I don’t like to force it. Some people try to work on music every day. Sometimes I’ll just be chillin’, watching Netflix or playing NBA 2K or something. I work on beats when I get the urge. It’s like any other urge that anyone else would have. When I get that urge, I’ll go off. Sometimes I’ll go a whole week just working on music, knocking out incredible beats. But for the most part, I just chill, and wait ‘til the vibe comes to me.

“The other day, I felt really inspired. When I get the feeling, I like to squeeze all the juice out of the orange, and really exhaust it. I think I made like six tracks in a day, and they’re all ready to go. Like, they’ll be used. [Laughs.]

In the Pensado’s Place interview at 35:06~ Boi-1da says He doesn’t trust anyone new to do his mixes but only the people he knows and trust and on 27:32, He talks about the plugin sausage fattener which he uses on his 808s. at 38:10~ He talks about when he’s dealing with his mixes he likes keep it ‘raw’.  He states he don’t really compress his tracks

In a Cuepont interview Boi-1da talks about his background and love for Dancehall.

CP: You were born in Jamaica and grew up in Canada. How does it feel to witness something mixing your origins becoming such a huge influence and phenomenon?

Boi-1da: “It feels great, because I grew up listening to dancehall music. I actually listened to dancehall before I listened to hip-hop. That beat in particular came from being around my dad, he used to play dancehall. He listened to Beenie Man, Sean Paul… That beat was literally a 90s dancehall moment in 2016. I wanted that same feeling I had when I heard “Get Busy” by Sean Paul. On “0 to 100” you hear that and it sounds like Wu-Tang, you know? I’m just trying to create nostalgic moments that I enjoyed in my past and modernize it.”

Reference:

In The Lab Interview: http://nahright.com/in-the-lab-with-boi-1da/

Controlla Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY50C_YBFyg

Pensado’s Place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WBpXTRE04A&t=1248s

HipHopCanada: http://www.hiphopcanada.com/2009/11/interview-boi-1da/

HNHH: https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/40-vs-boi-1da-news.14235.html

Cuepoint: https://medium.com/cuepoint/producer-boi-1da-distills-dancehall-vibes-for-the-hip-hop-masses-8c8587524b0a

ANOB: https://nationofbillions.com/perfecting-the-beat-with-boi-1da