Recording Engineer Finis White, better known as KY has one of the most important jobs in the music industry. He is Lil Wayne’s right hand man/engineer in the studio, crafting the sound of all the rappers songs. In addition to working with Lil Wayne, KY also works closely with Wayne’s supergroup Young Money. Recently KY spoke to NewLilWayne.com about what exactly he does as an engineer for Lil Wayne and the Cash Money/Young Money family.
“Well an engineer is the person that makes the music sound the way it sounds. A good engineer is a must. You can have a hot song but if it doesn’t sound the way it’s supposed to, it might not come out hot. Also the engineer has to understand the artists that they are working with. Every artist has their own way they record. If the engineer is messing up it throws the vibe off, which in turn affects the way the song turns out. The difference between engineer and a producer. The engineer records the song, the lyrics, tracks, the beat, and gives the song its sound. The producer is the person that puts the song together as far as lyrics and arrangement. The producer is not always the person that makes the beat. In my case Wayne produces all of the songs because he has the vision of what the song should be” KY told NewLilWayne.com.
KY also spoke on his involvement in both the Rebirth and We Are Young Money albums saying “I had fun doing Rebirth; it was something different for me and Wayne. I haven’t done Rock before, so it was fun getting to use different plug-ins and just overall doing new things. Wayne is playing guitar on almost every song. Producers Infamous, Drew [Correa] and Cool & Dre came through big time for us on Rebirth. Drew and Infamous would make tracks on the spot in the studio with Wayne. Cool & Dre just kept dropping off new heat every week. J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League also helped out a lot. They sent me a lot of great tracks as well. Shanell also was a very big part in helping to create Rebirth. She of course wrote the single “Prom Queen” but she helped craft a lot of the project. My favorite tracks on Rebirth are On Fire, Paradice, Drop The World, and Knockout. The Young Money album was fun to make. Everybody would fly down to Miami. We like a big family. Everybody is cool and down to earth. I love the album though because it gave everybody a chance to let people get a look at what everybody can do. Plus I love to work with everybody else besides Wayne, because Wayne already knows what he wants in the studio as far as sound. I get to be more creative with everyone else. I like giving each artist their own personal sound. Kane Beatz and Chase N Cashe did most of the production on the Young Money album. I met both of them in Atlanta before I worked with Wayne. So when Wayne said I need beats I called the best people I knew that had a new sound. I got my first mixing credit on this album also, “Steady Mobbin” that was big for me. My favorite tracks on We Are Young Money are Steady Mobbin, Gooder, Pass The Dutch and Bedrock. Also shouts out to Mike Banger and Jewfro. They were a big help with both projects.”
According to KY one of the main aspects that hurts artists and labels in today’s environment is the fact that music leaks onto the internet everyday.
“I hate when music leaks because of course people love what we doing, but most of the time those songs aren’t done and over at YM we pride ourselves on quality. They would love the songs more if they were done. It’s not really much we can do because they hack emails or people might come into the studio after we leave and get the songs and put them out. We don’t email anymore so it has calmed down a lot but as soon as we do send it out, it’s on the street in less than a week. Another thing is that when songs leak that were going on an album it pushes the album back, because we have to keep maki
