Name: Alex Da Kid
Age: 30
Born: London
Credits: Eminem, Nicki Minaj, B.O.B, Rihanna, Slaughterhouse, Cee-Lo Green, Lupe Fiasco + more.
Alexander “Alex Da Kid” Grant isn’t your average rap producer. The London-born beatmaker represents cross-genre success in the purest sense of the word.
He co-wrote and produced Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” (as well as Part II, featured on Rihanna’s Loud release) which sold more than 9 million copies and picked up five Grammy nominations. As music’s biggest night rolls back around this Sunday (Jan. 26), the Grammy spotlight is back on Alex for his work with alternative band Imagine Dragons, signed to his KIDinaKORNER imprint. The group nabbed Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance nominations for their six-times platinum single “Radioactive,” produced by Alex.
Besides possible Grammy gold, Alex will be among the panelist for BMI’s annual “How I Wrote That Song” event in L.A. this weekend, featuring the likes of Charlie Wilson, and Wiz Khalifa, among others.
For the year’s first installment of our “Beatmakers” series, Hip-Hop Wired talks with the producer about his winning streak, the pressure to deliver, and what he learned from Dr. Dre.
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Photos: BMI/Facebook
Hip-Hop Wired: How did you get your start?
Alex Da Kid: I’ve always been around music. In my family, no one ever created it but they saw how creative I was. I just loved that creative element of it. [I knew] I wanted to do this every day of my life. When I started it wasn’t about being successful, it was about being able to do it everyday. I started doing internships and I got a degree, just worked everywhere, and worked slowly.
Hip-Hop Wired: Is the success that much sweeter because of how hard you worked?
Alex Da Kid: It’s definitely a lot sweeter [than] if it would have came really quickly. I just feel like you get what you put in. Everything I’ve done, I’ve never compromised. Success is not about having a song on the radio, it’s more about us being able to do music every day.
Hip-Hop Wired: Where did you get the confidence not to compromise yourself?
Alex Da Kid: [Laughs] I don’t really know. I kind of saw my life going in another direction and it just really scared me…I became very extreme. Uncompromising. I dedicated every single hour of my life to trying to have a career.
Hip-Hop Wired: Is being so disciplined part of your creative process today?
Alex Da Kid: Yeah, but now I guess what [I deal with] is just balancing my time. When I first started I was just being creative in once aspect, now I’m like being creative in like 50 aspects. I’m so lucky that I get to wake up every day and decide what I want to do. That’s kind of how my life works. I’m a big believer in designing your own life and making it what you want it to be.
Hip-Hop Wired: You have some huge hits to your credit, are you compelled to top yourself?
Alex Da Kid: Not to top anything. Where I come from, it was definitely like a lot of different types of music that I grew up on. I grew up on reggae, pop, rock…tons of things on the radio. You’re surrounded by different cultures in London. I just take that in now [fusing different artists] in my head…like if Prince and Nas made a song together what would that sound like? And I’ll just start making the beat, and I’ll go from there. I’m not really trying to top anything, I’m just trying to make new sounds.
Hip-Hop Wired: Do you think being from London works to your benefit?
Alex Da Kid: Yeah, absolutely. [I have a] different perspective. [Understanding] what other people think and how they think is good in life in general. You might not agree with them, but at least you kind of understand where they’re coming from. Being from London definitely helped, but I live in L.A. now and for the first time it’s starting to feel like home. That’s just started to happen in the last couple of months.
Hip-Hop Wired: Were American artists ever turned off because you’re from London?
Alex Da Kid: I don’t think so. If they’re in my world it’s because they wanted me. They know what I’m about, and if they want something different [they’ll go to] a different producer.
Hip-Hop Wired: Did you ever study other people’s careers?
Alex Da Kid: Yeah, I studied. There are people in my life that I get to see how amazing they are like Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Those kind of people who have gone beyond…Jimmy started off as a producer and Dre started off as a producer but they’re so much more than that now. I just love the evolution of how far they’ve come. People like Puff [Diddy] or Jay [Z], just seeing how far they can take things. Even people beyond music. There’s so many different types of successful people and I’ve seen what drove them.
Hip-Hop Wired: Is there one main thread that you’ve noticed in successful people?
Alex Da Kid:Â I think it’s pretty simple. I feel like you just gotta’ want it more than anybody else. It comes down to that. Sometimes I go to these dinners and it’s loads of successful people –not just music people but just everybody– they’re all the same person, they just happen to have different experiences and happen to be in different fields. None of them do it for money. If you do it for money then once you make a certain amount you would stop, but all these people don’t.
It’s just a feeling, you just want it more. For me when I first found music, I guess it was like falling in love, like ‘this is it. I know what the rest of my life is going to look like.’ I encourage everybody to look for that because not everybody is lucky enough to find it, but once you find it something else will take over. There’s nothing that can stop you.
