Our MPG Member Spotlight takes a look behind the scenes of those making moves in the music production community. This week we're hearing from Mazbou Q.
You’re across a lot of spaces in the music world. What do you consider your main roles in making music at the moment?
To inspire and educate. By creatively telling stories around my unique pathway, people can be motivated to lean into what makes them different and diligently pursue it. By teaching the mechanics behind rap flow, people can learn to take a more critical approach to not only their understanding and practice of Hip hop, but whatever domain they find themselves in.
Can you share a few projects that you’re particularly proud of and why they stand out to you?
‘THE SCIENCE OF RAP’
Not strictly a music project per se, perhaps more broadly an endeavour with several aspects. The gist is the communication of rap flow in the context of rhythm theory, in a way that elevates both the practice of Hip hop and music education. This involves; music making (‘The RAP SCIENCE song series, discussed below’); educational content creation (short and long form videos on rap flow analysis and education on social media channels, and the ‘Intro to Rap Flow’ online video course); and public engagements (lectures and workshops at educational institutes like Berklee College of Music, Harvard University, Louisiana State University, Boxhill Institute and several conferences). This constitutes a niche I’ve carved out for myself which has gained global attention and online notoriety.
The ‘RAP SCIENCE’ song series
Singles: POLYMERS., PHYSIOLOGY. (feat. Ch! Nonso), CELESTIALS. (feat. Nardean), FORENSICS, CRYPTOGRAPHY.
This series (which will evolve into an album), represents the merging of my ‘content’ brand with my music brand. In 2021 my rap flow analysis content began to go viral on Tiktok, birthing a new branding as ‘The Rap Scientist’. This was distinct from, although not entirely separate to, my profile as the recording and performing artist Mazbou Q. Since then, one of the main challenges for me was to be able to leverage the new, fast growing ‘Rap Scientist’ branding to shine a spotlight on myself as an artist. By producing and releasing tracks highlighting the many rap flow techniques I teach on my social media channels whilst remaining authentic in their sound and message, I’ve been able to create on-brand content around my music and bring the two brands together.
THE SUM OF UNFINISHED BUSINESSES
Album, 2023
This album captures the essence of my pathway as a creative from childhood, which on reflection was characterised by a number of seemingly unrelated phases of interest and passion. Each of these ‘unfinished businesses’ were, for a time, pursued with the tenacity and vigor of career pathways; music production and engineering, powerlifting and strength science, computer engineering and programming, philosophy and theology, and social activism, to name a few. Not to mention the various genres of music outside of Hip hop I dabbled in (metal, classical, afrofunk, pop, cinematic/score, etc), as well as the many ways I expressed myself musically (orchestra, jazz bands, punk and metal bands, cover bands, etc). It all felt like a fractured, piecewise existence, and perhaps looked to those on the outside that I lacked focus and direction. This collection of songs is me reckoning with the many facets of what makes me me, and how they all worked together to bring me precisely to where I am now. This is perhaps best summed up by the third single off the album, ‘Now I’m Whole’
Is there a current project you’re diving into that’s lighting you up? What makes it special for you?
The aforementioned RAP SCIENCE song series, for reasons outlined above. But also, it affords me the opportunity to push boundaries within the genre of rap and do things that literally no one else is doing. To my knowledge, no one else is rapping in ⅞ over the 12/8 beats they made, or rapping in swung duplets on 9/8 beats, in a way that’s still palatable to the non-trained ear.
For someone eager to step into the world of music production, what’s the most crucial tip you’d offer?
There’s value in imitation. The art of reverse engineering and re-producing existing works is, in my experience, one of the most powerful ways to quickly gain an understanding of the broad range of skills and concepts required to produce music. By listening carefully and paying attention to all the different elements present in a song and trying to replicate them, you’ll inevitably learn aural skills, instrumentation, sampling, layering, arrangement and sound design/selection among many things, and be forced to figure out your way around the software in the process.
Interestingly enough, this concept is intuitively recognised when learning instruments - for example, one of the first things you do when picking up guitar is learning how to play Stairway to Heaven, or on drums you might learn how to play Chop Suey. It shouldn’t be any different when it comes to producing music on a DAW - pick a song and learn to reproduce it!
Which artists or bands are on your playlist these days, and who do you credit as shaping your sound the most?
M.anifest and Kojey Radical are currently my most played. Swindle has been an influence on me production wise.
What do you find most inspiring about the music production scene in Aotearoa?
We aren’t afraid to ‘punch above our weight’, so to speak. It’s always inspiring to hear of folks who have landed production credits on huge international songs, working in their corner of their bedroom in a small town of little ol’ Aotearoa.
What are your favourite plugins at the moment?
Pro-Q3 by Fabfilter, Sie-Q by Soundtoys and Metropolis Ark 4 by Orchestral Tools, Trash 2 by Izotyope
What are your favourite useful audio sites? - e.g. Acestudio, Splice etc.
Splice!
Where can people go to find out more about you and your work?
Instagram & TT - @mazbouq
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/mazbouq
Spotify - Mazbou Q
Website - https://www.mazbouq.com