Straight outta high school & into the studio; Wondagurl is the 18 year old producer from the 6 who has had the opportunity to work with Drake, Jay-Z, & even Rihanna.
I’m a big fan of buying hard copy albums. Buying a digital copy is great too but you skip out on so much when you just buy the digital album.
You skip out on the message.
You skip out on the visual art.
You skip out on the personal part of the project.
You pretty much skip out on the whole essence of the album.
Not to mention that you skip out on all the other incredible artists that worked hard to put the album together.
I was having a pretty shitty day with a long, lonely drive ahead of me. I knew I needed something to just cool me off & turn my day around. In that moment I remembered I hadn’t gotten the hard copy of Rodeo yet so I decided to stop at Best Buy before my long drive.
I bought the album, went straight to my car, & started my drive. It wasn’t my first time listening to Rodeo but I don’t know, it just sounded really different on that drive. During that time I was also able to determine which tracks really stuck out to me.
90210 & Oh My Dis Side easily became my favorites on the album. They’re hypnotic pieces that have beat shifts within the tracks that help develop the melody & really translate the story. These two tracks even got quite the approval from Anthony Fantano himself. Naturally, I wanted to know who was responsible for creating these melodies so I opened up the book inside the album to figure out the brain behind the beat.
When I got to the credits for 90210, an unfamiliar name stuck out to me. That name was WondaGurl.
WondaGurl? A female? Really? Truthfully there aren’t a lot of female producers out there, especially in the world of Hip Hop. I was surprised to see a girl holding it down but more than anything I was pumped. I took my curiosity to the internet & started to research.
Most producers start out small. A beginning producer could only hope to make it on a successful mixtape before making it on a successful album. However, at just 16 years old, Ebony “WondaGurl” Oshunrinde had managed to make it to the big leagues by appearing on Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail. WondaGurl had produced the track that would later be titled Crown. If that isn’t impressive enough, it was only the beginning for WondaGurl. Now, at 18 years old, she has credits to tracks that belong to Drake, Travi$ Scott, Rihanna, Young Thug, & SZA.
She actually sent the beat of Used To, to Drake via Instagram DMs. Knowing that, I decided to DM her on Instagram in hopes of getting an interview. I pretty much tried reaching out to her anyway I could. It was about a week before I finally got a response from her on Snapchat.
She said no.
So here I am, writing an article about her with no interview. No hard feelings though. She seems like a bit of an introvert & is probably super busy. However just in the middle of writing this article, she happened to do a Q & A on her Snapchat so I will share that below for those who missed it.
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What’s your favorite cereal? Frosted Flakes & Froot Loops.
What’s your favorite beat you’ve produced? Uptown by Travi$ Scott.
Are you gonna do anything with Kanye soon? I don’t know yet.
What’s your favorite VST? Omnisphere is my favorite VST. Omnisphere 2 is very good as well. I also like FabFilter. All the FabFilter plug-ins are really good actually.
Where do you get your samples from? I get my samples from kits & stuff. & YouTube.
Do you critique beats? Yes actually, I do. I’ll give you some emails soon y’all. (submit@wondagurl.com)
Do you know how to flip your eyelids? Absolutely not because that is gross.
Who’s your favorite person to work in the studio with & why? Um, I really enjoy working with myself actually. Not to sound selfish or anything.
How do you get Omnisphere for free? You don’t get Omnisphere for free guys. You go to the store & you buy it.
Are we gonna hear any beats from you soon? Yes actually. I’ve just been trying to get better ya know.
Not trying to sound like a perv or anything but, do you twerk? No, you perv.
Who’s your favorite artist at the moment? I actually don’t have one. No one excites me anymore.
What was your first major placement? My first major placement was the Jay-Z track.
What’s your favorite compressor? To be honest I’m still trying to figure out what a compressor does.
Do you mess with The Weeknd? Yes.
What’s your favorite album? I really like Take Care by Drake.
Would you ever work with Young Thug? Yeah actually I like Young Thug, he’s good. I’ve worked with him.
How do you get your 808s & kicks so hard? I don’t know.
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I’m super excited for WondaGurl & all that she’s accomplished thus far. It was very important to me that I took the time to highlight her because I truly believe in her as a person & as an artist. She is definitely someone that you need to keep an eye out for. As she continues to climb I know that she will inspire so many young producers that wish to succeed in this field — male or female.
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WONDAGURL: Instagram | Twitter | SoundCloud |
Featured image courtesy of genius.com.