Sparky: How did this all start for you? When did you know you wanted to become a producer?

Zubin: I knew I wanted to become a producer not too long after I started listening to hip-hop music. The first artist I started listening to was Lil Wayne – I discovered him through his song “Lollipop” in fifth grade. Since then, I’ve become a superfan of hip-hop. Me and my boys in middle school would follow the producers just as much as the rappers. I was listening to beats from guys like Lex Luger, Zaytoven, 808 Mafia, Southside. That inspired me a lot. I was a drummer at the time, but when I went to college, I really stepped into making beats and production. My background in drumming definitely helped with that, and also following these hip-hop producers over the course of the years definitely inspired me to take that step into production.

Sparky: What other artists did you grow up listening to, other than Wayne?

Zubin: He was the biggest one, but also Akon, T-Pain, Meek Mill and Rick Ross – the whole MMG gang, Roscoe Dash, Drake of course. The number one most influential group for me is Young Money. Of course there’s Wayne, but then you’ve got Drake, Nicki, Tyga. Those were the guys I was really listening to in my youth.

Sparky: That’s pretty cool because you also blend a lot of newer and older sounds when it comes to your production. What newer artists inspire you to make the type of beats you’re making now?

Zubin: It depends on what genre you’re talking about. I make stuff for the underground, but I also make afro-beats type of waves. In terms of the underground right now – or the newer sound of hip hop which I wouldn’t even call underground any more – I’d say my favorites are Destroy Lonely and Yeat. They’re probably the biggest for me.

Sparky: I want to get into your new solo tape, but I know this isn’t your first time doing a full-length – you have When Disaster Strikes as well. How did that project come about, and how did you get in touch with Lightshow?

Zubin: There’s really two main ways I work with artists. One is executive producing a project for them, and the other is putting together my own compilation tapes. When Disaster Strikes was the first project I got under my belt, which I executive produced for Lightshow. I had just graduated college at the time and was looking for my first big project to take on. I went to school at University of Maryland. Me and my manager Pete were trying to figure out who the right artist would be to get in touch with and pitch the vision to. He put me in the studio with Lightshow. I had played him a couple beats, and he took one home and really liked it. Next time we linked up he told me he’d written a whole song for it. He showed me on the spot what he had done, and I said: “Hey, let’s see what we can really do with this. I want to build a new sound for you.”

At this point, it was ‘19-’20. Lightshow had been an OG in the D.C. rap scene for a minute, he’d been rapping for like a decade. He was rapping with Wale, Shy Glizzy and a lot of other big guys that came out of D.C. I was like; “Listen, I know your catalog. I see a vision for you in evolving your sound, so give me the chance to let me work on this project with you and let’s see what we can do.” He trusted me. I played him a couple of the beats and he saw the vision. We locked in the studio for a month, and the goal was a seven-song tape. We put ourselves up to the test to see what we come up with. I spent that whole month tracklisting beats, changing keys and making all the puzzle pieces fit together to create a fully cohesive melodic rap album that would hit like nothing he’s ever put out before. That’s how the first project came together.

Sparky: When it comes to executive producing a project, how much of a hand do you have in the writing process? If there’s something you want to change, how do you express that to them?

Zubin: I’m really honest with the artists I work with. If I feel like I have an idea for how something could be better, I’ll say it. That’s one of the things I learned early on – not being afraid to share my opinions and learning how to do it in a constructive way, where the artist is receptive to it. Talking about When Disaster Strikes, the second song on there is called “Zoom.” It was a beat I really wanted Lightshow on; I had a vision for it. When I played it for him in the studio, he knew how I felt about it, but he was having trouble finding a flow. I paused it and I said; “Hey, let me freestyle these four bars for you that I just thought of, to show you what I’m thinking for the flow.” I showed him and the room kind of went silent for a second, and all his homeboys were laughing. I was just showing the flow though, and he was f***ing with it. He saw where I was going, and it inspired the rest of the song. After that he went into the booth and knocked out the whole thing. I think that story is a good representation of the lyrical input that I have. I don’t necessarily write full songs, but I will do what I need to do to elevate what the artist is working on. It might be feedback on a metaphor they dropped in the lyrics, or a whole structure for the lyrics. It could be anything in between. It’s very situational, but when it comes to lyrical writing, that’s how I think about it.

Sparky: That’s really cool! A lot of producers wouldn’t have the confidence to do something like that, so the fact you’re so involved shows just how passionate you are about getting your vision out.

Zubin: Definitely. I think that’s something that helps me as an executive producer – just not being afraid to share my opinions with artists to help curate the music or the art. Sometimes that can be intimidating, but I’ve never really been afraid to do that and it’s taken me farther in my creative relationships with the people I’m working with. They see I’m not afraid to share my vision and I’m coming from a standpoint of how I think they could be better, or how we can elevate the art.

Sparky: Let’s get into SAVE ME. Where did the first idea come from to curate your own project like that? Start from the beginning.

Zubin: It’s been something I’ve wanted to do my entire life. Since I’ve dipped my toe in the music industry I’ve wanted to be an artist, I wanted to be a curator, and I wanted to be able to freely express my artistic vision. Being someone that followed producers throughout all of hip hop, I wanted to do it just like Metro, or DJ Khaled. That was the vision I had the second I walked into the industry. I didn’t know a thing about labels, sending out beats, A&Rs. But, I knew I had a vision for what I would consider in my mind, perfect music – and how I wanted to execute that. It’s been a vision I’ve had for the last 10 years. I’ve been actively producing and putting together SAVE ME since I launched my production company in 2019 – also when I graduated college. I really just started by hustling. Putting beats together, reaching out to artists, building relationships, and putting the songs together one by one.

Sparky: I think some of the collabs on the project are really interesting. Do you have to ask each artist for permission like; “Hey, are you cool with being on a song with this person?” or are you just grabbing verses and curating them as you please?

Zubin: I’m mostly doing it on my own, but smartly. I’m not going to pair two artists who don’t make sense or that have beef with each other. I’m always going to do it in a way where they creatively make sense, but I don’t like pairing artists together that you’d expect to see on each other’s albums. I want to be curating unique collaborations – something that I’m in the position to do as an executive producer who has relationships with all these artists from different corners of the industry. It's like; “Oh, this is not a typical collab you’d see. But you’re going to get it from Zubin because he can.” When it comes to the collaborations I put together on my records, a lot of it boils down to what my vision is for it. I don’t overly look at anyone for feedback or acceptance of the ideas.

Sparky: How important is it for you to put on smaller artists with the bigger ones on the tracks? I know there’s some with Yung Manny and Coi Leray, or Barburrian and Yung Bans. Are you actively trying to put these artists on with bigger names or are you just going with what’s best for the song?

Zubin: A little bit of both. Sometimes, there might be an artist I want to develop, so if I can pair them with a bigger name it’ll help their career. Other times it just boils down to the sonics. I don’t care too much about “clout,” or this and that. Good music is good music, and you can make it whether you’ve been in the game for 20 years or you just entered the game yesterday. Coi Leray and Yung Manny was the first song where I thought: “This is the vision I have, I can see them together, and it gave me a super youthful vibe and energy.” It reminded me a lot of Mindless Behavior, and I knew I wanted them on an uptempo, upbeat kind of record. I remember being so excited about that happening because that was the first song where I knew I wouldn’t fold on the vision and take it all the way through.

Sparky: Manny is so fire. The song I come back to the most is “My J’s”, it’s been stuck in my head everyday since I’ve listened to it.

Zubin: Yo, that’s tight! “My J’s” was the first song I really made on the project, and it’s the only one I actually started in college. I made that beat in my dorm room – I actually met Manny there. In my dorm, what I did was I emptied everything out and went to IKEA. I got a loft bed, and built a studio underneath it. I used to have artists pull up and record. That’s kind of how I learned how to produce and engineer. Manny was one of the first artists that pulled up to the studio, he was like 14 at the time. His friend/day-to-day manager at the time was best friends with my roommate, so he saw me all the time hustling and making beats. He was like; “Hey, I gotta’ introduce you to someone.” He brought Manny through, and that’s where I played him the beat for “My J’s.” A couple months later we ended up linking and recording the song. That was actually a collab with BNYX too.

Sparky: Do you have a specific song on the project that you think is going to withstand the test of time? One that you’ll look back on in a few years and think; “That was the one.”

Zubin: “All Types” with Lancey. I really love that song. After I discovered him I had a vision for this record that I wanted to put together with him. I made one beat, sent it to him and he hopped on it. Then we put together the guitar solo on the outro. I just really love the production work I did on that. Some of the stuff I make I love, but then I make something I love more. “All Types” is one of those ones where I think it’s forever going to be one of my favorites. That and the outro, “Outstanding.” It’s more of a sleeper, but I love the production work I did on that too. Lightshow being the first artist I ever executive produced for, and Raheem DeVaughn is a super fire R&B artist – both from the DMV. Raheem was one of those go-to guys for hooks back in the day, he would always make the song catchy. He’s been on a lot of GOATted records with a lot of GOATed artists like Outkast, T-Pain, etc. There were Raheem DeVaughn records I was listening to in fifth grade, so to have him on my first project is pretty dope.

Sparky: Let’s talk about your current trip to India. How has it affected you not only as a musician, but personally?

Zubin: Both my parents were born in India, but this is the first time I’ve come here since I was really young. I’m here for two weeks, and I’m spending a lot of time with family and friends while absorbing myself in the culture. Ultimately, a lot of this is because I have a goal for my career, to use the music and art I create to shed light on my cultural background. Something I’m working on right now is creating records that take Bollywood influence, and bring it over to America.

Growing up, I watched a lot of Indian movies, and for the last 20-25 years India has been taking American hip hop and blending it with their art – but I’ve never seen an artist take Bollywood culture and blend it with America. One of my goals is to be the producer leading that new sound. I can feel it in my bones that this is the perfect time to do it, and this is an idea that has been in the back of my mind for years now. I can see trends in culture right now of Indian-Americans gaining their recognition in their respective fields of art, so I thought this was the perfect time to step into the scene and bring that vision to light. While I’m here in India I’ve been meeting artists, meeting instrumentalists, checking out studios, coming up with music video ideas. Even the culture, the food, the sight-seeing – I’m just a sponge right now, soaking it in, so I can come back here later this year and really lock in to make some art.

I know there are a lot of other kids out there who come from similar backgrounds, or a similar type of family, that get preached that they need to be a doctor or a lawyer, or go to school and do this or that. Maybe they want to do something else, but it’s never pushed on them or encouraged. I hope I can be a role model to those types of kids by showing them, “Hey, don’t be afraid to step out and do something different.” If you really believe in yourself and put your head down you can make it work. No idea is too crazy or too big, it’s just about being patient and consistent – working through the grind of making it real. Ultimately, that is what I want one of the tangible things from my career to be – to have that audience be able to look at me and say “That was inspirational” or “That was motivating.” I want to go against the status-quo and make something different.

Sparky: Peter was telling me about this new song you have coming out with a Brazilian artist, Matt OX, Jace! and Bear1Boss. Tell me a bit about how that came about?

Zubin: It’s actually crazy. I was trying to get in the studio with JELEEL! in Philly. We go back a couple years. I met him when we were both in school at a party, and we connected. This was early on, he had 100 monthly Spotify listeners at the time. I remember thinking he was going to make it – he was doing the backflips and the shirt ripping way before the blow up. I saw his charisma and knew it was going to take him far. He was doing a tour in Philly, and I stay there a lot – so I hit him up and said; “Hey, let’s link after the show.” We linked backstage and I had the studio ready to go. I was trying to get him to record something, hopefully for the project. But you know he’s crazy at the shows with the flips and stuff, and if he’s not at 110% he can’t record. I called my boy Logan who set up the studio for me.

I said; “I’ll holler at you another time. JELEEL’s! not free right now but I’ll come checkout the space when I have an artist who’s ready to record.” He said he’d call me back in a minute to see what Matt (Matt OX) was up to. He told me Matt was down to work, and to link at the studio in 30. I pulled up and linked with them, and we just got to work. The vibes were crazy, and Matt was honestly a super genuine dude. We recorded two songs. One of them is on the project, called “On My Way”, and the second one is the next single I’m about to drop called “They Ain’t Ready”. Then I’ve got the NANA twins on there, from Brazil. They’re kind of like the Rae Sremmurd of Brazil.

The reason I put them on there is because I wanted to make it an international-style collab. That’s the theme I’m working on for the deluxe version. I want to add 3 internationally themed songs to it to add a global element. I’m starting with this Brazilian one, and I just executive produced an album in Brazil. I met the twins through that, and I wanted to see how they sounded on the beat. I added a little Brazilian twist on the beat with some of the rhythms. It sounded hard, and it felt like a cypher to me, so I wanted to stack it up with as many artists as I could. Jace! hopped on it, Bear1 hopped on it, and that’s how that came to be.

Sparky: I’m such a fan of Bear1, so I’m excited to hear that. I’m also excited for your deluxe man!

Zubin: Yeah! I want there to be an afro-beats song, the Brazilian song, then one Bollywood-influenced song. That’s the vision for it, but I’m still putting everything together.

Sparky: Other than the deluxe, what can we expect from you in 2024?

Zubin: Pressure and hustle. I am working on the deluxe, but I’ve also started working on my next compilation project. I’m looking for new artists to pick up from the ground and executive produce. I don’t want to say too much, I like to be a little mysterious – but the deluxe is definitely the big thing. After that, you’ll just have to see.