What Goes into Making a Hit Record?
When you’re in your 15th year of producing like I am, you get more experimental.
Artist Ramii (he also goes by Rami Beatz) is a producer and beat maker originally from Cleveland, Ohio. His career has taken a steady climb up, from working with local talent through to his relocation to LA and involvement with a growing cadre of rap and R&B artists. He’s been part of many huge hits for artists like Kid Cudi, Machine Gun Kelly, Big Sean and others, and is branching out to find new talent that he can help craft their sound and drive their success. He’s an avid user of all the Spectrasonics virtual instruments, and recently sat down to have a chat with us.
From The Beginning
Starting out making beats when he was in high school in Cleveland, he quickly progressed to working with a local artist named Chip tha Ripper (also known as King Chip), and they developed a big following with their mixtapes. Chip connected with Kid Cudi and they started working together, providing Ramii a more global audience for his production work.
“Chip was really popping in our city. When he was on his way up we met Kid Cudi, and he was really popping in Europe at the time. He had Day ‘N’ Nite out, which was huge in Europe, but he wasn’t very well known here in the US yet. He came over my house in 2008 and we did some songs together (the three of us), and we clicked. Our relationship built from there. Sometimes I’ll add some stuff to a tune they’re working on, sometimes we’ll make a beat together and he’ll give it to Cudi. I got to work even more with him through my friend Dot da Genius, who produces all the Cudi stuff.”
From that relationship Ramii started branching out, working with Big Sean and then Machine Gun Kelly. “Big Sean is from Detroit, which is close to Cleveland, so while Chip had his buzz going he and Sean did some songs together, which I produced for them. Machine Gun Kelly is also from Cleveland, and while Chip was really doing well, and Cudi was starting to blow up, MGK was still on the come up. He was growing quickly, though. He came over to my house and showed me footage of some of his shows in cities like Erie PA and other nearby places, and it was clear that he had a large and growing fan base. I was blown away by the footage and his success, but it made sense to me. He was one of the first rappers to do video blogs, where he would document every aspect of his life, and that helped him to build a really organic fan base. I’m impressed and proud of him for that; he’s really blown up huge but he’s still a real-ass dude and an authentic guy. Fame didn’t change him one bit. He’s the first artist, when I would play him beats he was like, ‘Next, next, next beat’ — he knew what he wanted and didn’t stroke me. When he found something he liked he stopped me and said, ‘That one!’ I liked that he was picky and knew what he wanted.”
So all my connections happened organically through the work, and it all stemmed from Chip.
Move West
While he was having plenty of success working out of Cleveland, Ramii knew he had to relocate to start chasing real success as a producer. Los Angeles was an obvious choice, so he picked up and moved there, couch surfing and getting by as he connected with his new town.
He relates, “I moved to LA around nine years ago. I had done almost all there was to do in Cleveland. I thought I was good, and it was going to be go time! I was 25 years old; maybe my success had made me a little cocky. Then I heard what was going on in LA, and when I heard other people’s beats I realized I still had a long way to go. There was still so much more to learn. But I moved to California to create more opportunity, to meet more people, and now I realized to also get better at my craft.”
He eventually was able to rent a small storefront in West Hollywood and he set up shop as a studio and worked on his craft tirelessly. It was common for him to work 10-12 hours a day and he kept that up for over two years, honing and improving his skills. And that time paid off for him: he has connected with a lot of producers and artists and keeps up a busy schedule. Hits he’s been involved in include:
Loving Me: Kid Cudi feat. Phoebe Bridgers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGJc9c3WLJM
The Pale Moonlight: Kid Cudi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCnqE10nY5s
Hollywood Whore: Machine Gun Kelly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDVBwbizn9E
Habits: Machine Gun Kelly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXmBbhGbeo8
Experimental: Big Sean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAulCOzhwfQ
Midnight Children: Ramii
https://open.spotify.com/track/14u4jgZx96D1RCOqklmUjG?si=1dc49a816d8145ce
The Light: Ramii, Ashon the 7th Sun
https://open.spotify.com/track/2JQYWv2eXDfYw98YluElo0?si=fee7a3ccf6c1465b
Lessons Learned
You never know what song is going to be a hit, and often it comes from artists who aren’t well known at all. You can’t predict it. So I always tell aspiring producers to work with everyone and just do your best. The rest will just play out.
So much of Ramii’s success has come from working with an artist/producer who then introduces him to other people, and through those connections he’s built a solid career. He offers this advice: “I’ve learned that the key to developing your career is that it’s really a long shot to get to the artist directly, so you need to build relationships with the people that are producing them. Until you build your name up to like a Murda Beatz or Hit-Boy, where people are seeking you, you need to grow your skill sets and get to know those people. Networking is really important.”
Ramii has been part of many hundred-million-play tunes, and now he is setting his sights on breaking into the really big numbers. He is getting ready to sign his first publishing deal, and is always on the lookout for new talent. He shares an important lesson he has learned after all the time he has put in: “I want to say that you can be a producer without that level of success: it’s all about timing, and everybody’s timing is different. That’s why I don’t overlook anybody. You might not have those big songs yet, but you could be great and be the next thing up. You just need to keep working hard and working smart and your time will come. I started with guys before they broke big so I’ve seen it happen. And I’ve met some people who I just brushed off as ‘just another rapper, whatever’ and then they blew up, so you never know.”
Tools Of The Trade
“Omnisphere, Keyscape and Trilian are ‘go-tos’ in the music production game. And everybody knows it, it’s no secret.”
Ramii has been a long-time user of all of the Spectrasonics titles. “Keyscape is my go-to piano — it’s so rich sounding. I like a lot of the sounds in Keyscape Creative. People don’t realize how important these organic keyboard sounds are, they just want to use synths. But those classic sounds are the foundation of so much music.”
I use plug-in instruments and effects, but it’s not just finding the right preset — I edit and do a lot of sound design to shape my work. In Omnisphere I use the rating system in the browser to help organize my sounds. I know it seems like a simple thing but it’s an important tool. And the Sound Match feature, where you can pick a sound and then find others that sound like it – that’s just brilliant!”
“I’ve had Trilian for a long time, but I kind of forgot how dope it was until I was recently at a friend’s studio, he’s a real A-list producer, and I was listening to a track and asked him, ‘Where did you get that bass sound from?’ And I was thinking it was a Minimoog or something, and he said, ‘Nah, it’s Trilian.’ And that’s the goal, to sound like a real instrument. That told me I needed to go back and spend some more time with Trilian as well. Omnisphere, Keyscape, and Trilian are ‘go-tos’ in the music production game. And everybody knows it, it’s no secret.”
During the course of the interview Ramii asked a lot of questions about deeper features of Omnisphere, and he’s already made plans to meet with ILIO’s team and get some lessons on how to go even further in his integration of it into his productions.
A Surprise Diversion
During the last year so many people’s careers were put on hold, and it seems like it was a time to hole up and just work on your craft. But for Ramii, it provided a surprising opportunity that brought him into the spotlight in a big way. He was contacted by The Red Bull Academy to appear on a new TV show they were creating called The Cut, where aspiring artists and producers were paired up and had to create a tune in under ten hours. At first, when he got an email contact he just assumed it was spam and ignored it. Then he got a phone call outlining what was required, and still was highly suspicious. “I was like, ‘yeah I ain’t doing no TV show, I’m good,’” Ramii recalls, laughing. On his friend’s advice he relented and sent in a video, and he was immediately accepted.
Paired with a singer named Desta Dawn, Ramii had precious little time to get to know his partner and find a direction for their first tune. They shared some music that was influential to their styles and quickly found some common ground: neo-soul artists like D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, and 90’s R&B music. This gave them a place to work from and they went to work. He remembers, “It took some time to vibe. Desta was picky, which I’m glad about. She pushed me. She wanted something musical and soulful. I hadn't made anything like that in a while, even though I'm capable of doing it. I was making a lot of rap beats at the time," Ramii explains. "Once we got the foundation down, it became easy.”1
Suffice it to say, the duo hit it off well, and went on to win the competition. You can check out their two tunes Make You Mine, and All That I Need.
Final Thoughts
We asked Ramii: What would you be doing if you weren’t a musician?
“That’s a tough question… what would YOU be doing (laughs)? I don’t know how to answer that, but I will say that to me, the secret to life is doing what you love, and then figuring out how to support yourself that way. It’s really difficult to be self-employed, and it took me many, many years before I was able to do it, but that’s the goal. If you’re going to be broke, as long as you’re creating I don’t care, because eventually you’re going to be making money off that work. It takes a lot of self-discipline: you need to be motivated and put in the time. Sitting at home it’s easy to just play video games, check your messages etc. but you’ve got to put that stuff away and get to work!
Learn more about Ramii and hear all of his music at:
https://genius.com/artists/Rami-beatz
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Vj7hPzQFzzm3Kh0i0O1ip
1 https://www.redbull.com/us-en/the-cut-us-winners-ramii-desta-interview
Written by Jerry Kovarsky
Jerry Kovarsky is a music industry veteran who has worked as a product/brand manager, marketing director, product developer and demonstrator for Korg, Ensoniq and Casio over a 30-plus year career. An accomplished keyboardist/synthesist, Jerry has been a passionate advocate for making music with keyboards and likes to live at the intersection of technology and art. He is the author of Keyboard For Dummies, and writes a long-running monthly column on synth soloing in Electronic Musician Magazine, as well as monthly blog columns on keyboard musicianship for Yamaha and Modal Electronics.
