I went from pushing carts at Walmart to Billboard charts and working on Kanye’s “Wash us In The Blood” – A.G
Sampling has always been an essential part of hip-hop music. In recent years, it’s become a common technique for producers to create original sounds that can be sampled as a melodic basis for the track. This has spawned thousands of producers who focus mainly on creating and sending out these samples in hopes of securing a major placement.
Enter 29-year-old producer Aaron Gomez, better known as A.G., who has managed to stand out in this crowded space by crafting his sound for the past 10 years. Hailing from South Texas, A.G. was first inspired to create music after hearing Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreaks. The album convinced him to buy a used MPC-500 and learn how to sample records. He started taking things seriously around 2014 when he began attending various beat battles and producer workshops.
He’s since gone on to produce multiple songs for Logic, and he recently secured a writing credit on Kanye’s latest single “Wash Us In The Blood” featuring Travis Scott. A.G. provided the song’s sample, which was cleared the day before the track came out. He received a writing credit, but his official production credit is still on the way, although the song’s other producers—like Boogz and FnZ—were sure to credit him on their social media accounts when the song dropped.
In a phone interview with Genius, A.G. discussed the evolution of his sound, how he ended up on a Kanye song, and his plans for the future.
co-produced by A.G. 🙏🏽🌊 https://t.co/a4awL1ouzV
— A.G. (@Its_A_G_) June 30, 2020
When I got the “Keanu Reeves” placement with Logic, that was like the big one that kinda changed everything for me and helped me put food on the table. That was a surprise too, crazy how that came together.
I started making samples in late 2017. I started working with this company called Soul Surplus. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for those brothers. They helped me get my foot in the door with The Drum Broker and set me up for success. I have a series of sample packs called “The A.G. Wavy Sample Pack Series.” That’s where I linked up with 6ix who helped me get the Logic placements, that’s where the Kanye placement came from too.
My very first Logic placement was “Yuck” on Bobby Tarantino 2. That was when I first linked up with 6ix. He reached out and told me to send him more stuff, so I sent him everything I had at the time. That’s how “Keanu Reeves” and “Momma / Show Love” came about.
When asked “With Kanye’s “Wash Us In The Blood,” did you know you were working on that when you made the idea?” A.G replied –
I had no clue at all. I mean, I had the smallest idea in the back of my head only because I did link up with BoogzDaBeast, which is his producer. I linked up with him a couple of months ago through Instagram. He asked me to send him some stuff, so I sent him all my sample packs. I didn’t hear anything back, so I just figured maybe it didn’t work out.
Then he just hits me up the night before like, “Ay, what’s your number?” He calls me up, tells me the deal like, “Yo, we got one with Kanye, Travis is on it.” I’m like, “Yo, what?” It just came out of nowhere. I was the last one to know. It was such a crazy surprise, especially after the year that I’ve been having personally, it’s pretty crazy.
Do you remember much about making that sample in particular?
A.G.: Not necessarily. To be honest, I went back recently because I had to send him the stems. I was looking at the project, and I was just like man, the stuff I was doing back then is so different now [compared] to my whole process [now]. I’m always trying to change it, but it was just cool to go back and see what I was doing back then.
Back then, what was the sound you were going for compared to now?
A.G.: I remember I was messing a lot with distortion and saturation. I was trying to see how far I could push audio without really clipping it too ugly and making it sound bad. I was messing with the tones of distortion. That’s pretty much what you hear in the song, like the way they sampled it, they sped up one half then they slowed it down to halftime to where it sounds like that siren in the song. It’s the same sample, but they’re just speeding it up and slowing it down. I love the way they flipped it. Most guys just take my samples and just throw it on the project and loop it, but they really sampled it, which is cool.
That must be cool, to hear something that you worked on be changed up into a different vibe.
A.G.: Yeah, it’s amazing because that was my whole intention with the sample packs. Real producers know that I’ve been one of the game’s best-kept secrets for a little while, like one of those situations where I’m probably one of your favorite sample maker’s favorite sample makers kind of thing. But I mean, I’m not going to be a secret now. It’s been amazing to know that somewhere on a computer, Dr. Dre was like trying to mix my distortion.
What does that feel like to know Dr. Dre had a hand in this track?
A.G.: I mean, I still can’t put it into words, it’s indescribable. The fact that Kanye was the reason I even started making music. The fact that I’ve always wanted to work with or do something close to working with Dr. Dre, and I’ve wanted to work with Travis for a while too. So to have them all like on one song, it’s insane.
Read the full interview piece here: https://genius.com/a/interview-a-g-on-producing-kanye-west-s-wash-us-in-blood-featuring-travis-scott
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