The Making Of Drake's "Passionfruit" With Nana Rogues | Deconstructed

The vibe is weird. Every time I explain to people, people look at me funny. So basically, when I made the beat I was thinking of clouds. Like clouds in a jungle filled full of love. But not love from a girl. Love from life, and appreciation just a nice fluffy, bouncy. Do you hear it? If you hear the beat, you’re gonna hear it again and be like, “Okay. He’s not a madman.” I first got into producing in secondary school, which is high school. When I was like 13, 14, we would do music technology classes music classes, and I'll just be there in there. As a hobby, just making beats. I didn’t know I wanted to do music there and then, or be a producer there and then but I knew I wanted to do music I should say. I was very fortunate actually. My mom’s musical palette was crazy. She listened to Bob Marley, Kenny Rogers, Carpenters, African guy names Daddy Lumba. Then you get the Michael Jacksons, Stevie Wonders. All of those in the household every Sunday morning. It just comes out in the music. Yeah. So I really have to thank her to be honest. She’s the plug. When I was making the beat, it was just a vibe. To be fair, when I was making the beat, I did think of Drake but it was one of those ones when you're a producer, you make the beat. You think, who am I gonna get on it? He was one of the guys but I didn't make it for him. After the BRIT Awards show last year, Drake came to the Section Boyz show in Shoreditch. And that's where it started. So I was introduced to Drake. I sent music to Drake, but I didn't know it was Passionfruit until close to the release date. It’s crazy, because I had no idea. And then bam, it just comes. So the intro on “Passionfruit” had nothing to do with me. That's all Drake's and his people's genius. All the Zoë Kravitz stuff, the Moodymann, they're geniuses. Whatever they add to a song is gonna work. So, for “Passionfruit” I started with the keys. I don't necessarily always start with the keys. It changes depending on how I feel, but in this one I started with the keys. I'll play it here. This is a NN-XT in Reason. I like these keys because they are not the conventional electric keys but they sound really smooth. When I lay down the keys I was thinking, it needs more movement. So I added a house bassline. Nice little pattern here. It’s like a obvious house sound that a lot of house legends have used. I layered it as well with a high one. So I had all of these elements in the song. And I was thinking it’s missing something. This is a pad I actually made myself. Everything added together. So it just sounds nice. It's got body now. It's kind of big now. Added some hi-hats. Pretty simple groove. There’s a shaker in there as well. I like to use these disco hi-hats when I'm making funky dance songs 'cause it gives it more of a live feeling. Nice, soft 80s kick. I thought the drums needed some movement, just something little, so I added the little percussion. Then I added the snares, and all the other drums as well. A lot of disco music, a lot of funk music always have the claps and the little snare fills in every eight or four bars. I thought I'd add some myself. I added this vocal chop. Pretty simple. There's a breakdown in the track where I added a moody piano. I thought the piano was very moody. It needs more of a nicer sound to it. Then, I came with the iconic flute. This flute is a NN-XT flute. I added distortion on there and also a reverb on there. As you can see in the key roll I pitch-bended some of the notes. And all together it sounds like this. With everything playing together it also adds to the whole jungle. The clouds thing I was talking about. Then that's basically like, apart from arranging, that's basically the basics of the track. I’ll play you what I was going to add in there. You guys are the first people to hear this version actually. When I finished this beat, I knew this was a good beat because I have a thing where I would listen to beats over and over again when I really like it and this is one of them. So I knew it would be a big beat I just didn't know how big or who would use it. And then by the grace of God it became what it became.

Channel: Genius

Views: 2,474,527

Rating: 4.9822197 out of 5

Keywords: genius, rap genius, verified, official lyrics, lyrics, lyric video, Lyric videos, pop music, hip hop, rap, new pop music, passionfruit, passionfruit beat, drake, drake vevo, more life ep, more life playlist, nana rogues, nana rogues producer, BRIT awards, section boyz, zoe kravitz, moodymann, drake type beat, drake beat, more life beat, drake passionfruit lyrics, passionfruit lyrics drake, passionfruit drake, drake passionfruit, passionfruit lyrics, new drake, tinie tempah

Id: cgS8eocf4DQ

Length: 6min 44sec (404 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/hmaster1332]

That beat is so wet

[u/Eradomsk]

One of my favourite beats of the year. Just evokes a feeling. This guy's def got something.

[u/[deleted]]

I really love the videos that aren't just a loop or sample layered over some drums. Not being a hater, but I find some of these deconstructed videos bit underwhelming. Shoutout to the "No problem" and "Redbone" video!

[u/mxe4334]

where can i listen to more of this dude his voice crazy spiritual damn

[u/DhruvM]

That intro scene with the cloud and palm trees had me in my feels REAL QUICK

[u/57809]

this guy has some sort of charm to him, its soothing just to listen to him talking

[u/[deleted]]

this guy's voice is so damn relaxing

[u/Besterthenyou]

This is probably the most cinematic episode in the series

[u/crushtheweek]

Reason definitely has its own sound. The distortion on there is so nice and the mixer really makes shit sound warmer than logic or ableton.