How does a 16-year-old girl from Ontario, Canada go from relative obscurity to producing a track on Jay-Z‘s Magna Carta Holy Grail? Well, luckily for Ebony Oshunrinde aka Wondagurl, she has a great ear for dancehall samples and a pretty cool relationship with G.O.O.D. Music and Grand Hustle signee Travis Scott.
It all started after Wondagurl caught some inspiration after hearing Pusha T, Travi$ Scott and Popcaan’s dancehall-inspired “Blocka.”
“I was at home one day and I was looking for reggae samples for a while and I finally found this one that was crazy, Sizzla ‘Solid as a Rock,'” she told MTV News of the first steps she took to cook up the beat for Hov’s “Crown” on Friday (July 5) during a Skype interview. “I took it and I cut it up and I put it in the software FL Studio and I started building around it, adding 808s.”
Originally Wondagurl had intended for Pusha and Travis to perform on the track. She figured after hearing “Blocka” that the pair would be receptive to another reggae-laced tune, which is why she chose Sizzla’s beloved 2002 single “Solid as A Rock.” Her instincts were right, and while Scott dug the beat, he had different plans for the instrumental. “Travis Scott said he was going to add some stuff to it and then later on a few days afterwards he messaged me saying he’s about to change my life and a few days later he told me that I was on Jay-Z’s album,” Wondagurl recalled. “At first I didn’t really believe him when he told me, it didn’t seem real.”
Wondagurl crafted the basis for “Crown” while Scott and veteran producer Mike Dean added the track’s rattling top synth lines and Jay, of course, laid the killer rhymes — most notably the one where he throws a shot at famed sports agent Scott Boras.
Now it’s only a matter of time before other MCs start ringing her phone, but Wondagurl already has a short list of hip-hop notables she’d love to collaborate with. “I’d like to work with Kanye West, Drake, Timbaland on some beats and Keri Hilson,” she told us. “I want to make her comeback track because I’ve always been a fan.”
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