The Making of Drake's 'Thank Me Later'
We spoke to 40, Nicki Minaj, Boi-1da and just about everyone else about the making of Drake's debut.
Fifteen years ago, Drake dropped his highly anticipated debut studio album Thanks Me Later. At the time, he was a newcomer with obvious starpower and a whole lot of potential. Of course, since then, he's made good on the potential and become one of the most successful artists of all time. This week, in celebration of the 15-year anniversary of the album, we're republishing an old story from the archives, in which we interviewed his collaborators about the making of the iconic debut.
Below is the article that was published on June 9, 2010 in its original form.
One only has to look at Aubrey Drake Graham's weight class to see how far he has come. In a short period of time, he has already reached a stratosphere where he is grouped with heavyweights like Jay-Z, Kanye West, T.I., and Lil Wayne.
That's what happens when you nab two Grammy nominations, drop an endless array of hits ("Best I Ever Had," "Successful," "Money To Blow," "Forever," and "Bedrock"), and sell 500,000 copies of a mixtape (So Far Gone) that had been available for free for six months before you've even dropped an album.
And for anyone expecting Drake to let up, he already has three top 20 singles with "Over," "Find Your Love," and "Miss Me," from his debut, Thank Me Later, and has many thinking he might match the first-week sales of his mentor, Lil Wayne, who sold a million copies of Tha Carter III almost exactly two years ago. Complex sat down with the producers and featured artists who helped make the most anticipated hip-hop debut in years...
As told to Toshitaka Kondo (@ToshitakaKondo) & Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin)
Fireworks f/ Alicia Keys
Produced by: Noah "40" Shebib
Co-produced by: Boi-1da and Crada
Noah "40" Shebib: “’Fireworks’ was [made in] October. [Drake's A&R, Oliver] had made a link with Crada, and was getting records for the album. Crada had a bunch of stuff we really liked. He had this one titled ’Fireworks’ that really caught all our attention. Drake loved it, but he wanted me to rework it. So I took it and reworked it completely from scratch, and at the end I sent it to Boi-1da, who programmed some drums in the verses, and then I mixed it all together.
"I think the best part about it for us was the instruments that Crada had picked, like the piano. His had a piano off the top and, the sort of core progression is very similar. Also, the title and putting the fireworks in the song. Those are what drove us to Crada’s composition. All the sounds are brand new. Nothing from his original composition is in the record.
"Every instrument is me. [Crada’s] contribution to the song was from a writing standpoint as far as melodies and from a conceptual point of view. I’m not in the business of stealing people’s songs. That was originally his beat. But, they’re two totally different beats. Completely. In entirety. But, regardless I kept him involved.
“Nothing happens vocally tracking-wise until the music is ready to go. We recorded at Metalworks here in Toronto, which is where we do a lot of work. Most of the time we’re at Metalworks if we’re not at my house or just kickin’ it somewhere else. I think he did the first verse at Nightbird [in Hollywood, Los Angeles] and the last two verses at Metalworks if I’m not mistaken.
"I pretty much mixed everything ever in Drake’s entire career with the exception of four mixes on this album, which I gave to my mentor and man who taught me how to mix, Gadget. He mixed ’Light Up,’ ’Unforgettable,’ ’Miss Me,’ and ’Shut It Down.’”
Karaoke
Produced by: Francis and The Lights
Noah "40" Shebib: “Francis Starlight, the lead singer from Francis and the Lights, is the one who produced it. I think everyone [in the band] is involved, though. We’ve always been a fan of their music and had a relationship with them. So we got them to send us tracks around Christmas time and we really loved it. So Drake cut it, and I added production and sort of reproduced the first section where Drake rapped. The rest is pretty much as is.”
The Resistance
Produced by: Noah "40" Shebib
Noah "40" Shebib: “1da did some programming for me on that. I probably did that beat maybe a little bit before February/March. I really only make beats for Drake. I worked with Alicia [Keys], but I really only worked with Alicia because me and Drake wanted to work with her. I work with Wayne, but because obviously that’s family. And that was a circumstance where Drake loved [’I’m Single’] and he sent it to him and then Wayne was like, ’Yo, I’m stealin’ this. I’m takin’ this.’ So I’ve worked with a few other people indirectly via Drake, but at the end of the day, he’s really the only person I work with as far as being a producer. Obviously, I have ambitions to work with other people, but at the same time, that’s like my bother as well as a person I’m responsible for with my career so my main focus is his projects and his work. And, we’re probably going to start working on his next album, like, ASAP.
“We sat on ’Resistance’ for a while. There were a couple other beats as well where he was like, ’Maybe I’ll use this one instead, but I gotta rap. I have so much to say...’ Once I’d gotten it back from 1da, getting the hook to knock right with the drum programming and the chorus, then I was like, ’OK, cool. It works. I’m happy with it. Time to record.’
“[Drake sat on the beat] for about a month. As far as him having the beat and loving it and wanting to use it, but not being 100% on the production of it. And, also me just sort of working with it and tweaking it a little bit here and there. If that shit doesn’t sound perfect, there’s no point in him even going to the booth. He’ll leave for a half an hour for me to fix it. He’ll record a chorus and be like, ’Mix it and I’ll record my verses.’ Normally, I’ll mix it and it’ll sound like a million dollars and he goes, ’All right, perfect! That’s how it’s supposed to sound.’ And then he raps. He doesn’t waste very much of his energy. We really only have a couple records that we didn’t put on the album.“
Over
Produced by: Boi-1da
Co-produced by: Al-Khaaliq
Noah "40" Shebib: "We recorded ’Over’ at the Setai hotel in Miami about a week or two before we released it. [Boi-1da] sent it to Drake’s email and Drake was like, ’Yo, what the fuck? This dude is amazing!’ Two days later we just went in the Setai and recorded the shit in one day. Boom. Done. We went to Jamaica shortly thereafter to work. That’s where we recorded ’Karaoke’ at Geejam studios. While we recorded ’Karaoke,’ I mixed ’Over.’ We put it out from Jamaica, if I’m not mistaken. I just added one sound in the chorus and the verse."
Boi-1da: "That [beat] was actually made in the studio in L.A. My dude Nick Bromgers makes sample-quality music. He’s a genius. That was one of the things he sent me, and I made a beat out of it soon as I heard it. He’s playing all of the things melodically, the entire orchestra was him. I added the bassline. I sample sometimes, but I try not to. It’s better to do it when it’s not a sample. When you sample stuff, the people on the song can sue you for all your money that you make off of the song. Or I work with someone else because you just pay them instead of paying somebody unknown who gets 100% of your song just because you sampled their song.
"I just wanted it to be a huge record for somebody. I knew it was big, it sounded like somebody’s comeback song. The beat sounds like the king has returned to the kingdom. When I made it, I had Jeezy in mind. I think Eminem had the best freestyle on it, [but it] sounds like something Jeezy would kill. But once I made it, Drake had got a whiff of it and he liked it. I sent it to him. When he was done, he hit me up over Skype and played it for me on the video."
Show Me A Good Time
Produced by: Kanye West
Co-produced by: No ID & Jeff Bhasker
Noah "40" Shebib: "’Show me a Good Time’ was the last record we put on the album. It was like the top of May. We got that beat from [Kanye] when we were in Hawaii before Christmas. We were sitting on it. He knew he was going to use it. He just didn’t cut it because he waited until the very end of his process to do some of the 'happier,' if you will, songs. He wanted more of the emotional material out of the way first. Then, he went to that place after. He wanted to do the ’Resistance’ and ’Fireworks’ first. Then he wanted to do ’Miss Me’ and 'Light Up.’ Then, he wanted to do ’Show me a Good Time’ and ’Up All Night.’ He cut it on the bus in New York. My assistant Noel Cadastre cut the record and sent me the files when I was in Atlanta mixing at Tree Sound Studios. Then I went back to New York for mastering, mixed it at Blast Off studios, and sent it back to ’Ye for approval."
Up Night All f/ Nicki Minaj
Produced by: Boi-1da
Co-produced by: Matthew Burnett
Boi-1da: "I made that beat when I was out in L.A. I was in Chalice Studios. It was done by me and a producer that I know named Matthew Burnett, who did the string part. I was working on joints for Keri Hilson. She was in the room right next to mine and she would come by and work. We were working with Bei Maejor too. We were there specifically to work on stuff for Keri.
"That was one of the joints I made for her. She said it was dope. She was singing harmonies over it. But you know how they act when they don't really like a beat. She thought it was cool but was like, 'It doesn’t fit what I’m trying to do.' So I threw the beat in the catalog. Drake had asked me for some beats a couple of days after. I ended up sending it to Drake and he was like, 'Oh I never heard this. I think I’m going to do a record with Nicki on this.' He took it and killed it."
Nicki Minaj: "Drake sent his verse and the hook so I just had to fill in the missing piece of the puzzle. I only had one day to get the verse done. Got it at night and played it over and over in the studio, went home, went to bed, woke up, and the verse wrote itself once I started writing it. The beat kinda hypnotized me. Went to the studio, started to record and in a couple takes, it was done. I was in L.A. and Drake was in ATL. I sent it back to him and he hit me right away spazzing out. [Laughs.] He knew the verse within a few minutes. We were both really excited. I stunted hard cause they 'locked my CEO up.' [Laughs.] The song speaks about loving your team. I felt unusually proud of my team that night and a very confident spirit took a hold of me. I spoke about 'buying the president the Louis Presidential briefcase' 'cause that's really the last gift I bought Wayne before he went in. I was just talkin’ real shit"
40: "’Up All Night’ was done the second two weeks of Drake’s college tour two months ago. We cut ’Up All Night’ on the studio bus. [Nicki] cut her [verse] in New York and sent it right back. Sometimes we’ll sit on the hook for maybe like a month. We’ll cut the verses and try and find a hook. But usually that doesn’t happen either, to be honest. Usually, things come pretty swiftly."
Fancy f/ T.I. & Swizz Beatz
Produced by: Swizz Beatz
Co-produced by: Noah "40" Shebib
Noah "40" Shebib: "’Fancy’ was done in February. I think [Swizz and Drake] were going back and forth with some records. Then, Drake got on the phone with him like, 'Yo, I need something like this.' And Swizz starts playin’ some records for him over the phone. He was like, 'Oh, yeah. That’s the one. Perfect.' Then he hit me like, 'Yo, Swizzy played me this shit over the phone.' And, he sent it, and we were like, 'All right. Let’s do this!' Then Swizzy sent the session and said, 'Yo, tell 40 to add anything if he wants to add anything.' So I ended up doing the whole other B section on the record, which is some wild Drake shit. I have a feeling the first few minutes will play on radio, but the last few will be for the album. So I did the whole second half of the record. The third verse is when it becomes my production. We put T.I. on it later. Drake has a great relationship with Tip and really wanted him involved."
T.I.: "I met Drake when his manager and my potna Gee Roberson brought him to my hotel room in L.A. like a week before I was finna go [to jail]. It might have been a month earlier. We just chopped it up for a few hours. He was asking my advice on how to effectively remain relevant. Not really remain relevant, but how to do this shit and not lose passion for it. So, I gave the best advice I could. I just see him as someone who has a good idea of who they are and is not trying to pretend to be something they aren’t and you have to respect someone for that. ['Fancy'] was done recently. I just did it like three or four weeks ago. Drake sent it to his manager, and me and his manager speak a lot. It’s about girls who take pride in their upkeep."
Shut It Down f/ The-Dream
Produced by: Noah "40" Shebib & Omen
Noah "40" Shebib: “I went to Omen’s place in New York last summer, and I started working on a record there. I think he had a beat I really liked, and I asked him for the drums. I started building the rest of the record. Then, I think at some point I was in Toronto when I laid down the keys, the real pianos, and stuff that are in the bridge. We recorded the rap at Metalworks. We recorded additional ad-libs and minor changes in L.A. at NightBird. Then, we ended up cutting some of it at Cherry Beach in Toronto, and then sending it to The-Dream in September. Then, Dream sent his stuff back pretty promptly, within a week.
“We were really excited when we got that stuff back, and it leaked based on one of those references. There was always more verses than [the version that leaked with one Drake verse and one Dream verse]. That was just me editing. I had a Dream second verse and a Drake second verse right from the beginning. So, one leaked with a Drake second verse, if I’m not mistaken. But the one that’s out now had a Dream second verse but that’s always been there since day one. It was just a matter of when I was editing when I muted.
“That’s probably one of the only records I’ve ever really taken time with and probably because it was such an old record I continued to work on it over time. As far as building production and growing it, probably three or four times I sat down and worked on it in the course of six months. 'Shut It Down' was a very complicated record with a lot of instruments going on so I felt like my mix started to get muddy towards the end and Gadget knows how to make his kicks and bass hit in the same area. Whereas me, I usually put my kicks on top of my bass, if that makes any sense. So, because I was trying to cram together too much on the low end of my mix, I felt like I was losing it and I knew Gadget could make it hot and that is exactly what he did.
“The outro [the second part, 'Lay It Down'] is like a tagged-on interlude. The actual song is like five and a quarter I think. That’s like a whole other section that’s an interlude. It’s like the 'fucking' part of the song. The song is about going to the club and that’s the interlude that closes it of like, 'Hey, now let’s go have sex.' So it’s like a conclusion. It’s an interlude. It’s not the same song per se. It’s an interpolation of the song. It’s not supposed to be a seven-minute song. We just didn’t list it or give it its own ID. We just attached it. We try to break the mold and be unorthodox, but at the same time, the 'Lay It Down' section is something me and Drake enjoyed listening to and as much as we can’t make a whole song like that, sometimes we like to do little pieces of ’em for fun since we enjoy them so much.”
Omen: "That beat was made like September of '09, maybe before that. This was when we knew the album was being recorded. Basically, 40 comes by Stadium Red and is like, 'Yo we gotta work on beats. Drake is starting the album.' So I was like, 'Aite, let’s do it.'”
"40 always tells me, 'Minimal is best,' and 'Don’t make the drums too busy.' Basically he told me how Drake likes his drums. On 'Shut It Down,' I started the drums on Garage Band. Then I took it into Logic and tweaked it up. Then 40 put it in Pro Tools and he tweaked it up. He’s like a scientist with Pro Tools. He was doing all types of crazy shit and he added these chords and I was like, 'That’s it right there.' We built more on it, he added more to it.
"We went from Stadium Red over to Legacy, where Drake was at. Played the track and Drake vibed with it, he had the concept and everything. And that was it. It was on from there."
Unforgettable f/ Young Jeezy
Produced by: Noah "40" Shebib & Boi-1da
Noah "40" Shebib: "I was at a friend’s house in April and I was looking through her CDs and she had classics. I love old R&B so I pulled out three CDs, one of them being Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number and I looked at her and said, ’I’m gonna use one of these songs, swear to God. Watch me.’ So I went to the studio and listened through the Aaliyah record and I was like ’Man, I can’t believe no one has flipped this acapella [for ’At Your Best (You Are Love)’].’ I just sampled it in Pro Tools, I built a lot of the core structure and pretty much the whole beat. Then I sent it to Boi-1da without any drums and he did all the drums to it and sent it back.
"[Drake] knows how much of an Aaliyah diehard fan I am and he is pretty hardcore with Aaliyah, too, so we always wanted to sample one of her records somehow or some way. Even when we did 'Bria’s Interlude,' where I sampled ’Friendly Skies’ on So Far Gone, I really wanted to do something with Aaliyah, but then I found ’Friendly Skies’ instead. I even had a couple other Aaliyah ideas he wanted to use and probably would have used if we didn’t get this Aaliyah record to work.
"I think our manager Gee might have made some phone calls on our behalf on that one. I think the real story is that Gee contacted her mother and helped us clear the sample. I think at first it was a little sideways and we weren’t going to be able to do it, but then we told Gee how much it meant to us so he sort of moved forward and helped us. With 'Unforgettable,' it was late in the process of recording, I was under the gun mixing the rest of the album and I knew that was another mix Gadget could hit the bottom end on so I sent it to him."
Boi-1da: “That was a last minute song. It was made in my basement. 40 sent it to me with the melody and sample on it, I just did the drums on Fruity Loops. It took me like half an hour. That was it. That was Drake’s idea to use the Aaliyah sample. Who isn’t an Aaliyah fan? Aaliyah is a legend. If you say you’re not a fan of Aaliyah, then you just don’t like good music. That’s pretty much it. I’m not being biased or anything. Aaliyah was great.”
Light Up f/ Jay-Z
Produced by: Noah "40" Shebib & Tone Mason
Noah "40" Shebib: "’Light Up’ is an older one we cut at Metalworks before Christmas. Tone Mason is actually a production crew out of Toronto and the guy who did the programming is named Mellenius. He had a beat I really liked and the drums were crazy and I showed Drake. I told him to send me the drums and we ran with it from there. When we started the tour again and I had a studio bus, I got Adrian X, our guitar player on tour, to track out some guitars for me and I flipped them and did some fucked up shit to them. Jay did it properly as well. We sent Jay that record, a week or two weeks later: boom, verse.
"It is actually a funny story because Guru wouldn’t give me a reference to the song. [Laughs.] He called me and is like, ’I got it! It’s amazing!’ He is freaking out and I’m like, ’Send it to me,’ and he says, ’Nope, not until you’re mixing it.’ So he calls and plays it over the phone and I actually have footage of us listening to it on the phone for the first time and we are jumping up and down. It’s so funny, Guru was on acting like Funkmaster Flex by bringing it back and breaking down every line. I think he sent it to me through iChat. Direct link, no actual host or server. Gadget mixed it. I do a lot of the pre-mixing. With 'Light Up,' because I knew I was the producer, I didn’t feel the need of wanting to mix it.'"
Miss Me f/ Lil Wayne
Produced by: Boi-1da & Noah "40" Shebib
Boi-1da: "That was [made] a few months ago in my basement. That beat was made really fast, maybe like 10 minutes. That one was just another sample that I heard, Hank Crawford’s 'Wildflower.' That one was on my computer, just something I was listening to. I just listen to old songs sometimes. I just heard that like, 'That needs to be looped!' I had heard that sample a long time ago and I even made a different beat out it. I just went back to the one part that I cut and thought that it could be dope.
"It sounded like something Drake would like. I pretty much just sent him a bunch of beats and he liked that one and he ended up writing a song to it. But they was like, 'Yo man, it needs to change up for the hook.' But I ain’t know what to do for the hook. But 40 came and did his 40 thing. He made it sound crazy like it was underwater or something. I don’t know what effect he put on it, but it was dope and it worked out good.”
Noah "40" Shebib: "We did it in January or February. We started working on that in Houston. We were there doing some stuff with Bun and started working on 'Miss Me' when we had some time, that’s why you hear Bun in the first verse. 1da had that beat made himself and we started messing with it out there, which is an 'All Night Long' version. It’s where the beat doesn’t change and it’s all over the original 1da beat. Then Drake wanted to re-work the chorus, so we changed it to the 'Miss Me' chorus, which corresponded with Wayne’s absence and I produced the chorus and the outro. 1da produced the verses.
"With 'Miss Me,' I was having problems with it. The sample was bugging me, and I couldn’t get it to fit and I knew Gadget would kill it so I sent it to him. We made the adjustments to 'Miss Me' in March ’cause literally, like a week before he went in and shot all those videos, he recorded it. So it was like two weeks before that [Lil Wayne] actually recorded it and two weeks before that I actually made all the adjustments. So a week before he shot that video, I made that chorus and he recorded his verse the next day.
"I always had the outro on there from when I made the adjustments before Wayne did his part, but we added the very end [with Drake] talking on the studio bus. [Ed. note—Drake shouts out J.J. during the outro. Jonathan “Shoota Mac” Johnson, 21, was tragically shot and killed this past February in Houston.] To me, J.J. was family. When we go to Houston, it’s just a big family and J.J. was around a lot."
Bun B: We were at Takeover Studios. We went in two different days. It was recorded for my project. Well there’s a different hook, too. It was the ’All Night Long’ hook because it wasn’t called ’Miss Me’ when we recorded it. Then, Wayne heard it and wanted to get on it. So we ended up putting Wayne on the record, and Drake asked me if he could have the record back with Wayne on it. It doesn’t bother me because we still make music. It wasn’t shady business or anything. All the verses were 32 bars [so they took mine off.]
"[The part where I ask, 'Drake, you got ’em right?'] was already in the song because we wrote it together for my album so that was already in his verse. He wrote it like that for me to say that line right there. Then, when he did the verse with Wayne, they just kept me in there. I’m sure after his album comes out [the version with my verse] will find its way to the Internet."
Cece's Interlude
Produced by: Noah "40" Shebib
Noah "40" Shebib: “That one is again, me and Drake, doing songs we love to do. I think I did that one 100% myself and then I got Adrian X again to do the guitar on it. So X played guitar on three songs. He is on ’Miss Me’ a little bit, ’Light Up,’ and ’Cece’s Interlude.’ I made that beat in February or March while we were in Metalworks. We cut it that same night and the next day. My assistant Noel actually works at Metalworks and is their technology manager and handles their Pro Tools systems and makes sure the computers are working so he has keys. Obviously we pay for it, but when it comes to Metalworks, we can roll to the studio, 10 o’clock, boom, crack those doors open, no one is in there. A room and B room, get two sessions poppin’ and keep it movin’.”
“It was done in a couple days, but I think the first day I made the beat and Drake came up with a couple ideas and we came back and recorded the actual record. He actually doesn’t take a long time to write. It’s really fun for us to do R&B records. It feels more natural. With a verse he has to go in and say, ’I have to murder this fuckin’ track,’ versus singing where he can just go in and do what he does. As much as you think singing would be a longer process, it isn’t. Not to say he doesn’t spit his verses in one take because usually he does."
Find Your Love
Produced by: Kanye West
Co-produced by: No ID & Jeff Bhasker
Noah "40" Shebib: "We were in Hawaii with Kanye. He wrote it and Drake wrote a lot of it as well. They went back and forth with that. There were two studios, and ’Ye was downstairs in one room running his session for his album, and we were upstairs in our session running 'Find Your Love,' and we would pop back and forth. [It was] one session. We almost record everything in one session, maybe two. We used to kill it back in the day when we had time and that was our only focus.
"[Kanye] had scratch references. I think the hook was in place. I believe Rihanna had a version of it as well, but as far as when it came to us, it was just ’Ye in the session. When we were in those sessions in Hawaii, we were doing our own thing. I think we took what ’Ye had, made a few adjustments, added this and that, went back to him, discussed a few lines, moved this and that, and then they cut it."
Thank Me Now
Produced by: Timbaland
Noah "40" Shebib: "[That was] The Setai hotel, the same time we did 'Over.' We did 'Over' one day and 'Thank Me Now' another. If I’m not mistaken, we cut the record and then Tim came to the session. It was me, Jazz, Drake, Niko, James the security, CJ the road manager—so yeah, the usual Drake entourage. Tim came with his manager or one of his people. I think it was pretty much cut, and actually we gave it back to Tim. I didn’t mix 'Thank Me Now' either. We gave it back to Tim, after we cut the vocals and his engineer Chris, finished the production, tweaked it a little bit, and finished the mix. [He added] very subtle production just to give it some life towards the end."
Best I Ever Had (International Bonus Track)
Produced by: Boi-1da
Boi-1da: "It was December ’08 or January ’09 when I made that beat. I found that sample on my computer and I heard the intro and I thought it was cool. My boy gave me a folder of a bunch of samples and I heard it in there. The sample on it is very smooth. It’s a quicker tempo than a lot of the stuff I do. I was just envisioning a song about a girl. It’s an emotional kind of beat so I figured it would be a girl song. I thought it could work for Drake. He was finishing [So Far Gone], and he said he needed two more songs. I had just done the beat the day before—I sent him that one and he just killed it. He sent it back, and I knew it was a hit the first time I heard it. That beat took me about 20 minutes. And in a few hours he finished the whole song. That one was just wham, bam, thank you ma'am."
9AM In Dallas Freestyle (iTunes Bonus Track)
Produced by: Boi-1da
Noah "40" Shebib: "He was on tour, in Dallas doing a show. 1da did the beat and sent it to him and he was like 'Yo, I got this crazy 1da beat,' so Noel set up shop in the hotel room and they recorded it there. I was in New York at Mastering, and Noel recorded in the hotel because Noel is on tour with them running playback. Literally he wrote that at 9 a.m., recorded it, and put it on the Internet immediately. Then they sent me the file and I put a mix on it. [Drake] said, 'Yo, can I still get this on [the album] somehow?' So I said, 'Yeah, let's see what we can do.'"
