Case Study: Pound Cake – Drake Ft. Jay Z
- Nov 8, 2016
- 3 min read
Produced by Detail, Jordan Evans & Boi-1da off Drake’s 2013 album, Nothing Was the Same. Written by Drake, Anthony Palman, Detail, Jordan Evans, Jay Z, Boi-1da, Matthew Burnett, David Porter, Andre Eric Proctor and Isaac Hayes. Assistant recording engineers, Les Schaeffer and Travis Sewchan, recorded by Chris Godbey, Noel Cadastre and Drakes close friend and co-founder of OVO Sound, Noah “40” Shebib. The track was recorded at Metalworks Studios, Mississauga ON; Jungle City studios, New York, NY. First released on the 24th of September 2013.
The track begins with an intro sampled from Jimmy Smith’s “Jimmy Smith Rap” from his 1982 album Off the Top. Christian Rich are the producer/DJ duo that did the sampling however Drake was sued by Jimmy’s estate for $300,000 for lying about getting permission to use the sample on the song.
Behind the Jimmy Smith intro there are sustained piano chords played with a layer or brass playing a melody over the top. At the end the original sample says “Jazz is the only real music that’s gonna last’ however it is edited to “only real music is gonna last – all the other bullshit is her today and gone tomorrow”. The word tomorrow is pitched then down giving it a robotic detuned sound as if it is a recording player gradually slowing down giving it that change of pitch before the first kick and sample is played.
The main vocal sample used in the track is Don’t Say a Word by Ellie Goulding and another recurring sample of Timbaland using the hook from C.R.E.A.M by Wu-Tang Clan (Ft. Inspectah Deck, Method Man and Raekwon). The main sample is said to be pitched up by one semi-tone and around 30 cents then chopped into four vocal phrases played one after each other. For the drum programming there are only two elements, a short 808 style kick and a very short decay snare which is played on every 4th and 2nd beat. The track is around 94bpm. Played through the track is a mellow low pitched electric piano filling out the middle to low-end of the track which follows the vocal sample melodically and the drums rhythmically. The piano being played sounds like it could be a Rhodes or a Wurlitzer however with the processing used on this track, it sounds like a Rhodes because of its soft rounded sound where as the Rhodes has more of a sharper sound, here is an article comparing the two. (https://reverb.com/au/news/rhodes-vs-wurlitzer-comparing-classic-electric-pianos). The chords played could be the following, 2nd inversion Am (E,A,C), 2nd inversion Bm (F#,A,C), 1st inversion Em (G,B,E), and 2nd inversion Dmaj (A,D,F#) Piano tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcmMiEjHIo8)
For the vocal editing and effects, "40" uses a combination of outboard gear however his main plugins that he uses in the box for vocals was mention in an article on Sound on Sound. He mentions he uses Antares Auto-Tune, Waves Q8, De-esser, Renaissance EQ, Vox Compressor and SSL EQ, Bomb Factory Pultec EQP-1A and Avid Smack!
Throughout the track arrangement doesn’t change much until after Jay-Z’s verse where all the elements drop out except the electric piano and the main vocal sample which then fades into the second part of the track which is a different song titled Paris Morton Music 2 which was produced by Detail.
Below is a video created by Sandurz showing how he recreated the track.
Resources:
Drake. (2013). Drake (ft. Jay Z) – pound cake / Paris Morton Music 2. Genius.
Sandurz (2015, June 17). Beat breakdown - pound cake by Drake (prod. Boi-1da, Jordan Evans, and Matthew Burnett) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG9lDT6iCCo
Sir Mix-A-Lot Rare Music (2013, November 10). Jimmy Smith - Jimmy Smith rap Retrieved from http://youtu.be/pdbvOqeBkq8
Danny Boy Q (2014, March 2). Pound cake / Paris Morton Music 2 (feat. JAY Z - Drake Retrieved from http://youtu.be/VAwWdK7b2zE
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