SAMPLEDWillie Green got his first drum machine at eight. Now he mixes half the Backwoodz catalog
Berklee-trained, Brooklyn-based, and the reason a lot of these records sound like one continuous piece instead of a beat tape.
Paul "Willie Green" Womack says it is all about the drums, and his biography backs it up. He got his first drum machine at eight, paired with a Casio keyboard. By fifteen he was playing drums in his uncle's R&B and reggae band, in clubs he was too young to legally enter.
From Berklee to Brooklyn
Green studied in the Music Production & Engineering department at Berklee College of Music, graduating with a degree and a reputation in the Boston underground as both a beatmaker and a reliable engineer. He moved to Brooklyn in 2007.
The résumé
His production and engineering credits span far past the underground: Wiz Khalifa, The Roots, Roc Marciano, Open Mike Eagle, billy woods, Murs. Outside hip-hop he has worked in R&B and gospel with Donnie McClurkin, Valerie Simpson, Corina Corina and Barrie McLain.
Doc Savage
His own album Doc Savage — named after the 1930s pulp hero, and shaped by that retrofuturist streak — pulled in Milo, Denmark Vessey, Open Mike Eagle and billy woods.
Why he is load-bearing at Backwoodz
Green mixes and masters at the GreenHouse, and he is the connective tissue on records that could otherwise fall apart. PremRock's Did You Enjoy Your Time Here…? has nine producers on it and still sounds like one album, because Green wove it together. Cavalier traveled from New Orleans to Brooklyn to record CINE with him.
Engineers rarely get artist pages. He has one, here (opens in a new tab).