My Interview With Metro Boomin, Behind-The-Scenes
A photo and video shoot, and yes, that question about the Drake-Kendrick beef.
The aggregators came for me after my interview with Metro Boomin…or so I thought.
On stage at the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit in Cincinnati, I asked the multi-platinum hip-hop artist and producer about this summer’s feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, and his role in it as someone who has worked with both sides — he produced Drake’s 2016 megahit “Jumpman,” but also this year’s “Like That,” which featured a Kendrick verse dissing his rival.
Below is the clip in question, which soon got aggregated out to Complex, Billboard, Hot97, Vibe, and a bunch of other places. I had friends hitting me up after seeing me on the Akademics IG page…to which I had to reply that I had no idea what that page was (it has 5 million followers, so the joke is definitely on me).
Just as I did after my story on Russell Westbrook dropped, I like to use this newsletter to take you all behind-the-scenes of these stories and show you what it’s really like as a journalist, both online and in these exclusive rooms.
Like, for example, how the aggregation process wasn’t as organic as I thought. A few hours after the panel, I found out that the Forbes PR team had reached out directly to Complex pitching them on the clip, which they knew could be juicy. Once Complex bit, everyone else jumped on board after (organically, as far as I know!). That’s how the sausage gets made.
Now, as for me. What was it like to be around the most in-demand hip-hop producer of his generation?
The Photoshoot
It actually all started the day before the panel. Forbes had a photoshoot and on-camera interview with Metro scheduled for Sunday afternoon, which I made it to on time — thanks to a 4 a.m. wakeup call in Los Angeles, a 5:20 a.m. flight to Denver, a connecting flight to Cincinnati, and the loss of three timezones in the process.
The only problem was…Metro was running late. Or at least late according to Forbes’ schedule. Show biz is an industry of hurry up and wait, and celebrities are late to everything, partly out of convenience and also partly because of logistical challenges. There was a mild panic that his rider — the requests or items provided by an event to a performer (ranging from preferred drinks to way weirder stuff) — was set up at the venue where he’d be performing that night and NOT at the photoshoot location.
The first thing to arrive was his wardrobe. And when I say wardrobe, I mean racks and racks and racks of designer coats and sweatshirts and shirts. I don’t know how they transported it all. There was an entire folding table covered in just rows and rows of hats, sunglasses and watches, in every color imaginable. I was told by one person the items there were worth some $180,000, and after setting it all up the stylist took photos of nearly every item to make sure they were all there when they left. Crazy.
The thing to remember about these stories is that the subject (in this case, Metro Boomin) usually wants to participate specifically for the photograph of them on a Forbes cover (either an actual print cover or the digital covers we make for our Digital Cover Stories…makes no difference). The actual story they care less about (they do still care and will read it, and don’t let them tell you otherwise).
In both cases, it’s a stamp of validation for their success, or at least how rich they’ve become. (To that point — back in 2013, one of 19-year-old Metro Boomin’s first producer credits was on a Sonny Digital album entitled, ‘Forbes Atlanta'.)
So when Metro and a literal mini-bus full of entourage members poured into the photo studio about an hour later, the thing they cared most about is how he’d be styled for the shoot. There was discussions with our photographer about why a tan, ripped Alexander McQueen coat he wanted to wear clashed with the tan backdrop in the studio, leading him to pivot to an equally gaudy pink coat. One of his reps asked someone from our Forbes team what color the chairs would be for Monday’s on-stage interview, so he could color coordinate with it.
What amazes me about events like this is just how people have been employed to make this moment happen. On our Forbes side, maybe a dozen people between the photo and video crews, and another dozen on the Metro side.
Today, all are here to make Metro look good. The photos turn out great and about an hour later he heads for the video set, where I meet him for the first time.
Now, most times when you meet a celebrity, they’re going to come off lovely and charming. That’s because they’re either a) lovely and charming or b) they can literally afford to pay other people to be mean for them. The only way to reliably make that distinction is with time, which is why journalists try (and these days, mostly fail) to spend as much time with a subject as possible.
But I think a person’s entourage can say a lot about them, and the fact that Metro’s people were chill made me hopeful. We only had ~25 minutes together on Sunday, but I found him to be honest and thoughtful in his answers. Most surprisingly, he earnestly tried to directly answer the questions I asked him rather than taking the general topic in directions he wanted. I was happy with it. (This first video will come out when the full story comes out in a couple of weeks.)
When the cameras stopped rolling he was whisked off again, over to the main venue for the Summit where he DJ’d for all the attendees.
The Panel
The next day, it’s the same routine. Metro is late, he comes in with a rush of people, and his time on site is accounted for down to the minute. A flurry of headset-clad runners backstage assure his reps that the 19-minute stage interview will be finished at exactly 3:10 p.m., in time for him to rush off to catch a flight overseas (I’m confused by this, since he’s flying private…but whatever).
I meet him behind the stage no more than two minutes before we head out, enough time to shake hands and get a briefing from the stage manager. Mics are hot, enter one at a time, exit stage right, that sort of thing. Then it’s lights up and away we go in front of 2,000 people.
The point here is that there’s nothing natural about this process. You aren’t hanging out with these people, or joking like old pals. Every second is precious, and you have to gather as much information as possible while building rapport and trust on the fly.
The only way I know how to accomplish this is to over-prepare. I plan out not just the questions I’m going to ask but also the arc of the interview so that it, like a story, has a beginning/middle/end with rising action, a climax and a denouement.
In my notebook, it’s a four-step process. First I brain dump all the topics I want to ask about. Then I order them with numbers. Then I write out every question word for word — a controversial step for some, but I do it so that 1) a subject doesn’t get hung up on a single inflammatory word within a question, which happens a lot, and 2) I make sure the end of the question comes to a sharp inquiry so that the subject doesn’t take it to mean “here’s a topic, talk about that.” (For example, “Across The Spider-Verse…what’s different about working on music for a movie rather than an album?” rather than “Across The Spider-Verse…uh that was cool”).
The fourth step is the most important, which is leaving behind all of those words and on a fresh page rewriting the beginning of those questions into what I call “stems.” Two or three trigger words. This is what I look at on stage, because the absolute worst thing you can do is to be nervous about saying every single question word-for-word, or worse, reading off a sheet. I’ve written and reviewed the questions, I know what they say, now I just need to be triggered on what comes next so I don’t miss anything.
That’s just my personal process to achieve peace of mind, so I’m able to relax once I got on stage…that is after settling the initial butterflies of 2,000 sets of eyes on me.
Obviously, in this case, the Drake-Kendrick question was the climax. The night before I went back and forth about how to word that one, because there were a ton of potential pitfalls if handled incorrectly. Based on my first conversation, I knew he’d be game for answering it, and I’d even laid the groundwork on Sunday by asking him about how much of his success came from being a good hang (that’s where the “diplomatic” word came from that I relied upon when building the panel question).
He gave an intelligent (if “diplomatic,” to borrow my own word) answer without any visible signs of discomfort, which in a stage setting is a win. When we wrapped up we shook hands again back stage, agreed to speak one more time back in L.A. for the written story I’m doing on him, then got whisked into a room with a backdrop where they took photos of all the panelists. If I had this photo of us together I would attach it here.
Not 60 seconds after that, he and his crew were gone.
All in a days work.
On to the next.
Thank you for the behind the scenes. You story telling skills are epic. I felt as if I was there through every moment. The ups/downs of the uncertainties and the careful planning of the questions. Cannot wait to see the video and cover story.