Sorry I burst into this thread. I'm not into hip hop at all, but I read the article, did a search on GS and came on this topic.
I was a bit disappointed in the article.. well not the article itself but the general idea. But maybe it is because I am not into hip hop. And off course, the charts prove me otherwise, I can't do anything but respect people who can make this kind of record sale numbers nowadays.
But what kind of struck me... First of all, there is the enormous track count. May look pretty cool on paper, and I understand they don't want to use out of the box sounds but for me personally it would be completely out of line. It really gave me the impression they just stacked loads and loads of sounds on eachother to see where they were heading. Maybe because I don't have enough knowledge of sample sounds, but the end result doesn't blow me away. i mean, that brass sound isn't that spectacular is it.
And I also still find a bit odd that he actually seems proud of that mega loud mastering these days. I understand a track this kind may need it, but they are realy pushing the limits. Again, the song is pretty catchy, (I find myself imitating Justin's 'MAdonna' a lot when I hear it on the radio
), I gues I am just a bit disappointed I didn't get more insight in the idea behind producing/mixing such a chart buster. The only impression I now had was: let's just run many sounds through an expensive desk and see what happens. I know that wasn't how it went, but just want to give you some insights on my thoughts.
I was far more inspired with the articles of Nick Launay or Liam Watson, but it may be a genre thing.