Community / 27 August 2020

Tracklanta: A hip-hop journey with BandLab

Last October, we launched Tracklanta. Partnering with A3C Conference and Festival, together with ChooseATL, we launched one of the biggest events that we’ve ever rolled out on BandLab – to make the musical dreams of 15 aspiring artists come true.

Watch how it went down for yourself. The bars. The beats. The moments of musical brilliance – and incredible teaching from the best in the biz.

 

So that prize, it was 15 world-class producers, five iconic studios in Atlanta, the famed city of hip-hop, awaiting their winners. The line up was stacked with names like Brian Michael Cox, Young Chop, Needlz, Drumma Boy and Tasha Catour. It gave the BandLab community a once-in-a-lifetime chance at recording with some of the best producers in the hottest studios in Atlanta – including the legendary Outkast studio, Stankonia.

Stankonia studios
Stankonia has been OutKast’s studio for more than 20 years – they even named their fourth album after it.

Remember how it went down? Each producer dropped a beat on BandLab, then we asked the BandLab community to finish the track. After over 5,000 submissions, 15 winners rose to the top and were selected for the exclusive Tracklanta studio sessions and to be part of Atlanta’s legendary A3C hip-hop Conference.

Bravo Ocean Studios
Bravo Ocean Studios has seen names like Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Post Malone and many more through their doors.

Finally, in Atlanta, our extraordinary community winners met in person, collaborated and produced exclusive new music under the mentorship of some Atlanta’s most celebrated producers.

We followed our in winners’ footsteps throughout their journey in Atlanta, and you can see what went down during this special once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in our video above.

RENEGADE EL REY at Stankonia
RENEGADE EL REY, studio engineer at Stankonia.

 

Here’s what some of our winners had to say about the overall Tracklanta experience.

It was beautiful. We had everybody vibin’ and it was an amazing session. We made three songs – two collabs and one solo song. Tasha gave us some amazing advice.

T.W.I.N., winner of Tracklanta, recorded with Tasha Catour at ICONS
Tracklanta winner T.W.I.N. with producer Tasha Catour

I’m like “dang, so this is how you really do it” I never knew how to connect the music and make it sound full and he just taught us that.

Trynece, winner of Tracklanta, recorded with Bryan-Michael Cox at Doppler Studios
Tracklanta winner Trynece

 

Collaboration was a big theme for our winners in Atlanta. The producers agreed.

You gotta collab with people. You ain’t got to, but you just want to get that different vibe to your beat, because everybody is different.

Young Chop, producer at Bravo Ocean
Producer Young Chop

Definitely, moving forward, I’m looking forward to collaborating with everyone whom I’ve met, and even some of the BandLab users I haven’t met because there’s just such a big sense of community in the BandLab platform.

ILENE, winner of Tracklanta, recorded with Tasha Catour at ICONS
Tracklanta winner ILENE

 

Atlanta isn’t called the epicenter of hip-hop for nothing. Here’s what Needlz has to say about the Atlanta sound.

Music doesn’t have to be rocket science. Sometimes I always tell artists to go with your gut – there’s magic in that. That’s a big thing in Atlanta, and in general, that’s the whole Atlanta sound. Rappers just say the first thing on their minds and that translates to different people.

Needlz, producer at Stankonia studios
Producer Needlz at Bravo Ocean
Needlz at work at Bravo Ocean Studios.

And here’s the big news: we’re dropping a brand-new Tracklanta celebration this year – we’re bringing stacks of new tutorials, interviews with past winners, producer spotlights, and finally, epic rounds of contests. Watch this space!

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