He'll then start pacing around the studio, mumbling to himself. There will be a track, and Jay will figure out a flow and a concept for it, if it isn't already in the track. Most of the time a producer presents him with beats, though he may also give a producer a song or beat idea. 'It's pretty much the same process as when I first met him. Having worked closely with Jay‑Z for a decade now, Young Guru has an intimate knowledge of the rapper's way of working. I absolutely never leave a session on anyone else's computer.” Plus, if you have only one person working on all your music, it cuts down on the bootlegging. We do more than just recording: he also bounces off ideas with me, so there's a kind of synergy about the records we create together. This is to do with my knowledge of his way of working and the comfort and trust factor between us. Even when Jay's working with another producer who has his own go‑to engineer, Jay takes me along to engineer his vocals. I did and still do a lot of sessions for Roc‑A‑Fella and Def Jam and other labels, and do pretty much all Jay's sessions. I continued to be an independent engineer, but I ended up literally living in Baseline. Soon after he asked me if I would be an engineer at Baseline. As the head of the label, Jay would come and check on the sessions, and then invited me to do sessions with him. On the phone from his home studio in New York, Young Guru recalls, 'I met Jay‑Z in 1999 when I was doing sessions for Memphis Bleek, who was signed to Roc‑A‑Fella. The common factors throughout were Jay‑Z's own New York studios - Baseline and Roc The Mic - and engineer and mixer Gimel Keaton, better known as Young Guru. In typical Jay‑Z style, the rapper also gave a break to some less well‑known talents, in this case Jerome Harmon and Al Shux. The Blueprint 3 was produced by a swathe of hip‑hop luminaries including Kanye West, Timbaland, No ID, Swizz Beatz and the Neptunes. Its lead single, 'DOA (Death Of Auto‑Tune)', provoked much controversy, while follow‑up 'Run This Town' was a number one in the UK, and reached number two in the US. The recent third album in his 'Blueprint' series was his ninth American and his first UK number one, pushing his total album sales to date in the US alone to a staggering 30 million. Shawn 'Jay‑Z' Carter is not only the biggest star in the rap world with his own clothing company and Roc‑A‑Fella Records label, he is also a highly successful businessman.

Gimel Keaton, aka Young Guru, at the SSL desk in Roc The Mic Studios. Young Guru was at the desk throughout the recording and mixing of Jay‑Z's latest smash-hit album, The Blueprint 3. Behind every rap megastar, there's a very talented engineer.

Jay z blueprint 3 rar