Where My Ladies At?

Alicia Keys at her studio The Oven. Keys is one of the few women to own her own studio, plus she has a female engineer! And she produces for herself and others. Unfortunately, she's in a minority right now.






Interesting discussion on the lack of female producers over on the Guardian.

Killian Fox wrote an ARTICLE over the weekend listing the six best up-and-coming producers in the world; Erol Alkan, Switch, Diplo, Dangermouse, Greg Kurstin and Gonzalez got a mention, but, as Kitty Empire's BLOG points out, where the hell the girls be at? No diss to Killian, cos who was he supposed to mention? I just hope Goldielocks, M.I.A, Alicia and Cockandbullkid hold it down until the newcomers arrive - or else maybe Mz Beatz will make a comeback? And if you're a woman working magic behind the boards, let us know abut you.

I added my two penneth thus:

Great piece and I'm of course in full agreement that, for some reason, there is a distinct lack of female producers.

It may be worth adding into the mix that Beyonce produces a lot of her own stuff, but again, she doesn't really produce for anyone else. There are a couple of British women coming through though that people maybe interested in. Thecockandbullkid and Goldielocks are two London girls that work not only on their own stuff, but produce and remix for acts like Frisco, Example, Mutya, Kate Nash, Ruff Sqwad and Envy. Goldie in particular is now remixing quite a lot of the bigger artists from the UK underground and around. It's small steps, but hopefully we'll soon see strides. MIA too is also working on Afrikan Boy's material, as well as being fully in control of her own.
MySpace.com/goldielocksmusic and Myspace.com/thecockandbullkid

I continue to be amazed that Missy is the only real American female beat-maker of note (I agree she hasn't got the hit-list of Timbo, but can count Tweet, Keyshia Cole, Aaliyah, Trina, Destiny's Child, Lil Kim and Janet Jackson as some of those she has worked with). Alicia Keys also created a hit for Keyshia Cole so perhaps she too will expand further in the world of producing for others.

I have been fortunate to interview the likes of MIA, Beyonce and Mary J Blige and they all point out that women simply don't get the credit. Mary J Blige said that she didn't realise for years that she was supposed to be getting co-producer and songwriter credits, while both Alicia Keys and MIA said their ideas had been systematically dismissed for years. It took time for their male cohorts to began to view them even semi-seriously as songwriters and music-makers.

Hopefully, there's a wealth of young (and old) women on the verge of making their name. It's perhaps just a case of searching very long, and very hard, to find them...