When Kendrick Lamar took the stage at the Super Bowl halftime show, he didn't share it only with tennis great Serena Williams and St. Louis native SZA. Lamar also spotlighted music producer Mustard during a performance of “tv off.”
Lamar’s inclusion of Mustard onstage demonstrated appreciation between the two artists and highlighted for fans an aspect of the music industry not often seen — the musicians behind the scenes.
While more casual listeners are learning more about the unsung heroes of their favorite songs, the attention has been mostly on men. That’s left women producers in the shadows and underappreciated. Alicia Keys highlighted that sentiment when she accepted the Global Impact Award at the Grammys last month.
“I always had to fight for a certain level of respect as a songwriter, a composer, and especially a producer,” Keys said. “It's strange that we don't think of women as producers like Quincy [Jones] or [Dr. Dre] or [Swizz Beats], but female producers have always powered the industry.”
In St. Louis, women music producers have supported and encouraged each other to advocate for themselves despite unfair treatment, sexist encounters in production studios and underrepresentation.
Alexis Calhoun, who creates music as Lexxiii Beatz, told St. Louis on the Air that she constantly has to prove herself as a producer and audio engineer despite having a professional certification in Pro Tools, an industry-wide editing platform.
“People try to downplay what I do. They like to use the word, ‘little.’ ‘You make your little songs.’ No, I’m making actual songs,” Calhoun said. “They’ll say, ‘Why aren’t you in the kitchen?’ Those same people, I sometimes have to coach them through what to do in the same [recording] session.”
Stacey Reynolds — who goes by Volume Speaks — is a multi-instrumentalist and music producer. She shared that others in the music scene make assumptions about the music she composes.
“[I hear], ‘Oh, so you make R&B beats or pop beats? Little girly beats?’ and I have to tell them and humble them in a way. I’ve executively produced albums. I’ve done multiple collaborations,” Reynolds said. “It’s this box where if you’re a woman you just make ‘girly’ beats. I can do everything just like everyone else can.”
Reynolds and Calhoun both shared that in St. Louis, despite what they face from the music scene at large, the community of producers is supportive. Both are frequent participants in Fresh Produce beat battles where they face off to win cash prizes and studio time at Suburban Sounds.
“I think that the producer community here in St. Louis is beautiful. [There is] no beef, no animosity, no negativity,” Reynolds said. “If I have a question, I know there are so many people to call.”
The inclusive nature of St. Louis’ producer community has brought about more women getting involved in music production — and at Fresh Produce battles.
“A lot of times [women will] come up to me and say, ‘Oh my God, you were so good!’ They'll follow me on Instagram, and we'll have conversations [about music production] and I'm very open to helping,” Calhoun said. “[Later] they come back like, ‘Yeah, I did this beat.’”
For more about the friendship between Lexxiii Beatz and Volume Speaks, including how Lexxiii inspired Volume to participate in beat battles, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
Related Event
What: Fresh Produce Beat Battle, featuring Volume Speaks
When: March 5
Where: Atomic by Jamo (4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110)
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
