Jack Harlow Producer Sean Momberger on How Mining Obscure Samples Led to the Chart-Topping ‘Lovin on Me’
20.12.2023 - 18:12
/ variety.com
Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer For Sean Momberger, the journey to bring Jack Harlow’s latest smash “Lovin on Me” to life began on YouTube. It was this past June that the producer, who has spent the last decade stacking up credits on songs by Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj and Lil Baby, logged onto the video streaming platform to scour for samples.
He typically spends four to five hours parsing through playlists and accounts to mine inspiration for his beats, and it just so happened that he came across Cadillac Dale’s obscure 1995 song “Whatever (Bass Solique)” on a channel specializing in independent and unreleased R&B. “It was like, whoa, this is super special,” he says. “You know when you have a good sample [with] the tagline and writing and how powerful the bit is? I was like, I’ve got to use this right away.” What he ended up with is 2023’s last-minute entries for one of the biggest rap hits of the year.
“Lovin on Me,” which Mombeger co-produced with Drake and Travis Scott collaborators Oz and Nik D, became an instant smash when it touched down in November, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and soon climbing to the summit. As of this week, it’s leading the five non-Christmas songs in the chart’s top 20 at No.
6. “This is definitely the proudest moment of my career,” continues Momberger. “It’s been a blessing for me and my family.
You get 50 placements and you get 50 pats on the back, but unless you have a smash in the industry, it doesn’t really blow the doors off for your career. This is just that first feeling of wow, you can connect with different people. You get more notoriety and it’s an amazing feeling, to be honest.” While “Lovin on Me” began as an idea sketched out from the sample on YouTube, the
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