Lex Luger Makes History

By Kathy Iandoli

Nov 16 2011

When Lex Luger’s first hit (Waka Flocka Flame’s “Hard in Da Paint”) reached the club, he was too young to even hear it there. Now 20, Lex still can’t legally buy liquor, but the Virginia native has crafted enough bottle-popping anthems for famed rappers that he’s there in spirit.

When Luger produced Rick Ross’s colossal hit “B.M.F. (Blowin’ Money Fast),” the world was introduced to his cinematic style of swirling synths and ferocious thuds. One super-producer/rapper was listening. “Kanye West called me,” Luger says. “He heard ‘B.M.F.’ and loved the drums.” West flew Luger to New York for studio time. “I was up until 5 a.m., I felt like I was gonna pass out and my eyes were closing on me,” Luger recalls. “When I finished the beat, my boy came up to me and was like, ‘That was one of the best beats I ever heard you make.’” The product was the world’s first glimpse into the Jay-Z and Kanye West collaborative masterpiece Watch the Throne, known as “HAM.”

Now one of hip-hop’s most in-demand producers, Luger remains a studio fixture, clocking in 20-plus hours a day in the lab. The hard work is paying off: Luger was named BMI Urban Producer of the Year at the BMI Urban Awards in August, the youngest ever to win the crown.

The secret to his success is not tailoring beats, but rather taking rappers out of their comfort zones. “If Drake calls me for a beat, I don’t mold it to be a Drake record,” he says. “I just bring what I’ve got to the table. It might be the weirdest beat ever.” For Luger, his art is all about feeling. “Some people don’t like to be stressed in the studio; I try to capitalize off it,” he says. “That’s what music is to me: a way to express myself. I might be happy, I might be sad, I might be angry. Whatever is there, is there. Take it how it comes.”

Lex Luger joined BMI in 2010. Learn more about Luger at getsmokedout.com.