Sounwave

Mark Anthony Spears, known professionally as Sounwave, is an American hip-hop producer and songwriter from Compton, California,[1] and an original member of the Californian hip-hop label Top Dawg Entertainment.[2] Sounwave has worked on every Kendrick Lamar studio album since Lamar's 2009 self-titled EP, including the Grammy Award-nominated album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Grammy Award winning To Pimp a Butterfly, and the multi-Grammy and Pulitzer Prize–winning album Damn. He has received two Grammy Awards: Best Rap Song (2015) for "Alright", and Best Rap Album (2017) for Damn.[3][4]

Sounwave
Background information
Birth nameMark Anthony Spears
OriginCompton, California, U.S.
GenresHip hop
Occupation(s)
  • Record producer
  • songwriter
Years active2005–present
LabelsTDE Music

Early life

Hailing from Compton, Sounwave credits "Up Jumps da Boogie" by Timbaland as the first hip hop instrumental he ever listened to. From the age of ten, he started using a Korg drum machine to make simple drum beats. From there, he graduated to a 4-track machine and then to the MTV Music Generator for PlayStation. After using that for a while, he hooked up with rapper Bishop Lamont from Carson, California, and a song he produced for him with MTV Music Generator received local radio placement.[5]

Career

2005–2008

In 2005, Sounwave was originally discovered by Top Dawg Entertainment co-founder Terrence "Punch" Henderson, who had him meet with TDE CEO Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith. Tiffith was originally unimpressed with Sounwave; however, Sounwave persisted and honed his craft, which ended up "blowing away" Tiffith.[6] It was then he became a member of Digi+Phonics, an American hip hop production team, composed of fellow California-based record producers Tae Beast, Dave Free and Willie B. They served as the main in-house producers for Carson-based record label, Top Dawg Entertainment. Digi+Phonics worked significantly on projects from all the members of hip hop supergroup Black Hippy, who are also signed to Top Dawg and is composed of rappers Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul.

2009–2016

Sounwave's earliest work for Top Dawg Entertainment surfaced on the self-titled Kendrick Lamar and Jay Rock's compilation track "Fa Sho", in 2009 and 2010 respectively.[7] In 2011, Sounwave produced the bulk of Lamar's mixtape/album Section.80, which landed him on Complex's "15 New Producers to Watch" list.[8] He also produced three songs on Lamar's critically acclaimed second album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012).[7] Sounwave is known for producing Kendrick Lamar's hit single "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe", among other songs such as "M.A.A.D. City", "A.D.H.D" and Schoolboy Q's "There He Go".[9][1] In 2014, he earned a placement on Top Dawg Entertainment artist Isaiah Rashad's Cilvia Demo and produced "Hoover Street" and "Prescription/Oxymoron" on Schoolboy Q's Oxymoron. Outside of his work with artists in the Top Dawg Entertainment label, he worked with Flo Rida on the song "Finally Here" from the latter's second album R.O.O.T.S. (2009).[5] Sounwave is also credited with production on four tracks on Schoolboy Q's fourth studio album, Blank Face LP.

2016–present

In 2016, Sounwave worked alongside Lamar and Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Tiffith as co-writer, A&R, and producer of Black Panther: The Album,[10] the official soundtrack to the film Black Panther. His work on the film's single "All the Stars" with Lamar and SZA earned nominations for Best Original Song for the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Critics' Choice Movie Awards.

Outside of Top Dawg Entertainment, Sounwave has collaborated with Beyoncé, Mary J Blige, and many others. In 2019, Sounwave co-wrote and co-produced the song "London Boy" for Taylor Swift's seventh studio album Lover (2019).[11]

Additionally in 2019, he along with singer and songwriter Sam Dew and producer/musician Jack Antonoff released a project titled "Red Hearse[12]" under the same name.

Songwriting and production discography

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Albums

Awards and nominations

References
  1. "iStandard Producers Weigh In On XXL's 2013 Freshman Producers List – Page 14 of 16 – XXL". Xxlmag.com. May 1, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  2. Mikael Wood (January 31, 2019). "Kendrick Lamar's secret weapon? His right-hand man, 'Black Panther' soundtrack producer Sounwave". The LA Times. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  3. Jeff Weiss (May 28, 2019). "Sounwave: How the Kendrick Lamar and 'Black Panther' Producer Quietly Made America's Soundtrack". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 12, 2019. If he desired, Sounwave could easily reap millions farming his beats out to the corniest names in popular music. Instead, he's so self-effacing and averse to self-promotion that doesn't even have his own Wikipedia page.
  4. Dan Hyman (April 22, 2017). "Why Kendrick Lamar and Sounwave Camped Out in Sleeping Bags to Make DAMN". GQ. Retrieved December 12, 2019. The Grammy-winning producer and longtime Kendrick whisperer Mark "Sounwave" Spears takes us behind the scenes.
  5. "Beat Construction: Sounwave « The FADER". Thefader.com. December 4, 2012. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  6. "Let The Beat Build – Digi-Phonics On Kendrick Lamar & Dr. Dre | Let The Beat Build | Noisey". Noisey.vice.com. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  7. Sutherland, Sam (March 20, 2013). "HEAT RISING: Sounwave made his first beats using a video game, and now he's Top Dawg Entertainment family". Aux.tv. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  8. "Sounwave — 15 New Producers To Watch Out For". Complex. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  9. "Digi + Phonics — 25 New Producers To Watch Out For". Complex. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  10. Weiss, Jeff (May 29, 2018). "Sounwave: How the Kendrick Lamar and 'Black Panther' Producer Quietly Made America's Soundtrack". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  11. "Here are the full credits for Taylor Swift's new album, Lover". The FADER. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  12. ""Red Hearse" is Anything But Dead". The Fordham Ram. January 18, 2021. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
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