Hernandez has long resisted developing a signature sound, though he says the music he’s currently creating “sounds way crazier” than what’s currently on the radio. Hernandez has spent this spring day going back and forth on ideas for Kanye West’s So Help Me God. It’s a project that West boasted was ready for release many months ago, but the patchwork quilt is still being sewn together, and Hernandez is in the mix. “This album is definitely bouncier than Yeezus,” he says. “It caters more to the people. He’s definitely a happier person right now.”

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These days, Hernandez is stationed in Hackensack, New Jersey, where he lives with DJ SpinKing and a club owner named Star. He grew up in uptown Manhattan, where he began rapping at age 14 (he says he was “terrible”), until a friend put him on to Fruity Loops, the same low-budget production software he still uses today. As a teenager, his music caught the ear of Swizz Beatz’ father, who introduced Hernandez to his son. He began working with the rapper Cassidy, who wanted to freestyle over Drake’s breakout “Best I Ever Had.” On a whim, Hernandez decided to try his luck reaching out to the song’s producer, Boi-1da, on Myspace, and got a response. Before long, he was brought into Boi-1da’s world, and eventually became a close collaborator of Drake and his OVO cohort.

“Me, Boi-1da, and all the OVO people—we call ourselves the Spurs,” he says. “The Spurs are not a team that people look at, but they always win. And they’re still so humble. That’s how we all move.” Occasionally, they don’t win—like at the Grammy’s this year, when “0 to 100” lost to Kendrick Lamar’s “i” for Best Rap Song. Hernandez and his OVO producer friends learned of the loss on the way to the ceremony, and almost turned the car around. “I’m a sore loser,” Hernandez says. They left the ceremony quickly: “So boring.”

Hernandez remembers a time when he was more easily impressed. He used to be so nervous working with rap royalty that he’d bail on studio sessions, opting instead to work over email. Now he’s embedded deep within rap’s inner circle. “I have a publishing deal with Sony ATV,” he says. “Boi-1da helped me get that deal. Boi-1da wants me to surpass him.” Up next, Hernandez has projects on deck with pop sensation OneRepublic, and he’s heard that Rihanna has cut records to his beats. He was also recently in Berlin for a top-secret project. When I probe him, asking if it was for Jay Z and Beyoncé’s rumored joint album, he demurs, saying that he hopes he’ll be included if it happens. In the meantime, he’ll be plugging away at Fruity Loops. “I don’t make a hundred beats,” he says. “I make two beats every couple of weeks, and those beats get picked. So I’m like, ‘Alright, do I change my work ethic, or nah?’” He already knows the answer.

