The Wall Street Journal has published an inspiring profile of one of hip-hop’s most trusted sound engineers, Young Guru.
Born Gimel Keaton, the 41-year-old has been Jay Z’s engineer for 16 years, recorded Eminem and 50 Cent early in their careers, and has been in the studio with other superstars: Beyoncé, Drake, Rick Ross, Rihanna, and Snoop Dogg. He’s also served as Jay’s tour DJ since 2010.
In addition to making songs sound better, Young Guru is a visiting lecturer at USC and a frequent guest speaker at colleges such as NYU and MIT, among others.
“He’s expanded the idea of what an engineer can be,” Cornell University’s Patrick Gillespie told WJS. “Engineers are no longer sitting in the back room. They’re out front, creating things, showing the world what can be done.”
Grammy-nominated rapper Common told WSJ:
“He truly is a scientist, a musician, a visionary . . . Sometimes technology doesn’t get to the core energy of a project, but he knows how to manipulate it where you feel like you’re getting something authentic and organic. He uses technology at its highest level.”
Serato Has Been SOLD – For Real This Time!
Serato have just anounced that they've been acquired by Canadian firm Tiny. In this emergency epsiode of Beatsource Tech, Mojaxx brings you his initial rea...
R.O.A.D. Podcast – Flavor Of The Month (April 2025)
Flavor of the Month is your cheat code for new DJ edits, remixes and bootlegs handpicked by the ROAD Podcast. Every month, the crew shouts out their favori...
On this week’s episode of the @RoadPodcast, the fellas welcome hip hop DJ, turntablist and original member of the turntablist group The X-Ecutioners, Rob S...
Fresh Drops From Ed Sheeran, Sexyy Red, Skrillex, + More!
Notable tracks that were added to DJcity this week. View them all here. Download the tracks below. (* indicates DJcity Exclusive) Ed Sheeran – Azizam Sexy...
At DJcity, we are always working to make sure that the way our record pool functions reflects the needs of our users. Therefore in our latest update, we sw...
Rane have released firmware updates for their FOUR and PERFORMER Serato controllers which, along with the usual big fixes, brings along some new features w...
DJcity’s Top Downloads for March 2025 – Don’t Miss These Hits
These are DJcity’s most downloaded tracks of March 2025. Our monthly charts feature top downloads from around the world, plus regional charts for Latin, U...
*** UPDATE: check out our updated 2024 and 2025 playlists! Wedding season has arrived! DJcity’s Remix Director Sir Marcus has put together a list of...
Novation Dicers: A Retro Classic Every DJ Should Know
In the first episode of our new series, Beatsource Retro Tech, Mojaxx is revisiting the Dicers from Novation. These unique devices, conceived by Ean Golden...
James Hype. Yesterday, DJcity revealed its most downloaded tracks of 2020. Today, we dive deeper to uncover the most popular remixes, bootlegs, and edits o...