Producer June the Genius Speaks on "Weird" Rappers and his Hit Cartel

Source: @_justrock / @_justrock

Houston producer June the Genius has been carefully forging relationships in the music industry long before producing YFN Lucci’s 2016 hit “Key to the Streets.” It’s just that now, everyone wants to know him.

Especially since Travis Scott’s 2018 Astroworld LP earned a nod from the Grammy gods and June was behind the production of the platinum track “Yosemite.” True to their Texas roots with a Western guitar twang throughout, the song was regarded as one of the best on the album. So it’s not surprising that everyone wants to get close to June. Still, he’s mindful of who he’s been building with and how these links will be beneficial to himself and his Hit Cartel brand.

On a recent afternoon, June sat with HHW for lunch in a quaint hideaway in NYC’s SoHo. David Bowie’s “Changes” played overhead as June took a sip from his water glass before revealing that sometimes, the connection with rappers goes as far as the studio door. And that’s fine. “I don’t know. I don’t really f*ck with rappers, I ain’t gon’ lie,” he shared. “I f*xck with producers and engineers, rappers can be weird. Producers don’t f*ck with rappers often they really just be around you when they need you and that’s it after that.”

There are at least two artists that June does admit to having a solid vibe with though: Detroit’s Sada Baby and Atlanta’s Rich Homie Quan. By the end of the year, June hopes to have a completed EP with them both. He’s also working on a five-city tour of sorts — beginning in July — that will end up producing another full project by fall of this year. The tour presents an opportunity for June to pay homage to other producers, working with them in the lab and getting them to speak on their careers. He’ll also be gifting local artists with a song that will premiere at each city’s show (Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta and DC) and on the EP that will punctuate the tour’s end.

Now that the ink is dry on his distribution deal with Empire, June is looking forward to getting more work done with other artists in a variety of genres, because it’s not just about rap. This Texas boy grew up in the church and acquiesced to his mother making him learn how to play the horn in his youth (he’s currently taking piano lessons). He was naturally talented, but discovered a greater love for production in his freshman year of high school, carrying his skills all the way to Texas Southern University where he played trombone in the band.

Now, a lifetime away from being that kid with the horn, June the Genius is one of hip-hop’s most talented up and comers, he’s focused all on his own. It seems autonomy is just in him. “You know we used to be our own country, right?,” he says excitedly, over the lunchtime chatter of nearby tables. “The Great State of Texas.”

Hip Hop Wired: Tell us about Hit Cartel. What are you doing with the brand?

June the Genius: Hit Cartel is a collective. We have songwriters, musicians and engineers. It’s a label now so we’re like, the new kids on the block. The goal is to take the label to the next level. The highest that we can take it. We got distribution with Empire now which is cool and we want to find and cultivate acts but we’re taking our time. We’re going to open a studio in Atlanta and another one in Houston and just build up from there. It’s a collective of producers who just make hits. We’ve done it so far and we just wanna try and take it further.

HHW: You’ve said that there are only a couple of rappers that you have a decent relationship with outside of work. How are things for you typically in the studio?

June the Genius: That’s the only time when [certain rappers are] cool. Outside of the studio, they just be awkward. Even in the studio, most people `don’t work how they used to work, everybody just be tryna chill. Honestly, they try and bring the strip club to the studio. I like working with pop artists moreso, like for the vibe, I can tell they’re really into the music. Sometimes when I work with rappers, you can tell who’s just in it for a check and who got that passion for it. I like working with passionate people who are creative, it doesn’t matter what genre it is.

HHW: How did you get into playing the horn? And where did producing come into play?

June the Genius: My mama was the one who made me do that sh*t in middle school and it just went from there. I liked it to a certain extent but really I was just good at it. I started producing with Fruity Loops in my freshman year of high school and I liked it more, so eventually I stopped doing the band sh*t and got into producing.

Source: @_justrock / @_justrock

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HHW: You’ve managed to insert your Texan background in your music too , which is a nice touch.

June the Genius: That’s why my sh*t be so melodic. I use guitars and all that instrumentation… Growing up on Pimp C, I remember him doing a lot of sh*t like that: guitars and piano and that sh*t. Our sh*t is a lot more melodic than just ‘boom pap.’

HHW: Which other genres would you like to contribute to?

June the Genius: I really don’t discriminate when it comes to genres. You know how some people are like, ‘I only listen to this…,’ but I like music so much that I listen to everything. I’m eclectic I don’t really have a set genre when it comes to how I work. I just believe in what I like.

HHW: Think you could do a gospel record?

June the Genius: Yeah.

HHW: Really?

June the Genius: That’s easy though! How could it not be easy? We black. We born in the church. And I’m from the south. That’s all we be on.

HHW: Describe your best experience since you put the trombone away and started producing.

June the Genius: It’s different levels to everything but my first dope experience was the first time I got my song played in the club. It was a local hit and everybody knew it in the club. Then like two years after that, there was the first time I heard my song on local radio and seeing people sing a song that I produced, word for word, that was dope. Years later, it was when I had my first national hit go platinum and that was it. Ever since then it’s just been consistent.

HHW: You’ve said that your relationships with Sada Baby and Rich Homie Quan have led to you doing even more work with them. Why create whole EPs over singles?

June the Genius: That’s what I’m into now, I wanna do EPs with like seven or eight songs instead of just singles. Because I have that distribution deal with Empire, it’s nothing for me to get with artists I like and do it like, a 50/50 project with them, a joint deal. When you have that chemistry going on, it’s like, ‘Come on by the studio and let’s make these songs.’ I guarantee that out of seven or eight songs, there’ll be at least one single in that muhf*cker.

HHW: Besides those two joint projects, what else can we expect to see from you in the coming months?

June the Genius: I’m working on finishing a Houston EP with all the newest artists out there like Maxo Kream, Megan Thee Stallion — a lot of dope artists from Houston are on the rise so being as how I have a platform right now I want to do a tape with them and drop it in the fall or maybe around Christmas. I got a lot on the way.

HHW: Would you say Houston has love for you?

June the Genius: I wasn’t one of those people that blew up and just kinda mentioned that I’m from Houston. Nah. Houston watched me grow up. Through everything. So when I got those platinum records, the whole city was rooting for me. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, he’s doing his thing but I never heard of him.’ I’ve lived on every side so everybody was rooting for me.  

HHW: What would you like to see happen for your career by the year’s end?

June the Genius: I just want more. I can’t really say what’s supposed to happen but we never know how God has our path set. There’s a lot of shit that I want. When I first got signed, people didn’t really look out for me and I had to do a lot of shit for myself. Butnow, slowly but surely, I’m building a team around me that knows what the f*ck they talking about. They can really help me get where I need to get and vice versa. I just want more hits bruh. Because I know more hits will bring more opportunities.