{"id":232122,"date":"2025-05-22T11:40:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T10:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=232122"},"modified":"2025-05-22T11:42:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T10:42:02","slug":"im-going-to-become-a-mogul-im-working-towards-becoming-an-executive-producer-as-big-as-david-geffen1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/im-going-to-become-a-mogul-im-working-towards-becoming-an-executive-producer-as-big-as-david-geffen1\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I\u2019m going to become a mogul. I\u2019m working towards becoming an executive producer as big as David Geffen.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Producers series sees us interview \u2013 and celebrate \u2013 some of the outstanding talents working in studios across the decades. Here we talk to Turbo, a producer on a hot streak who, as well as long-term creative partner Gunna, has worked with artists including Travis Scott, Moneybagg Yo, Young Thug, Lil Baby, Big Sean – and even Morgan Wallen. World\u2019s Greatest Producers is supported by Kollective Neighbouring Rights<\/a>, the neighbouring rights agent that empowers and equips clients with knowledge to fully maximise their earnings.<\/p>\n

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Everyone has one of those long, hot summers; full of seemingly endless, carefree days that end up living long in the memory and, just maybe, changing your life.<\/p>\n

Chandler Durham\u2019s \u2018summer of \u201869\u2019 moment came along when he was 14. But he didn\u2019t spend his time at the park, the beach, or travelling to exotic destinations. Instead, he was locked away in his bedroom, avoiding the sweltering Atlanta heat and laying the foundations of a production technique that has seen him become one of the most influential hip-hop producers of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

But whatever Durham \u2013 now much better known as Turbo \u2013 missed out on in Vitamin D back in 2008, he\u2019s now making up for by overdosing on Vitamin H in 2025. H standing for Hits, of course; in recent times he has worked with everyone from his long-time collaborator Gunna to Travis Scott, Moneybagg Yo, Young Thug, Lil Baby, Big Sean and SleazyWorld Go. No wonder his stage name is Turbo The Great\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not hard to live up to,\u201d he chuckles as he talks to MBW<\/em> from the studio in Atlanta. \u201cI\u2019ve spent so much time doing this from an early age, at this point that\u2019s my last name\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

After that summer, in which his cousin first taught him how to use FL Studio and Turbo would scour YouTube looking for production tips, he did everything he could to emulate the likes of Timbaland, Pharrell and Swizz Beatz. He conscientiously racked up his 10,000 hours; paid his own way through Atlanta Institute of Music & Media; and taught himself to engineer in order to gain access to sessions in Atlanta\u2019s vibrant rap scene, working with the likes of T.I. and 21 Savage & Metro Boomin. Along the way, he met Gunna and a formidable hip-hop alliance was formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really started to lock in and from that point, I was just engulfed in it, all the way, completely,\u201d Turbo says. \u201cEvery day was either engineering or producing or doing something. It just snowballed into what it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

His relationship with Gunna hit paydirt on 2018\u2019s Drip Season 3<\/em> mixtape, crossed over via Lil Baby\u2019s collaboration with Gunna on the diamond-certified single, Drip Too Hard<\/em>, and stayed strong through Gunna\u2019s stint in jail in 2022 after the rapper pleaded guilty to a charge of racketeering (\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of ups and downs, so it was important for me to make sure, publicly and not publicly, that I stood next to my brother,\u201d says Turbo. \u201cThat\u2019s something I\u2019d want somebody to do for me\u201d).<\/p>\n

Turbo has had legal difficulties of his own<\/a><\/span>, but recently won the $10 million copyright infringement claim over his iconic ‘Run that back, Turbo’ producer tag, filed by musician Jamal Britt, whose voice is heard in the clip. The judge ruled Britt had no valid claim to the tag and reinforced Turbo\u2019s exclusive rights, ownership and control of the tag in future works.<\/p>\n

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Speaking to MBW<\/em> before the case was settled, Turbo dismissed it as \u201cpretty annoying\u201d and \u201cone of those situations you have to go through\u201d, and the tag features on Turbo\u2019s own new song, Classy Girl<\/em> (feat. Gunna), as he launches an artist career to sit alongside his production work and his company, The Playmakers, a record label and production company collective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready to push the limit, take the music, the transitions, the frequencies and the feeling to another level,\u201d he says of his forthcoming artist project. \u201cThat\u2019s where the whole idea of the Turbo album came from. There are no walls when you\u2019re a producer.\u201d<\/p>\n

That work ethic means he even works on vacation \u2013 he famously recorded part of Gunna\u2019s smash hit album One Of Wun<\/em> on a yacht, while he finished Big Sean\u2019s Better Me Than You<\/em> record on his birthday (\u201cDid he get me a big present? He did \u2013 the album!\u201d). He\u2019s even moved effortlessly into country music, producing the smash hit Whiskey Whiskey<\/em> by Moneybagg Yo featuring Morgan Wallen (\u201cCountry is just like hip-hop when I walk in the studio, it\u2019s second nature\u201d).<\/p>\n

And that dedication to his craft means he\u2019s determined to turn his current hot streak into an endless long hot summer of success.<\/p>\n

But first, it\u2019s time for him to sit down with MBW<\/em> and talk streaming algorithms, AI and why he doesn\u2019t pay attention to the music industry\u2026<\/p>\n

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WHAT DOES THE HOT STREAK YOU\u2019VE BEEN ON MEAN FOR YOUR CAREER?<\/h6>\n

Well, of course my phone\u2019s blowing up. But, when my music comes out, people have the opportunity to realize that real music is still alive. Once it gets ungimmicky and somebody sees this came out or this is doing well, my phone always rings a little bit more, but it\u2019s just my friends that have been in that process so long they kind of forgot about little old Turbo!<\/p>\n

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WHY DOES YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GUNNA WORK SO WELL?<\/h6>\n

We started together. In the beginning, he always looked at me as a producer, so I appreciated that, because I always wanted to be a producer, but, at that time, everybody was treating me as an engineer.<\/p>\n

Gunna was the first one to start calling me and asking me for beats. In the beginning, I\u2019d seen he was kind of lacking with his engineer, he wasn\u2019t working at the pace I was working and Gunna used to be terrible with his hard drive. He used to walk around with it in two pieces.<\/p>\n

When I saw that, I vividly remember having a conversation with him like, \u2018This hard drive is the most important thing ever\u2019. He\u2019d pull the hard drive out of two different pockets and I\u2019m like, \u2018Bro, this isn\u2019t how this is supposed to go\u2019.<\/p>\n

“It was [down to] our work ethic; we\u2019re the ones that are going to stay at the studio the longest and work on the song until it\u2019s all the way complete and sounds the best.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From that point on, I told him I was going to be his engineer and record him, and he took that as an opportunity to rap on all my beats, because he didn\u2019t really have to go to anybody else. I was sitting right there and I always made sure I had at least 20 beats a day to play for him.<\/p>\n

It was [down to] our work ethic; we\u2019re the ones that are going to stay at the studio the longest and work on the song until it\u2019s all the way complete and sounds the best. We\u2019ve been doing that pretty much every day and we just got glued to each other. The working relationship turned into a brotherhood and the brotherhood is everything at this point.<\/p>\n

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DID YOU ALWAYS THINK HE\u2019D BE A MASSIVE STAR?<\/h6>\n

I\u2019m not going to lie and act like I knew that he was going to be as big as he is now. I just knew that he could dress and he could rap and he was going to stay in the studio as long as I could, so that was enough for me.<\/p>\n

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