{"id":237330,"date":"2025-07-31T12:42:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=237330"},"modified":"2025-07-31T12:50:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:50:51","slug":"sean-momberger-if-this-happened-when-i-was-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/sean-momberger-if-this-happened-when-i-was-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Momberger: ‘If this happened when I was 21, who knows what would have happened? It probably would have been too much.’"},"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. This time out we meet Sean Momberger, co-producer of the <\/em>song of 2024, Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us<\/em> \u2013 who also worked with artists such as Jack Harlow, Chris Brown, and Doja Cat. 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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Kendrick Lamar<\/strong> stares right down the lens of Sean Momberger\u2019s<\/strong> mobile phone as he raps, never missing a beat.<\/p>\n

The year was 2013 and the then-rookie rapper was playing a college tour in Gainesville, Florida<\/strong>. Momberger \u2013 then a hip-hop obsessive, business management student and wannabe producer \u2013 made sure he was in the front row for Lamar\u2019s set, filming the footage of \u201cbaby Kendrick\u201d that he\u2019s proudly showing MBW<\/em> on his phone right now, in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great show,\u201d Momberger<\/strong> reminisces. \u201cI remember being super-inspired, so it\u2019s crazy now that I get to work on Kendrick\u2019s music\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, these days, Momberger<\/strong> has a different kind of front-row seat for Lamar\u2019s phenomenal success. He rode shotgun as co-producer (alongside his regular collaborator, Dijon \u201cMustard\u201d McFarlane) on Not Like Us<\/em>, a song born in the white heat of Lamar\u2019s beef with Drake, but that has gone on to be anything but a minor hit, striking a chord everywhere from UK football stadiums to the Grammys and the Super Bowl Halftime Show.<\/p>\n

“Just to be living in LA for the past year and all the places I\u2019ve heard the song, it\u2019s like the theme song for LA, all the sports teams are using it. It\u2019s a cultural touchstone right now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy,\u201d Momberger laughs, showing off his official Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl hoodie<\/strong> (although he missed the gig because he was sick). \u201cI didn\u2019t necessarily even know the track was going to drop and then, when it did, I really didn\u2019t grasp how big the song would be. Just to be living in LA for the past year and all the places I\u2019ve heard the song, it\u2019s like the theme song for LA, all the sports teams are using it. It\u2019s a cultural touchstone right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also diamond-certified proof of Momberger\u2019s own late-blooming super-producer status. He grew up in Gainesville and, while he never took to the piano and drum lessons his parents made him take (\u201cthat always felt like homework\u201d), he got his first drum machine in middle school and discovered music production via Kanye West YouTube videos.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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After college, he moved to LA with his brothers and started working with a rapper called Skeme, who ended up inviting Momberger to London to work on an Iggy Azalea<\/strong> record with production team The Invisible Men. Momberger ended up playing keyboards on Azalea\/Charli XCX\u2019s 2014 megahit, Fancy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI added several things and they discarded some of it, but they picked one sound I added and it made it to the final mix,\u201d he shrugs. \u201cI don\u2019t think they knew it was going to be that big and, somehow, I got my name on it. I was a footnote on that song, I wasn\u2019t a producer, but just to see how big a song can get was inspiring. That was definitely the point in my career when I could see how far I could take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skeme also introduced Momberger to Mustard, and the two formed a dynamite production team (\u201cI\u2019m Robin to Mustard\u2019s Batman,\u201d Momberger says, with trademark humility).<\/p>\n

They were jobbing producers for years, working their way up the hip-hop ranks together and now find themselves red-hot, courtesy of Lamar\u2019s Not Like Us<\/em> and TV Off<\/em>, while Momberger was also a co-producer on Jack Harlow\u2019s monster hit, Lovin\u2019 On Me<\/em>, sourcing its distinctive Cadillac Dale sample.<\/p>\n

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It was Not Like Us<\/em>, however, that swept the 2025 Grammys, picking up five, including Record Of The Year<\/strong> and Song Of The Year,<\/strong> an event still fresh in Momberger\u2019s mind as he catches up with MBW<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely was not expecting it, but my gut was telling me it was Kendrick\u2019s year,\u201d says the producer, who had a low-key celebration with his publishers (300\/Warner Chappell<\/strong>) and his brothers after the ceremony. \u201cWhen I woke up, I was still in disbelief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Momberger should probably get used to it. Now 34 years old, he admits it will be difficult to top his recent success (\u201cWhere can you go? I don\u2019t know\u2026\u201d), but his phone has been ringing red hot, and he has big plans to develop some new artists of his own and take his collaboration with Mustard<\/strong> to the next level.<\/p>\n

But first it\u2019s time for him to sit down with MBW<\/strong> in his LA studio and talk AI, sampling and why he\u2019s not bothered about Not Like Us<\/em> court cases\u2026<\/p>\n

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DID YOU REALLY NOT KNOW STRAIGHT AWAY THAT NOT LIKE US<\/em> WOULD BE HUGE?<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Not at all. The way Mustard and I work is, he\u2019ll text me saying, \u2018I need ideas for so-and-so\u2019. That week he was like, \u2018I\u2019m sending stuff to Kendrick\u2019.<\/p>\n

When he said that, I got a little spark of inspiration. I came across this Monk Higgins record (I Believe To My Soul<\/em>), which became the song I chose to sample. When I made it, I thought Kendrick might like it, but that was just one of the ideas I made that day. I didn\u2019t leave thinking like, \u2018Oh man, I made the most incredible idea\u2019.<\/p>\n