Yesterday, BMI celebrated it’s 10th Anniversary of ‘How I Wrote That Song’ at 1 Oak Los Angeles.
The Grammy-Infused event featured some of this year’s nominated and award-winning artists like Fat Joe, DJ Khaled, Alex Da Kid, country songwriter Dallas Davidson, and singer-songwriter Lauren Christy on the panel, and a guest appearance by Mannie Fresh spinning throughout. The panelists discussed the stories behind some of their famous hits and answered questions from a crowd of folks eager to learn the ins-and-outs of getting around this gritty music business.
With past panelists such as Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Nas, will.i.am, RedOne, Zac Brown, Cee Lo Green, B.o.B, Kara DioGuardi, Seal, and tons more, moderator & BMI VP/Writer/Publisher Relations Catherine Brewton told us that she came up with the idea for the annual event 10 years ago in effort to help the everyday person who wants to learn about the art of songwriting, or more importantly just be a part of a Grammy experience. “It’s a multi-genre format because we want to let kids understand that even though they may be different genre’s, there’s always some common thread,” she explained.
Spectators packed the venue from wall-to-wall, listening to all the backstories and laughs shared by the panelists as they reminisced on just how they made some of their classic hits, as well as gave some surprise live performances. Me singing and clapping along, saying to myself, I had no clue that Lauren Christy wrote that song. Speaking of her 2016 major hit with G Eazy and Bebe Rexha “Me, Myself and I”; or Avril Lavigne’s 2003 classic “Complicated”; the BMI Songwriter of the Year recipient (Christy) along with her songwriting team The Matrix were actually responsible for the writing and production of Lavigne’s debut album ‘Let Go’. And her other recent music smash, Enrique Iglesias’s “Tonight I’m Loving You” which I love, and multiple handfuls more.
Fat Joe was a bowl of laughs talking about the day he first met Hip Hop legend Big Pun year’s ago, discussing the creation and collaboration for 90’s jam “Still Not A Player” featuring singer Joe. Joe talks about meeting Big Pun outside a bodega, and at first being totally disinterested until Pun showed him something different, he then welcomed him to the team and later began dropping song after song. With the nomination of Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s “All The Way Up” for Best Rap Song in this year’s Grammy Awards, and the release of their joint project Plato o Plomo out later this week (February 17th), Joe had this to say about taking home the award, “Mama, we’re winning tomorrow, we come to win. No question. So it’s going to be crazy, and we’re performing at Allstar weekend at the NBA game and all that.” Claiming the victory, Joe has a lot to be confident about coming back to the spotlight in such a big way, with his good friend Remy Ma by his side.
Energy-gawd DJ Khaled, however, couldn’t make the panel as he had to tend to an emergency studio session, but did a FaceTime with Brewton and the crowd where he promised the making of another hit was the cause of his absence; another story we look forward to hearing one day soon. Music producer Alex Da Kid talked about interning everywhere, working for free in order to catch his big break; and country music songwriter Dallas Davidson who Brewton referred to as songwriter on steroids advised the crowd of aspirers to work harder than the next person, “Dial in on what you’re good at and hone that skill”.
After 76 years of serving the music community, BMI continues to back and build some of today’s greatest and strongest musicians, raking in millions of dollars and racking up more and more awards. Spanning from all sorts of genre’s, the BMI collection of songs consists of some of the most performed of the year.
