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Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Socorro Native Shares Grammy
By Suzanne Barteau
El Defensor Chieftain
No, Jeff Bhasker's Grammy-winning song "Run This Town" is not about his dad, Ravi, being the mayor of Socorro.
"Actually, Kanye West wrote that part," he said in a recent telephone interview. "I wrote some of the part that Rihanna sings."
"Run This Town" won Best Rap Song at the 52nd Grammy Awards.
The song was co-written by Shawn Carter (Jay-Z), Robyn Fenty (Rihanna), Kanye West and Ernest Wilson.
This is the first Grammy for Bhasker, but not his first Grammy nomination. He's come a long way from that first gig at El Sombrero Restaurant, and he credits his success with working hard at it and believing in himself.
"I've been really lucky to run into people who reinforced the idea in me that I could do it," he said. "The most important thing is to not give up."
After graduating from Socorro High School in 1993, Bhasker attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he started out studying jazz.
He traveled back and forth between Boston and New York for several years. The day he finally packed his car and moved to New York was a day that changed not just his life but also the lives of many others.
"Actually, I moved to New York on 9/11," he said. "That made it a different place. It was kind of a struggle; people were in survival mode. It was a toughening-up process."
In New York, Bhasker said he became more interested in art and design. He began to focus less on the technical aspects of music and more on the artistic side, and worked with musicians who really inspired him.
"New Yorkers have a real 'let's do this' attitude," Bhasker said. "I took that attitude with me when I moved to L.A."
Bhasker's first big break came when he produced the title track on The Game's "The Documentary," which sold more than 3 million albums. At the time he was working on composing hip-hop beats for rappers and says he gradually became more interested in melody to "unite the words and music together."
Bhasker comes back to Socorro fairly often.
"I love Socorro," he said. "It's not your average little small town. I had lots of great teachers in Socorro, and great opportunities."
Bhasker said he still keeps in touch with John Licha, who retired this year from teaching music and was instrumental in getting him started.
Bhasker offered some advice to today's students.
"The best way to get better at something is to work with people who are better than you," he said. "It makes you have to step up to the challenge."
Bhasker's credits include producing and co-producing songs on albums by Goapele, The Game, Myka Nyne, Kanye West, Leona Lewis, Adam Lambert, Kid Cudi and Jay-Z. Other artists he's worked with include Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne and Robin Thicke. In addition to his production and writing credits, he's also a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.
Albuquerque's Los Texmaniacs also won a Grammy this year, for the best Tejano album.
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