It was clear that "No Problem" was going to be a hit from the moment Chance the Rapper teased it on Snapchat last January, four months before he released Coloring Book. The song would go on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Performance. In a new video by Genius, production duo Brasstracks (Ivan Jackson and Conor Rayne) breaks down how they blended elements of gospel and hip hop to make the "No Problem" beat.
“Everything we’ve ever put out, we get so many people saying that Chance the Rapper should get on it or it sounds like a Chance the Rapper beat and one day I tweeted that exact thing,” Jackson recalled. “He retweeted it. Then he followed us. So we DM'ed him.”
“It is inspired by old Kanye, sampling kind of stuff,” he continued. “He’s used choirs in so many instances and we knew that we wanted to do something similar. We knew that we wouldn’t get the sound that we wanted just by recording a choir. It’s not just about that. It’s about manipulation of those instruments.”
Brasstracks insisted that the song contains no samples, and proved it by explaining how they recorded a gospel choir, duplicated the recordings, and pitched them to build out the sound. They broke down the drums and explained how they contracted out the organs, and revealed that Andre 3000 was originally considered for the guest feature that ultimately went to 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne.
“We were like, ‘Whoa! Total opposite direction of what we thought this was gonna go!’” Jackson said. “But it made so much sense.”