Red Spyda

Tha Red Spyda - real name Andy Thelusma - is an American Hip Hop producer who has worked on many songs for artists such as 50 Cent. He is also known for producing songs for D-Block, Mobb Deep, Amerie, D-12, and G-Unit. Other notable works by Red Spyda have included his contributions to the in-game soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto III. He produced background music for the game's fictional radio station Game FM (the name is derived from Game Recordings; several of the hip-hop label's artists such as Royce Da 5'9" appeared on the radio station). He also has production credits in the game for 2 freestyles and previously released songs featured in the game under his less commonly used alias Rush. Red Spyda has been most known for producing singles like:

WELCOME TO THA SPYDADOME
One of Spyda’s moves was to build his own studio, the Spydadome, in a room that’s part of an artist/engineer collective in SoHo. The gear is representative of the musician in his “inner engineer”: a Line 6 Bass POD, various versions of MPC samplers, classic Yamaha NS-10A speakers, and an SSL AWS-900 console. “I have a way of working,” he says. “I’ll lay out beats on the MPC, play a live bass to that and use the POD to get a ‘Bootsy Collins’ or other cool bass sound, and run it into Pro Tools HD. Most of the work really goes into editing the loops; that’s what I build tracks from. That combination of being a musician and being an engineer is what sets my beats apart.”
GETTING SOUNDS
Once the basic beat track is built, Spyda resorts to the huge range of samples he collects on an ongoing basis. (“One of my things is that once a month or so I stop producing and just spend a few days, or even a whole week, just sampling and editing.”) In addition to the usual break CDs and samples traded amongst friends, he keeps an MPC-4000 constantly connected to the output of his TiVo. “The secret is, television commercials have the best sounds, especially car commercials,” he says conspiratorially. “TV is moving to high-def, so the quality of the sound, and the samples, keeps getting better and better.”
Working these samples is the thick of what Spyda does. He prefers to lift percussion samples from vinyl versions of beat recordings, such as the Vinylistics series. “For the kick, you have to find one in the open,” he says. “If the hat is on there with it, it adds high frequencies you don’t want. I take the kick and put it in the MPC and use the filter on the filter page to muddy it up, and pitch it down to add more bottom. Then I run it through a JBL or Manley compressor with the threshold set up about halfway. The more you process a sound, the more of the original sound you lose, so I use the compressor to tighten what’s in there.”
Spyda collects many of his snare samples from rock records. “Most of the big-sounding snares you hear on hip-hop records are from rock records,” he says. “They’re hard-sounding. But rock music loves to put the guitars up front, and hip-hop has the drums up front, so the rock snare samples usually need more bass and low-mid EQ to thicken them up.” And noise — Spyda will not trim the noise in a snare sample. “That’s part of the ‘dirt’ you need to give it presence and help it sit in the track.”
THA PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
Spyda and Whoo Kid remain partners; the pair also were responsible for the release of “Realest Killas.” By the time it came out, the number of Tupac bootlegs rivaled that of the Beatles. They include Death Row Presents 2Pac Nu-Mixx Klazzics and one iteration of the Rap Phenomenon CD series. “The pressure was on for that one because the Biggie mix had been so huge,” Spyda recalls. Pressure from Shakur’s estate began even before the record was done. “I’m like, this is a mix tape, not something that’s going to be sold in stores,” he says, defending the concept as one that acts purely as an homage within the industry. It could be argued that Spyda benefited from the acclaim and notoriety the mixes had brought him, but self-promotion is a survival tactic he says Shakur would understand well. “I feel a kind of bond with him,” he says.
In fact, Spyda originally flew to Miami to bring his Tupac track to 50 Cent. There, the playback at Circle House Studios revealed a dark beat, knocked out at 6 a.m. the previous day. “I popped the CD in and Fifty drops his food and runs into the booth, ready to rap on the spot,” he remembers. “Tupac can still inspire.”
Red Spyda’s dance card is full these days — tracks are ongoing for Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child, Lil’ Kim, and others. He’s taking a break from deceased artists for now, but is unapologetic about the phenomenon he helped kick off. “They were well known and loved for a good reason,” he says. “If you can find a way to keep that going, all the better. People get attached to artists they love and they want to remember them only as they heard them. But they can still evolve . . . with our help!!!