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Sounwave
Sounwave.jpg
Background information
Birth name Mark Anthony Spears
Origin Compton, California, U.S.
Genres Hip hop
Occupation(s)
  • Record producer
  • songwriter
Years active 2005–present
Labels Top Dawg
Associated acts

Mark Anthony Spears, known professionally as Sounwave, is an American hip-hop producer and songwriter from Compton, California, and an original member of the Californian hip-hop label Top Dawg Entertainment. Sounwave has worked on every Kendrick Lamar studio album since Lamar's 2009 self-titled EP, including the Grammy Award-nominated album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Grammy Award winning To ... a Butterfly. He has received Best Rap Song (2015) for "Alright".

Early life

Hailing from Compton, Sounwave credits "Up Jumps da Boogie" by Timbaland as the first hip hop instrumental he ever listened to. From the age of ten, he started using a Korg drum machine to make simple drum beats. From there, he graduated to a 4-track machine and then to the MTV Music Generator for PlayStation. After using that for a while, he collaborated with rapper Bishop Lamont from Carson, California, and a song he produced for him with MTV Music Generator received local radio placement.

Career

2005–2008

In 2005, Sounwave was originally discovered by Top Dawg Entertainment co-founder Terrence "Punch" Henderson, who had him meet with TDE CEO Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith. Tiffith was originally unimpressed with Sounwave; however, Sounwave persisted and honed his craft, which ended up "blowing away" Tiffith. It was then he became a member of Digi+Phonics, an American hip hop production team, composed of fellow California-based record producers Tae Beast, Dave Free and Willie B. They served as the main in-house producers for Carson-based record label, Top Dawg Entertainment. Digi+Phonics worked significantly on projects from all the members of hip hop supergroup Black Hippy, who are also signed to Top Dawg and is composed of rappers Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul.

2009–2016

Sounwave's earliest work for Top Dawg Entertainment surfaced on the self-titled Kendrick Lamar and Jay Rock's compilation track "Fa Sho", in 2009 and 2010 respectively. In 2011, Sounwave produced the bulk of Lamar's mixtape/album Section.80, which landed him on Complex's "15 New Producers to Watch" list. He also produced three songs on Lamar's critically acclaimed second album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012). Sounwave is known for producing Kendrick Lamar's hit single "***** Don't Kill My Vibe", among other songs such as "M.A.A.D. City", "A.D.H.D" and Schoolboy Q's "There He Go". In 2014, he earned a placement on Top Dawg Entertainment artist Isaiah Rashad's Cilvia Demo and produced "Hoover Street" and "Prescription/Oxymoron" on Schoolboy Q's Oxymoron. Outside of his work with artists in the Top Dawg Entertainment label, he worked with Flo Rida on the song "Finally Here" from the latter's second album R.O.O.T.S. (2009). Sounwave is also credited with production on four tracks on Schoolboy Q's fourth studio album, Blank Face LP.

2016–present

In 2016, Sounwave worked alongside Lamar and Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Tiffith as co-writer, A&R, and producer of Black Panther: The Album, the official soundtrack to the film Black Panther. His work on the film's single "All the Stars" with Lamar and SZA earned nominations for Best Original Song for the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Critics' Choice Movie Awards.

Outside of Top Dawg Entertainment, Sounwave has collaborated with Beyoncé, Mary J Blige, and many others. In 2019, Sounwave co-wrote and co-produced the song "London Boy" for Taylor Swift's seventh studio album Lover (2019).

Additionally in 2019, he along with singer and songwriter Sam Dew and producer/musician Jack Antonoff released a project titled "Red Hearse" under the same name.

Songwriting and production discography

Songs

2011

  • "A.D.H.D" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "Hol' Up" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "No Make-Up (Her Vice)" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "The Spiteful Chant" – Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q

2012

  • "m.A.A.d city" – Kendrick Lamar

2013

  • "*****, Don't Kill My Vibe" – Kendrick Lamar

2014

  • "Break the Bank" – Schoolboy Q

2015

  • "Alright" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "King Kunta" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "Complexion" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "Mortal Man" – Kendrick Lamar
  • Two Matches – Mac Miller, Ab-Soul

2016

  • "That Part" – Schoolboy Q, Kanye West
  • "John Muir" — Schoolboy Q

2017

  • "Element" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "Feel" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "God" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "Love" – Kendrick Lamar, Zacari
  • "Loyalty" – Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna
  • "Lust" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "XXX" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "Yah" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "Goodbye" – Bleachers (additional production)
  • "Foreign Girls" – Bleachers (additional production)

2018

  • "All the Stars" – Kendrick Lamar, SZA
  • "Big Shot" – Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott
  • "Black Panther" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "Bloody Waters" – Ab-Soul, Anderson .Paak, James Blake
  • "I Am" – Jorja Smith, Kendrick Lamar
  • "King's Dead" – Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Future, James Blake
  • "Opps" – Kendrick Lamar, Vince Staples, Yugen Blakrok
  • "Paramedic!" – Kendrick Lamar, SOB x RBE, Zacari
  • "Seasons" – Mozzy, Sjava, Reason
  • "The Ways" – Kendrick Lamar, Khalid, Swae Lee
  • "X" – Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, 2 Chainz, Saudi

2019

2020

2021

2022

  • "N95" – Kendrick Lamar
  • "Lavender Haze" – Taylor Swift
  • "Karma" – Taylor Swift
  • "Glitch" – Taylor Swift

Albums

  • Section.80 – Kendrick Lamar (2011)
  • Black Panther – Kendrick Lamar (2018)
  • Lover – Taylor Swift (2019)
  • The Lion King: The Gift – Beyoncé (2019)
  • Midnights – Taylor Swift (2022)

Awards and nominations

  • Academy Awards
    • Nomination: Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) – "All the Stars " (2018)
  • Golden Globe Awards
    • Nomination: Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) – "All the Stars " (2018)
  • Grammy Awards
  • Guild of Music Supervisors Awards
    • Nomination: Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) – "All the Stars" (2018)
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