Bino Rideaux shares some behind-the-scenes stories from the making of long awaited project.
For what would be the last album Nipsey Hussle and Bino Rideaux would make together, the duo locked themselves in a studio for 90 straight days with a singular, focused goal: after their block-focused No Pressure project they wanted to make an album specifically for women. As Bino explains it, they were both going through various relationship situations in their personal lives and realized that men often struggle to communicate their actual feelings. They wanted to get vulnerable on the record, speaking directly from a hustler’s perspective but stripping away the artifice to deliver something far more honest and melodic.
That marathon resulted in Prolific. Despite the years-long wait, the vocal tracking was completely finished and the files were sent off to their engineer to be mixed just before Nipsey’s tragic passing. The reality of that timeline gives the resulting music a heavy, unexpected weight. Bino recalls the daunting task of returning to these tracks during the post-production phase alongside Nipsey’s brother, Blacc Sam, and trusted producers like Mars and Rance. Reopening the studio sessions was a tough, deeply emotional process for the entire crew, especially since some of Nipsey’s lyrics felt haunting in hindsight. Still, the team pushed forward, knowing they had an obligation to finish what they started and honor Nipsey’s intended vision.
The final product, which is out today, is a soulful, introspective album that manages to retain the authentic POV Nipsey brought to every project. From the brooding vulnerability of the opening track to the nod to personal traditions shared with close friends and family (like listening sessions in the back of the Maybach) in the closing song, Bino sat down with Boardroom to talk through the entire creative process and breakdown how some of his favorite songs from the album were made.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“Reckless”
Produced by: Mike & Keys, Static Major
“Reckless, that’s a no-brainer. Static Major sample — legendary artist. We was just fans. It was a Nip idea, and the appreciation for it was there on both sides. Nip set the tone, coming with the hook, the verse, and I met him halfway. It was different for me. A lot of these was challenging for me, cause it ain’t necessarily like Bino Rideaux type beats, or something that I would go and choose in a session.
“That’s the vulnerable approach we took to making this music. We put everything to the side and was like, Alright, the main focus is the message, the subject matter. Everything else — fuck it, we gonna try it. If we sound goofy at the end of it we can always scrap it. But every time, we was just unapologetically delivering. The authenticity of it just outweighed everything.
The first thing you hear is Nip say, ‘Fuck if I crash, don’t save me.’ It’s like, damn. Crazy.”
“Sacrifices”
Produced: Axlfolie, Mike & Keys MyGuyMars, Larrance “Rance 1500” Dopson
“The first song for me that really felt like we was in a different world with what we was creating on this project was “Sacrifice.” That song, as well as the studio session, the whole tone of it was exactly what we was trying to capture.
“That’s the session that stands out to me. It’s James Fauntleroy at his best. I just remember the beat and James vocals — the “ah ah ah ah” just looped in the session, dim lights, smoking marathon OG and vibing. I already knew, before we even laid some lyrics, that shit was going to be a hit. That was for sure going to make the project. The energy of that is exactly what we intended to do when we came up with the idea to start the project. It’s like the epitome.”
“500 Horses”
Produced by: Amarie, Mike & Keys, MyGuyMars, Larrance “Rance 1500” Dopson
“At first it was a solo Nipsey record. I was excited for “500 Horses” to release as a new solo Nipsey record, ’cause I felt like Nip was in a crazy bag on that one. We used to ride around on the regular, late night he’d be playing that, and as a fan I’m excited for it. But one day he threw me the lob. That’s how Nip would do it. Like, ‘you ain’t putting no verse on this shit?’ What? So I was excited, ’cause I had already loved the song so much, I already knew what I was going to do. And that’s one of the ones on the post side of things where Mars, Rance came in and really leveled up the record. Even when you think it can’t be, they came and did exactly what needed to be done, and it sounds even crazier. So, that’s probably my top two on the record for sure.
“I was proud of everything that was happening. Seeing him work vigorously on Victory Lap while maintaining a collaborative effort with me. And at the same time, you still elevating, and you recording shit like this. It was crazy to witness. I was proud of him and excited of the things to come. So when I got my opportunity to get on the record, it was a easy call. I was more than prepared to get up and go crazy.”
“Make Believe”
Produced by: Axlfolie, MyGuyMars, Leon Thomas
“Make Believe was different. When Nip first came with the beat, I didn’t hear it. The beat is crazy, I just didn’t know what I could do to it. I didn’t hear myself yet. So Nip set the tone on that one. He trusted me. It’s like he knew what I was going to do when I didn’t know what I was going to do. So I was more than content with how the record came out.
“There’s production on “Make Believe” from Leon [Thomas], and that was crazy — cause Leon and Axel Folie, who from day one I seen at Nipsey Hussle sessions just going crazy, they had a real close relationship. He’s been killing it lately, on a crazy run.”
“Count On You”
Produced by: Kacy Khalil, Axlfolie, Mike & Keys, MyGuyMars
“I remember making “Count On You.” It was something that Nip recorded. He pulled up to the house, we had a studio downstairs, and Nip was adamant about this record. He like, man, I need you to do something to this for me. So I’m like, bet. He ended up leaving, and by the time I finished my part, he came back. It’s a lot of emotions on this record. How Nip was feeling at the time, things he was dealing with, people he had lost. I remember him coming back and it’s just me, him, and my bro Coot right there downstairs, and we play it back a few times, and it was heavy. We damn near all was in tears, just listening to the record back then.
“It’s crazy that on this record, a lot of the things Nipsey was saying about how he was feeling — about people, things he had lost — I can relate to, just off losing him. Different breakdowns and connections like that are crazy to me, because I’m forced to speak differently about the record than how I would if bro was still here.
“It’s just crazy for me to think about, because it’s my reality. You just gotta put your head down and embrace what’s thrown at you, because you can’t just stop. The world ain’t going to stop with you, bro.”
Subscribe for the biggest stories in the business of sports and entertainment, daily.
“Just Like Me (feat. Buddy)”
Produced by: Tiggi, Axlfolie, Larrance “Rance 1500” Dopson
“Man, Buddy. When I first started coming around, I seen Buddy the first day, he’d come skating up. We used to be at the studio in the Valley, Buddy come skating up. He’s just dope—great energy in the studio, out the studio, a solid individual. And he willing to stretch the spectrum with the music. His pockets ain’t nothing you can predict, it’s always innovative and free. So Buddy came with a crazy hook on this record. It set the tone and made it easy for us to follow through. That energy is needed in this studio. That’s something you can’t really teach.”
“Super Real”
Produced by: Mike & Keys, DJ Khalil
“‘Super Real,’ that’s really a different energy from the rest of the tracklist. Of course every song is different in its own way, but that one is damn near like a different genre. And creating it, it felt like that. Bino and Nip Hussle on this type of beat was just different. I came with the hook, I took the lead on this one and Nip followed through. We caught some dope pockets and cadences. That shit is dope.”
“Situation”
Produced by: Axlfolie, Sam Wish, Larrance “Rance 1500” Dopson, MyGuyMars
“This one got that street energy. When we was building this project, we was locked in the studio for 90 days. When we came up with the idea to create songs for women, we was sleeping in the studio, showering and leaving. So to have a record that’s more street driven, and still conceptually fit with the rest of the tracklist, it was exciting. And just in the session alone, you can hear it. This is one of them songs we wasn’t talking about what we was doing while we was doing it — it was all feeling and energy. Nip will go in the booth, I’m already plotting off what he’s doing, and then he come out, tag team, I go right in. It was a back-to-back thing, and a trust. That’s when the trust is really on display. So it was fun to make that one, and spit a verse with bro like that. That was dope.
“After the 90 days we still was going to the studio. We was at No Name Studios, went from there to Encore in LA, and we was still creating. And honestly, what happened — we made a song called “None of This” off our previous project, No Pressure. After 90 days of just making songs for women, we was kinda tired of it [Laughs], cause it’s still Nip Hussle and Bino at the end of the day. So we wanted to have some fun real quick. We made “None of This” and got re-inspired, overly. And that’s why we started targeting No Pressure after that and why No Pressure was the first one to come out.”
“Vibe With Me (feat. Leon Thomas)”
Produced by: G RY, Merge, Mike & Keys, MyGuyMars
“I just talked to Sam about [how Leon got on the song] the other day, because I didn’t really know how it happened. It was a surprise for me — a pleasant surprise, of course. But Nip used to do things like this. Sometimes I’ll pop up and it’ll be a random feature on the record. He’ll forget to play it for me, but it’d be some crazy ass feature. So fast forward to the post sessions: Black Sam was chilling in one of them, I wasn’t there yet, and he see some dude getting in the booth. And Sam like, ‘Who is this, what’s going on?’ And everybody kinda had to let him know — yo, show him who Leon was. Leon got relationships with a lot of the guys on the team, and of course he got in there and went crazy. By the time he get out the booth, Sam is like, Yo! And then I get there and I hear it, and I’m like, Yo. A lot of people wouldn’t be able to execute that, coming in on the post side of things and doing something we believe was worthy of keeping.
“I got an old record produced by Leon, with some Leon vocals in the background, it’s just crazy, from a solo standpoint. But what he came in and did on this outro, that shit not easy to do at all. So, major shout out to Leon. He’s just a brilliant mind and a brilliant artist. I can always tap in with him and send him stuff just to get his point of view. Shout out Leon.”
All Summer
Produced by: Mike & Keys, Jake One, AxlFolie
“That’s one of them vibes. I’ll put it to you like this: we’d create music and go chill at the Roosevelt hotel in Hollywood, by the pool. Just play what we created, smoke, drink some 42—that was a vibe to us, sitting there playing the music off a little Beats Pill. And that’s the energy of that record. Just us, homies outside, turning up, summertime, no shirts, really the embodiment of it. The tempo, the production, everything about that record just feel like us turning up. It felt exactly like them days at the Roosevelt. We was actually at the Roosevelt in the video.”
I Just Wanna Know (feat. Cardi B)
Produced by: MyGuyMars, Lil C
“That’s one of my favorites to talk about. I remember this record in the early stages, when Nip popped up with the Cardi verse. This record almost made it on the Victory Lap. It was almost a Victory Lap record, with Cardi. Nip, he just so intentional. In them same sessions, Nip made the decision, and I understand it, he was like, ‘I don’t want to put this on the Victory Lap, this might fit this more than this.’ But this is one of them ones — Cardi going crazy — and it’s a dope type of collab to me, cause I feel like we don’t get collabs like this no more.
“Back in the day, when you got a collab, it hit different. It really crossed worlds. For instance, LL Cool J and Boyz II Men, “Hey Lover” — it’s dope to see them come together, it’s like two worlds combined. So this one, it’s the male and female aesthetic coming together, and then Cardi on her Lil Kim, going crazy vibes — it was just dope to see. It’s a nostalgic feel.”
“Back of the Bach”
Produced by: AxlFolie, Tiggi, Mike & Keys, MyGuyMars
“We’d create and go do the car test: Walk out the studio, go sit in the back of the Maybach. Nip, he got it plussed out — All Money In rugs on the floor, always clean, fresh. We’d cruise around in the back of the Bach, maybe Marathon John driving, and we just listening. Smoke up, ride around the city and listen to everything we been working on. That was a tradition, almost a rite of passage, something we had to do to move past the initial creation process. We had to go to the back of the Bach and listen to this record. And, aside from that, even just moving around the city, or hanging out on the regular day, we just go back of the Maybach and cruise around. Whatever we had to do, we went back of the Bach, from LA to Vegas type shit. It’s just something that’s familiar. When somebody on the team hears “back of that Bach,” we all done been in the back of that Bach, we all know what it mean, and how sacred it is. So when Nip came up with the idea to do the record, it was dope. I already knew where he was going with it, and I just met him halfway.”
READ MORE:
How Egypt Dean Turned Childhood Royalties into a Seven-Figure Sports Drink Investment
Family Matters: How Shaq and Jamie Salter Built a Business Dynasty
Inside Derek Jeter’s Bet on America’s College Towns: ‘That Passion Isn’t Something You Can Manufacture’
Kelsey Plum Gets Real About Money, Success, & the Future of Women’s Hoops
Maverick Carter on LeBron James’ NBA Career, The Decision, & Building a Billion-Dollar Blueprint
