Young Guru
Gimel Androus Keaton, professionally better known by his pseudonym Young Guru, is an American audio engineer, record producer, disc jockey, and record executive from Wilmington, Delaware. In 2019, Young Guru won a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album for recording the album Everything Is Love by The Carters. He has worked with many leading recording artists, most notably Jay-Z and Kanye West, and an April 2015 The Wall Street Journal profile called him "the most famous and successful engineer in the history of hip-hop".
Career
Young Guru acquired his moniker as a teen when he taught African history classes at a community center. He also used his name when he began working as a DJ while still a teenager. In the early 1990s Young Guru bought his own amplifiers, lights and microphones which sparked his interest in music technology. While a student at Howard University, he saw the early development of Bad Boy Records and landed some of his early engineering jobs. He began DJing in Washington, D.C. in 1996, where he met singer/rapper Nonchalant, who had a top 20 single at the time, and became her tour DJ. Young Guru, who had taken piano lessons as a child, used the money he received from the tour to fund a six-month music recording course at Omega Recording Studios in Rockville, Maryland, which had a great impact on him. After Omega, Young Guru engineered Nonchalant's second album, which was never released, but the producer, Chucky Thompson recognized the young engineer's potential and invited him to come and work with him in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Young Guru went independent and moved to New York, where he worked with Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie on his Madd Rapper project and with Memphis Bleek. The latter was signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, which led to Young Guru meeting Jay-Z.Over the years Young Guru has been a major part of several artists' careers in addition to Jay-Z, including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Ludacris, Ghostface Killah, Freeway, Cam'ron, Redman & Method Man, Mariah Carey, Pete Rock, Fabolous, Talib Kweli, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and T.I.
He was the tour DJ for the 'Watch The Throne' world tour featuring Jay-Z and Kanye West, and also for JAY-Z's '4:44' Tour
In August 2013, Young Guru taught an audio mixing class via Skillshare. The video lessons, filmed at SAE Institute New York, were titled "Sound Check: The Essentials of DIY Audio Mixing".
In April 2015, Young Guru was named the Director of Operations at 9th Wonder's record label It's a Wonderful World Music Group.
Young Guru has also lent instruments to the youth-oriented digital audio workstation, EarSketch.
In November 2018, Young Guru was credited with mixing the latest Meek Mill album Championships.
Discography
Albums/scratches/production/mix
- Def Jam Recordings Presents
Def Jam Recordings
- Tell Em Why U Madd
Columbia
- Chicago '85... The Movie
DreamWorks
- Charmbracelet
MonarC, Island Records
- The Blueprint, The Gift & The Curse
Roc-A-Fella Records
Roc-A-Fella Records
- Boy
- Flipside
- Dirt Off Your Shoulder / Encore Roc-A-Fella Records
- What We Do Roc-A-Fella Records
- The Chittlin Circuit
Fastlife
- Philadelphia Freeway
- 99 Problems / My 1st Song
- Be Your Girl
- Get Crunk Shorty
- Girlfight
- Rock Co. Kane Flow
Sanctuary Records
- The Grind Date / Shopping Bags
- What's Happenin! / Salt Shaker
- Dynomite
- Never Been In Love
Atlantic
- 4:21... The Day After
Tooken Back
Def Jam Recordings
- Def Jam Recordings Presents
Def Jam Recordings
- Dynomite /
J Records
- Hustlin' Remix
- Kingdom Come
- Eardrum
- Tambourine
- Jeanius
- NY's Finest
- Blackout! 2
- Fishscale
Def Jam Recordings
- King
Atlantic
- American Gangster
Roc-A-Fella Records
9mm
Interscope Records
- T.I. Vs T.I.P.
Atlantic
Nasty Girl
Island Def Jam Music Group
- Music Inspired By The Film:
History
Interscope Records
RocNation