By Ingrid Avancena
(@pierrebourne on Instagram)
You know when you hear the first ten seconds of a song and automatically know that it’ll end up on your Spotify Wrapped? Personally, many songs that open with “Yo, Pi’erre, you wanna come out here?” fit into this exact category.
For those who aren’t into hip-hop, they may only recognize this opener as the hilarious one-liner from an episode of “The Jamie Foxx Show”. However, for hip-hop fans like myself, this line is none other than the producer tag that accompanies some of the most hype and (arguably) catchy songs our generation has witnessed, such as “Magnolia” by Playboi Carti.
“Yo, Pi’erre, you wanna come out here?” was sampled and coined as the producer tag of Jordan Timothy Jenks, known professionally as Pi’erre Bourne. Bourne was born (that was unintentional) in Kansas and was acquainted with music at a young age, which was thanks to his aspiring-rapper relatives and the various times he spent in New York, where East Coast hip-hop was prevalent. He specifically became interested in producing music because of his uncle, who often showed Bourne how to produce music on his computer in elementary school, which later prompted Bourne’s enrollment in SAE Institute, a higher-education program for sound engineering.
Pi’erre Bourne, like any producer or sound engineer, is naturally passionate about what goes on inside music. Not just the lyrics or who’s singing, but the fine-tuned melodies, mixing of endless sound plug-ins, and seamless transitions from verse to chorus, too. FL Studio, a widely used software for producing, was Bourne’s go-to for initially crafting music. What makes Bourne stand out from the endless crowd of producers, though?
To describe it best, Bourne’s unique style of producing is the perfect combination of otherworldliness, symphony, and trap. The synths he enforces either come in waves of eerie frequencies or are flatly buzzed-out, as if they’re distinct dialects of an extraterrestrial language. His instrumentals, which include a delectable array of piano and flute notes, glide gracefully throughout a number of his produced songs. On the other hand, his 808 beats are bulky in bass and recklessly hard-hitting, vibrating within one’s AirPod-equipped ears or car loudspeakers. When these features are all put together by Bourne, he makes them sound like they’re MADE for each other. A prime example of this would be “Extendo” by Young Nudy and Lil Uzi Vert, as well as “Yessirskiii” by Lil Uzi Vert and 21 Savage.
Pi’erre Bourne also uses his producing talent in his own music. He often raps with a relaxed,
yet enthusiastic, cadence, similar to the artists he has produced for (Lil Yachty and Young Thug, to name a few). The only difference is that Bourne’s voice leans towards the higher side, which I admittedly didn’t expect, but it adds all the more appeal to him. His first solo album, “The Life of Pi’erre 4” (2019), especially gave Bourne the opportunity to shine, as it has an impressive 16 tracks (I recommend “Poof”, the first song on the album). Thousands of TikTok users are also familiar with his song “Drunk & Nasty”, as it blew up on the platform last year.
While Pi’erre Bourne isn’t praised to the extent of producers Metro Boomin and Pharrell Williams, he has proven to be a trailblazing force in hip-hop culture, one that is impossible to get rid of. We can look forward to hearing more about Bourne, as he’s performing at this year’s Coachella, just released an album, “Good Movie” (2022), last September and toured it , and is currently back in the comfort of his producing studio, ready to make the next big hit.
Have any questions? Contact avanceni@uci.edu!
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