Engineer Sean Paine Hints at New Projects From Gucci Mane and Chief Keef

Gucci Mane is one of hip-hop's most prolific artists, even keeping the streets fed when he's behind bars (which, at this point, has included the past 18 months). Since being locked up in September 2013, Gucci has dropped a staggering number of mixtapes and albums; more than 20 projects have come out since, the most recent being Mr. Clean, The Middleman, which dropped March 4. Somehow, some way, Big Guwop stays on his grind.

The man who largely keeps that going is 30-year-old engineer Sean Paine, whose quick rise through the ranks at Atlanta's famed Patchwerk Studios landed him the gig as head engineer at Gucci's Brick Factory space in East Atlanta. Now, Paine is in charge of putting together and releasing the seemingly endless number of projects from Gucci Mane, taking direction from Gucci and combining old verses and newer beats with fresh artwork and peppering the world with the locked up MC's vision. That has changed recently, however; Gucci has been moved to a different federal facility, making regular communication more difficult and leaving much of the direction up to Paine.

But Gucci always has his hands in the mix and Paine is always receptive to the ideas. Last October, Paine put together the collaborative mixtape with Chief Keef, Big Gucci Sosa, in the process forming a bond with Keef that led Paine to become the Chicago rapper's in-house engineer as well. With Trap House 5 and Big Gucci Sosa 2 both in the works—not to mention more unannounced work from Guwop and Keef's solo projects—the flood of new music isn't stopping any time soon. Recently, before linking with Keef in L.A. to record new material, XXL spoke to Sean Paine about how the whole process of putting Gucci's music out comes together. Free Gucci. —Dan Rys

XXL: How did you first get started in the music business?
Sean Paine: I was rappin' and engineerin'; I was doing all types of shit. But Patchwerk Studios, I wanna say that. I was an intern, but I was an assistant engineer. I was like, I don't know, about 22.

How did you get into engineering?
I went to Full Sail College. Let me just give you a brief rundown so you can go ahead and put it down. I went to Morehouse College and I received a bachelors in finance. So after that I left and went to Michigan, and then I went to Full Sail College for engineering. So after that, that's when I went to Patchwerk. The very first project I worked on at Patchwerk was Waka. I was assistant engineering Waka's engineer. That was recent, probably two years ago, three years ago.

Did you work on every project that came through Patchwerk or were you just with Waka, Gucci and them?
I worked with Waka, I got a chance to work with Diddy, French Montana, Red Cafe, Wale. I recorded Young Scooter, I did all of Young Thug's projects except for the new one that came out, but as far as all of the 1017 ones, I mixed them. PeeWee Longway of course. I got to mix a Lil Wayne verse. I done met all of them; I done met Birdman, all of them, but I didn't work with them. And then of course all the producers: Mike WiLL, Zaytoven, Honorable C-Note, Drumma Boy; me and Drumma Boy co-executive produced Trap House 3.

When did you start working with Gucci?
The first placement I got was "Bussin Juugs" [in September 2012] one with Trinidad Jame$, "GuWop Nigga." Kori [Anders] mixed "Nothin' On You," but I did "Truth" and "Truth" was the one that put me on as far as mixing. The other ones were ones I just recorded. "GuWop Nigga" was the first mix I did and he just put it out on the Internet. After that, after Gucci and Jeezy got into it, he did "Truth" [in October 2012] and he was like, "Man, I'm droppin' it right now." He literally recorded it in five, 10 minutes. Every bar he said he kept it on there. He was pissed, I ain't never seen him like that, but he did what he did. But that song he had me mix it, and I was like, "You sure?" He had me mix the whole session and after that I was his mixer, too. So he just started letting me mix. But when we go to do official store releases we definitely go to Kori to get that original Gucci sound; I told him, I prefer that. Even as an engineer sometimes you gotta be like, You know what? You're the man. I definitely want to give a shoutout to Kori, man.

With everything that's come out in the past 16, 17 months, how does that process work?
The first complete album I mixed was The State Vs. Radric Davis 2. Every single album after that I mixed except for all Trap God's, those are Kori's. I might put 'em together—I don't wanna say I place verses on 'em, but it is what it is, it's out there now. At first—because now he can't talk to people, he's not allowed on the phone that much—he would actually hear the songs, I would play them over the phone, he'd be like, Yeah, pick that one, that one, and then I'd go mix 'em. I'd just pull the hard drive up and play stuff. But it was so scrambled... Shit, we still finding songs, you know what I'm sayin'?

Is there just a big hard drive of Gucci songs and verses?
Man, there's five hard drives, you know what I'm sayin'? It ain't gonna stop. [Laughs]

So basically, since he's been locked up, a lot of the direction has come from Gucci and then it's been on you to put it all together and release it?
Yeah. So I get with KD, our graphic artist, tell him which project is coming out, what the name is. Gucci is always in control; he says, "I want these songs on this album, make that, that, and I want that out at this time." And then I'll come up with the idea; we just bounce back and forth to come up with creative ideas to promote. So now, that's basically how we do it; the last couple albums he ain't got to hear it but he's got a memory, he knows all that shit. He remember all that.

Is there a specific Gucci project that you're most proud of?
Big Gucci Sosa with Chief Keef. I flew out to Cali—I'm actually flying out to Cali tomorrow 'cause I'm gonna be Chief Keef's engineer—because I kinda did that with my money. He told me he wanted to do it, then we kinda fell out of contact or whatever and I just kinda did it. I called [Keef] like, "I'm in Cali." I kinda bossed up and did it. That project, and I also like The State Vs. Radric Davis 2. And Trap God 3, I really like that too because I did a lot of the shit that I did with the verses. Swapping beats out; it's crazy. The Trap God 3 intro was on another beat, and I heard a perfect Mike WiLL beat that might've been two BPM off, I adjusted the tempo of that beat and boom boom boom, now we got a hard banger. That type of shit.

Has working with Gucci changed over the years, or is it the same laser focus?
It's only changed due to the incarceration. It's changed because a lot of the people from when we first started aren't around; it definitely changed that way. But all of that is gonna come back, I know, 'cause that's Gucci. All of them are gonna come back. It's kinda like I was an angel sent, because a lot of people turned their back on him and I never would. Me and him are like brothers now, dawg, it's crazy. After working at Patchwerk, I was on the intern list; I was homeless, man, sleeping in my car, on my grind, dawg, real industry shit. But then he opened up his own studio in East Atlanta, Brick Factory, and I was the head engineer at Brick Factory. I handled the whole studio. Instead of being an assistant engineer he said I could have my own studio. I was young, I didn't have no place to stay, me and him was on the road, and I was like, Look, he obviously fucks with me, I gotta fuck with him. I love Patchwerk, but under the circumstances I had to make a decision. I was doing a lot of shit. Basically being his right hand man.

What do you have coming out soon that people should keep an eye out for?
Keep an eye out for The Spot, the soundtrack for the movie [Gucci] has with Rocko. And Boomtown, they dropping that movie, so it's gonna be in theaters, but the soundtrack is gonna be in stores, too. So that's his biggest commercial release that he'll be doing. It's like 17 songs on there, all produced by Zaytoven, so he's bringing it back to the old Gucci and that's the heat right there. And then, I told him to write a book and he wrote it. So that's a good thing coming out, he gonna shoot a movie for the book that he writing in there about shit that people don't really know about his life and shit. Also, Trap House 5 is coming and Big Gucci Sosa 2, so I'm flying out to Cali tomorrow to work on Big Gucci Sosa 2. Plus a whole bunch of Keef shit.

What does Keef have in the works?
I mean, shit, I'm just gonna go work with Keef. I'm Gucci's in-house for sure, but I'm Keef's in-house, too. It's 1017 Glo-Gang, man.

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