Worcester music producer Kastal, partner Rucker play role in Grammy-contending albums

If you have listened to star hip-hop producer Metro Boomin’s “Heroes & Villains” or Christian rapper Lecrae’s “Church Clothes 4,” you may know that both albums received nominations from Recording Academy voters for the 2024 Grammy Awards, which are slated to air Feb. 4 on CBS.

You may not know that Worcester producer Derek Kastal and New York-based creative partner Marcus Rucker have writing credits on both albums.

“It's all by chance,” Kastal said. “The only thing we rely on is our belief, our ears and our curation.”

"Heroes & Villains" is nominated under the category of Best Rap Album, and "Church Clothes 4" is nominated under the category of Best Contemporary Christian Music Album, according to the Grammy nominations list.

A journey of sound, song

In 2019, Kastal and Rucker founded the Rucker Collective, a group of producers who create libraries of original instrumental music, drum samples and sound effects that artists, fellow producers and sound designers can buy at an affordable price.

Kastal, Rucker and producer Elkan released the “Toy Box” library in late 2020, and now, their work on the “Toy Box” instrumentals is in the running at American music’s most prestigious award ceremony.

From “Heroes & Villains,” Metro Boomin used one “Toy Box” track, “Spooky Spiders,” for the ominous-sounding cut “Metro Spider,” which shares a name with the character he briefly voices in 2023 Marvel blockbuster “Across the Spider-Verse.”

Lecrae took a track drenched in ambient vocals called “Emotions” from the same library and turned it into “Legacy.” That song is featured on his “Church Clothes 4” mixtape.

“We always knew (‘Spooky Spiders’) was going to be a special sample because it almost went viral in the sample community, so we knew it would get picked up eventually,” Kastal said. “When we found out it was Metro Boomin, we were like, 'Holy smokes!' because he's an inspiration to us.”

'It's always a shocker'

Kastal, Rucker and Elkan had no idea either of those samples would find homes with major artists until “Heroes & Villains” and “Church Clothes 4” were released. According to Kastal, who produces under the name KAS, such surprises are a regular occurrence.

Once a producer buys a Rucker Collective sound library, they can freely use any and all of the sounds it contains. It is rare for a big-name producer who uses a sample from a Rucker Collective library to contact the library’s creators before releasing the music that contains it. “A lot of the time, we find out about the placements after the fact, so when something gets picked up, it's always a shocker,” Kastal said.

Rucker, who produces under the name Motif Alumni, said producers who use his group’s sample libraries employ a wide range of techniques to transform them into songs. Both Metro Boomin and Lecrae went the simple route, and their albums feature beats around looped sections of Elkan’s compositions.

“A lot of our samples either get looped, exactly how it was made, or chopped up, rearranged, reversed,” Rucker said. “In this case, they kept true to the compositions, and when we put something out, it's always cool to hear people using it as is.”

Artists as popular as Snoop Dogg, Doja Cat and Dave East have used the collective’s sound libraries, with one sample featuring prominently on Doja Cat’s 2023 track “Skull and Bones.”

While the Rucker Collective’s producers usually do not directly work with the rappers who rhyme over their music, they do often correspond with the producers who create the beats, sometimes receiving requests for custom work.

“Most of our placements come from the sample library or from producers that we personally know and connect with. We send samples to them in private correspondence,” Kastal said.

This year marks Elkan’s first time contributing to a Grammy-nominated project, but the Rucker Collective’s work has been recognized by Grammy voters twice in the past.

The first of those instances was only one year after Kastal and Rucker founded the collective.

Rucker worked on two tracks, “On the Block” and “Ms. Grace (Interlude),” from Detroit rapper Royce da 5’9”’s 2020 album "The Allegory," co-producing both tracks alongside Royce himself. That album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2021 Grammys, although the award eventually went to Nas’ “King’s Disease.”

The Rucker Collective’s second Grammy nomination was something of a near miss. Rucker Collective producer Jean Bleu contributed to “Pipe Down,” off Drake’s massively popular “Certified Lover Boy,” which was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2022 Grammys.

However, Drake withdrew “Certified Lover Boy” from consideration after the album was nominated. The Canadian star did not offer an explanation, but industry professionals speculated his choice was due to controversies in the preceding years over potential bias among Grammy voters.

One of those professionals was Rucker, who said in more recent years he had observed a shift in the demographics of Grammy voters.

“It's more of an evenly curated selection of people with knowledge in each genre who votes on what gets nominated,” Rucker said. “Over the past few years, (the Grammys have) gotten better with the board and the people they elect to make these decisions.”

Rucker is getting ready to relocate from New York to Worcester as the group that bears his name prepares to expand into a full-fledged record label, and both producers see a bright future ahead.

“We always get support from the Worcester music community, and we're grateful for that,” Kastal said. “We hope that we can give more opportunities to more local musicians and artists.

This article originally appeared on Worcester Magazine: It's Grammy nominations for work by Worcester's Rucker Collective