16-Year-Old Girl Contributed a Beat to the New Jay-Z Album
Jay-Z has access to some of the best musicians in the world, which means Ebony Oshunrinde must be feeling pretty good about herself right now-she was credited by the Hova himself on his new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, released digitally through Samsung yesterday.
Oshunrinde, who works under the name WondaGurl, is credited for a beat on “Crown,” one of the tracks on the album. It’s pretty fitting, because she started creating her own beats when she was just nine years old after being inspired by a video of Jay and producer Timbaland. She got her big break in the industry when she won the Battle of the Beat Makers competition in Toronto at 15 and was signed to the Black Box label.
The story of how the beat came to appear on Magna Carta Holy Grail is one of those industry stories that seems fake but apparently actually happens once in a while: she created the beat by sampling a reggae song and putting her own computerized spin on it, and sent it to Houston rapper/producer Travis Scott. Scott happened to be working in the studio with Jay-Z at the time, and apparently it was well received.
Now she’s getting congratulatory tweets from everyone from fellow beatmakers to her high school’s school board. Oshunrinde, who just finished the eleventh grade in Brampton, Ontario, has advice for other teens who are inspired by her story: “It’s a really good feeling. I want to show young people that they can do it. Anybody can be successful. It doesn’t matter where you’re from.” Here’s hoping this is the start of an awesome career in music!



