Oladipo Omishore, known professionally as Dot da Genius is an American

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

and audio engineer from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He first gained recognition in 2008 for producing "

Day 'n' Nite "Day 'n' Nite" is a song by American rapper Kid Cudi. The song was written and produced by Cudi alongside his longtime collaborator and friend, Brooklyn-based producer Dot da Genius. It was issued as Cudi's commercial debut single on February 5, ...

" by American musician Kid Cudi, with whom he is a longtime friend and frequent collaborator; the two would later form a rock band in 2010, known as WZRD. Engaged in various entrepreneurial pursuits, Omishore launched his own trans-media company HeadBanga Muzik Group which has collaborated with numerous brands and labels, such as: Universal Music Group, BMG, Nike, and Splice. His

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

has been featured on albums by several prominent artists in the music industry, including Nas,

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

, Eminem,

Denzel Curry Denzel Rae Don Curry (born February 16, 1995) is an American rapper and singer. Born and raised in Carol City, Florida, Curry started rapping while in the sixth grade and began working on his first mixtape in 2011. Influenced by underground Flo ...

Lil Nas X Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), known by his stage name Lil Nas X ( ), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his country rap single " Old Town Road", which first achieved viral popula ...

JID Destin Choice Route (born October 31, 1990), better known by his stage name JID (also stylized J.I.D), is an American rapper. He is a part of the musical collective Spillage Village, founded by EarthGang in 2010, with Hollywood JB, JordxnBryant ...

6LACK Ricardo Archibald Valentine Jr. (born June 24, 1992), known professionally as 6lack (stylized as 6LACK, pronounced "black"), is an American singer and rapper. He initially gained notable recognition following the release of his single, " Prblms ...

, and Jhené Aiko,

among others ''Among Others'' is a 2011 fantasy novel written by Welsh-Canadian writer Jo Walton, published originally by Tor Books. It is published in the UK by Corsair (Constable & Robinson). It won the 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Hugo Award for ...

.Paul Tingen, "Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Dot Da Genius".
SOS.

Life and career

1986–2005: Early life

Oladipo Omishore is from the

borough of

. He is of Yoruba (

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

n) heritage. His parents always encouraged his interest in music, and at the age of seven, his father sent him to the Brooklyn Music School for

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

lessons, where he studied with Tom Coote. Omishore preferred playing the guitar, but learning how to play a

keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital p ...

was very beneficial later in life when he started producing. He attended

Polytechnic Institute of New York University The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

in New York, where he studied electrical engineering and graduated in 2009.

2006–2009: Career beginnings and producing for Kid Cudi

Omishore began his career in sound-mixing in 2003 at New York University by using

Image-Line Image-Line Software (commonly known as simply Image-Line) is a Belgian software company best known for its digital audio workstation program FL Studio and related audio plugins such as Sytrus and Harmor. Image-Line was founded in 1994. In 2007, ...

's FL Studio program. In 2004, Omishore created a studio in his basement with equipment bought by his parents and would later call it "Head Banga Muzik Studios." After gaining attention for his production, he decided to change locations to the Brewery Recording Studio. In May 2009, Da Genius partnered up with Andrew Krivonos, owner of Brewery Recording Studio, and helped move the studio to North Brooklyn in a new facility. Omishore and Kid Cudi met in 2006, and they lived together for two years. Both artists found a genuine liking for one another, and chose to work with each other on several music productions. "Day N' Nite" turned out to be the biggest hit production that both of them worked on together, with Omishore providing the beats and Cudi rapping and singing over the music. He produced the song in Head Banga Muzik Studios, and used several different methods of mixing and synthesizing the beats on this track. The song took a total of two days to complete, from the

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

being made to the track's final arrangements. No edits were made after that two-day process ended. It was finished in 2007 and became popular two years later, in 2009. "Day N' Nite" reached the top three in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It was released under the labels

GOOD Music GOOD Music (also known simply as GOOD, stylized as G.O.O.D. Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. The label signed an exclusive long-term worldwide label agreement with t ...

Fool's Gold Records Fool's Gold Records is an independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York, United States. The label is known for its annual series of Day Off concerts across the US and Canada. History Fool’s Gold Records was founded in 2005 by DJs A- ...

Universal Motown Records Universal Motown Records was an American record label that operated as a division of Universal Motown Republic Group. It was the contemporary incarnation of the legendary Motown Records label, and the " urban" half of UMG, although there were some ...

, and

Data Records Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publishing business and fitness studio. James ...

. It is featured on the album '' Man on the Moon: The End of Day''.

2010–2018: WZRD

WZRD is Omishore and Kid Cudi's collaboration

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band. Kid Cudi focuses on the vocals, while Omishore is responsible for the production.Jesse Fairfax, "WZRD (Kid Cudi x Dot Da Genius)"
, HiphopDX, February 28, 2012. Together, they produced a self-made album titled WZRD. Much of their inspiration behind the album came from their love for Nirvana, The Pixies, and Pink Floyd. They recorded much of the album in either their tour bus while they were on the road, or Cudi's basement studio in

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Univer ...

. This album contained absolutely no profanity, including the "n word" that many rappers loosely use. The album was first released on February 28, 2012. It reportedly sold 70,499 copies in its opening week. Although Cudi finds the marketing and promotion of the album weak by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

, it landed the number three spot on the album sales chart. Universal Music Group also allegedly under-shipped copies of the album. While "Dose of Dopeness" was released prior to the release of WZRD, it was not featured on the album.

2018–present: Solo debut album

In 2018, Omishore and Woodro Skillson announced the signing of James Japan to their label, HeadBanga Muzik Group. In 2020, Omishore scored his first number-one hit single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, when "

The Scotts "The Scotts" (stylized in all caps) is a song by American hip hop super-duo The Scotts, composed of rappers Travis Scott and Kid Cudi. It was released in various formats, including on 7-inch vinyl, cassette and as a CD single through Epic, C ...

," a collaborative effort between Cudi and his protege Travis Scott, debuted at the top spot in the US chart. On June 24, 2022, Omishore released "Talk About Me", the lead single from his upcoming solo debut album. The song features vocals from American rappers Kid Cudi,

, and

. In July 2022, ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'' interviewed Omishore on his upcoming debut album.

Artistry

Musical style

Omishore is a

self-taught Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individu ...

music producer and engineer.

Influences

Among Omishore’s favorite albums of all time are Pink Floyd's ''

The Dark Side of the Moon ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973 by Harvest Records. The album was primarily developed during live performances, and the band premiered an early version of ...

'', Dr. Dre's ''

The Chronic ''The Chronic'' is the debut studio album by the American hip hop producer and rapper Dr. Dre. It was released on December 15, 1992, by his record label Death Row Records and distributed by Interscope Records. Recording sessions took place in ...

'', Outkast's ''

ATLiens ''ATLiens'' is the second studio album by American hip hop duo Outkast. It was released on August 27, 1996, by Arista Records and LaFace Records. From 1995 to 1996, Outkast recorded ''ATLiens'' in sessions at several Atlanta studios—Bosstown R ...

'', and

Coldplay Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University ...

's ''

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends ''Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends'', often referred to as simply ''Viva la Vida'', is the fourth studio album by British rock band Coldplay, released on 12 June 2008 on the Parlophone label. "Viva la vida" is a Spanish phrase that tr ...

''.

Personal life

Omishore has one daughter, from a previous relationship. In September 2014, American singer-songwriter Jhené Aiko, revealed she and Omishore were in a relationship. The two revealed their marriage in March 2016. On August 9, 2016, Jhené Aiko filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized in October 2017.

Discography

Soundtrack albums

Singles

Production discography

Awards and nominations

BET Hip Hop Awards

Grammy Awards

MTV Video Music Awards

mtvU Woodie Awards

Filmography

* '' A Man Named Scott'' (2021) - Himself

References

External links

* *
Dot da Genius
on Myspace {{DEFAULTSORT:Dot Da Genius 1986 births Living people 21st-century American musicians American hip hop record producers American rock musicians East Coast hip hop musicians Musicians from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni American people of Yoruba descent Yoruba musicians American people of Nigerian descent 21st-century Nigerian musicians American male pianists 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American pianists Record producers from New York (state) 21st-century American male musicians African-American DJs DJs from New York City African-American record producers WZRD (band) members American male film score composers