College Sounds: Student to release hip hop album

Ogden Payne started dabbling into hip hop when he was 15 years old. After getting cut from the baseball team, Payne was searching for what he was supposed to do next. He discovered hip hop when a friend playfully suggested they rap to Kayne West's College Dropout.

"I was like whatever, I'll do it. But a few months later, he didn't want to stick with it, and I started to fall in love with it. I would write every day. I would go on YouTube and look up different instrumentals, whatever I could do," said  Payne. "So I guess it really started just for fun. I guess that's how usually everything starts."

Now three years later, Payne is getting ready to release his latest mixtape Late Night Thoughts on April 30, which he created with the help of ACC resources. Late Night Thoughts tells the story of the 18-year-old hip hop persona Payne. Like most musicians, the character dreams of being signed to a record deal for his music.

"Basically it's about a kid who gets into the industry. With the first track ‘Hello,' if you can't tell, he's really arrogant. He's really cocky. He's saying well, I'm heading to the top and bringing nobody with me," said Payne. "Then all of the sudden, the last half of the mixtape is reflective. This isn't what I thought it was. Was I really chosen for this or did I push my way through it? Then all of sudden, he's faced with the reality of why he was so arrogant... He goes back into the humble mode that he was supposed to be in."

While Payne is actively pursuing hip hop, the story on the mixtape is not solely based on his personal experiences.

"I'm not currently signed," said Payne. "What I'm going to try to do is keep the same character throughout the whole process to see how he grows. Take personal stories which is what I've done and mix those with some of those industry stories and different things like that."

Payne took the opportunity to use the resources available to him at ACC to put together this mixtape. The photo for his album cover was taken by the ACC photography department. While most photo shoots are pretty pricey for a college student's budget, Payne had one simple solution: just ask the ACC photography students.

"They did the album cover, and they did so many different pictures. It was all in the ACC studio," said Payne. "I emailed at least five to six teachers, and only one contacted me and turns out that was the best one... I really can't thank them enough. I love it. I love the pictures. I love the cover. Everything they did."

In addition to using the photography facilities at Northridge Campus for his photo shoot, he also enlisting the assistance of his audio engineering professor Joe McDermott. After the album was done, McDermott mixed and mastered the tracks in the Northridge Campus recording studio.

"I'm in audio engineering, so it was to see what we could do with it," said Payne. "I let him hear three or four tracks that I had. Do you think we can do anything with mastering with it? I expected him to say no because I was like maybe (it is an) Audio 4 project, but he was like yeah, we can do something. He did it, and it came out incredible."

Now that Late Night Thoughts is ready to drop on April 30 as a free download, Payne is definitely happy with his decision to recruit his schoolmates to the production of a high-quality package for his release.

"That's the smartest way to go, obviously. I think that I would probably do that until I couldn't do it anymore. College students (are) really the ones that are the next generation," said Payne. "You'll never know where they'll go. You'll never know where you'll go. So as long as you keep that network, that contact, then the sky's the limit."