Stephen ‘Di Genius’ McGregor Featured On Apple Music’s New Playlist Series
Big Ship producer Stephen ‘Di Genius’ McGregor is delighting in his recent feature on Apple Music’s ‘Behind the Boards’, a new playlist series celebrating the work of some of the world’s biggest names in music production.
Di Genius, the younger son of reggae veteran Freddie McGregor, joins an illustrious group of music producers to be featured in the series, which includes Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Pharrell Williams, and Kanye West.
On Thursday, the Ardenne High School old boy shared the link to Apple’s playlist, which featured 29 songs that were produced by him.
“Much Love to @applemusic for this #behindtheboards Playlist!! A few records I’ve produced all in one cool playlist! Check it out,” McGregor captioned the post on his Instagram page.
The tracks include Mavado’s Weh Dem A Do, which was co-written by McGregor at the tender age of 15, and which gave him his big break in music; Damian Marley’s Slave Mill from the Reggae 2018 Grammy-winning Stony Hill Album, Drake’s Controlla, and Amarillo from Shakira’s El Dorado album which won Best Latin Pop Grammy Album, also in 2018.
Press it up, Now that I’ve Got Your Love and So Fine from Sean Paul’s 2009 album Imperial Blaze, which rose to the top of Billboard’s Top Reggae Albums charts were also featured, as were French Montana’s Writing on the Wall featuring Cardi B and Post Malone and Ne-Yo and Shenseea’s Major Moves from the Jamaican movie Sprinter.
Also highlighted on the playlist is American R&B singer John Legend’s Bigger Love and Don’t Walk Away featuring Koffee, from Legend’s Bigger Love album, which was released on June 19.
In a recent interview, Stephen said Don’t Walk Away, came from his and Legend’s first session together, after which the artiste came up with the idea to get Koffee on it as a feature. The Grammy princess then did the recording and sent in her vocals, and thereafter McGregor completed the production remotely.
For Bigger Love, the title track, he said Legend had reached to him to add “a bit more Caribbean influence”, and so he “worked on it and sent it back,” following which John decided that would be the final version.
Stephen, who only turned 30 years old in January, wrote and recorded his first song in 1995, at the age of five, a dancehall track titled School Done Rule on the Skettel riddim, which was featured on the compilation Reggae For Kids.
However, it was the production side of things to which he really gravitated. By the time he reached seven, he was already skilled in playing bass, guitar, keyboards, and violin, and by the age of 12 had an almost full-fledged career in music production.
His first hit riddim, dubbed Cartoon, came in 2004, while still a schoolboy after he and his elder brother Chino approached dancehall artiste Elephant Man to record a track on it. Elephant became the first of fifteen artistes to voice on the riddim, in addition to Wayne Marshall, Mr. Vegas, Mr. Lexx, and others.
His production repertoire also spans two songs featured in the HBO series Insecure.
Stephen also exclusively produced Vybz Kartel’s 18-track album titled The Teacher’s Back in 2008 and worked on the Red Bull and Guinness, Power Cut, Street Swag, and Peppa rhythms. Some of the other Dancehall hit songs that he produced include Come into My Room by Mavado and Stacious, Cyaan Friend Again by himself, and From Morning by Chino.
McGregor’s latest work is the new single released today by Govana titled, Strike Force.