Boola digs for his next soulful hit.

Story BEN DETRICK| Photography MICHAEL LUM

“You never know what’s on a record until you listen to it,” says Boola of the egalitarian art of sample-digging. “You could look at records that cost $2,000 or you could look at a crate where they cost .25¢, and still make it hot.” In producing records for Cam’ron, Beanie Sigel and Ne-Yo, the 29-year old native of Hempstead, New York has dipped frequently into stacks of soul records for bushels of buttery strings and cascading pianos. We caught up with Boola at NYC’s Sound Library for a quick lesson in how liner-note research, musical knowledge and curiosity can make the time spent rummaging through those dusty-ass crates more effective.
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