Vocalo Radio Chris “Classick” Inumerable On The Classick Studios Journey And Expansion
Written by Vocalo Radio on March 20, 2023
B: I still got my very special guest in the building, Chris Classick. Can you say your last name for me, man? I don’t want to botch it.
CI: Christopher Inumerable.
B: Inumenable.
CI: Where’s the “R”?
B: Inumerable!
CI: There it is! [Laughs] You said it!
B: That’s the first time I said it! We had a full circle moment off-air, Chicago, so… with me going to Classick Studios and recording, and Chris engineering my music, now he’s behind the mic. And guess who’s the engineer? I am.
CI: Mr. Bekoe.
B: Yes.
CI: The one and only.
B: That’s what you call a moment, right there.
CI: Drop the bomb, bro.
B: Boom! [Both laugh] Boom, boom, pow! Now, let’s actually chime in a little bit more on engineering because, if I’m not mistaken, you worked on SZA’s Ctrl album. And I’m pretty sure you knew about a new album that she was working on, which is SOS, I’m just throwing it out there. I don’t know if you knew, but I’m pretty sure they reached out to you to do some more engineer work. And I learned that you actually turned it down, because at that time you were… just filled with work. Do you look back like, “Man, I would still like to work with SZA. Do you still work with the camp, at all?”
CI: I was actually just, that’s funny that you’re bringing this all up, because we were just at the show on Sunday, and saw Punch, saw my bro Cody [AKA ThankGod4Cody] who produced [SZA’s] “The Weekend,” saw a lot of familiar faces, and it felt like home. And honestly, like, she’s good. She has a great team around her. You get what I’m saying? And I’m not the one to always feel like, “Hey… I have to be the person to do this.” I was just very grateful to be a part of it… And for me to also just get that phone call from Carter to build out that studio in his, I think it was his family house in Michigan. I was just like, “Yeah, I’m definitely down to do that.” Recorded a lot of records there. I remember the first one that we ever did was [SZA’s] “2 AM” and recorded it, mixed it and we had to drop it on SoundCloud right away. And it was an experience that I was like, I’ll never forget that… I will never forget that experience.
B: What was it about that experience that you’ll never forget?
CI: Just being in that process to… create something, and just put it out in the world, because I felt like she was ready to just do that. Because sometimes with artists, and just from my perspective, being an engineer and working with so many, it’s like, you want to be able to create stuff, create music and give it to everyone, right? But sometimes, like when you’re in a situation, or you’re with a label, or any kind of form of situation you’re in that’s helping you or supporting you… they’re always gonna be like, “Hold the bricks, wait.” And I felt like — and this is just my perspective. It might not be true, but it just felt like she was ready to just give people the world. Give her… just a piece of her, to everyone at that point.
B: She’s been delivering lately, too.
CI: Yeah, I mean, that’s an amazing album.
B: Man. I be singing. And I can’t sing!
CI: Yeah! We went to the show here in Chicago. And I brought my wife to it, of course, and when the screens went up… did you go to the show?
B: I should have hit you up! But no, I wanted to experience it.
CI: When the screen went up, [my wife] looked at me and started to — I love you, I love you so much — but she started to tear a little bit. I was like… that’s how impactful her music is… Off first rip, like the feeling of seeing it and hearing that first song is like, it’s influential… That, to me, is like the difference between analyzing music and… being aware of music. Awareness comes from passion. Awareness comes from your heart. And she speaks from her heart.
B: I gotta know, too, to transition into management. Did you see some of those components in Smino?
CI: Oh, what? All that?
B: Yeah, the impacts of his music, his sound, his character.
CI: Yes!
B: ‘Cause I got a chance to see Smino hit the stage in New York. At Terminal Five.
CI: Thanks for coming down.
B: Man. And that was a second sold-out show. He sold out one the day before. And he sold out another one, which was Terminal Five the next day. And… bumping into Smino when he was Chris Smith, Jr. And then seeing him turn into Smeezy, Smi, and then being Smino, just seeing him move around here in the city, and then going to a whole ‘nother city and selling that city out two times in a row, man, it did something. And I don’t know what it did to my heart, but it did something. And then knowing that you’re also, you know, pushing and doing what you can to see the growth. I mean, I just want to know, how did that even come about? You know, you managing Smino.
CI: So I knew his cousin, Dreea. And she was telling me that her cousin was coming to Chicago, to go to Columbia. And if, you know, it’d be down to come to the studio one day, and I was like, “Oh, yeah!” And this was, you know, back in the day, Kilpatrick House days. My dad’s house, like, in the basement, and he came down, played me some music and I said, “Yo, you’re straight… you’re good. You could stay here whenever you want. Whenever the studio is good, you’re free for life! You got the Classick Studios card.”
B: He was popping in and out of my studio sessions!
CI: Yeah! Right! And, and when you’re speaking about that passion and that drive… you know, when you’re talking about SZA, he’s had that since the beginning. And for you to see where he’s at now is something that I’ve already seen before, you get what I’m saying? So it’s just like, now I just don’t have to speak on it too much. You get to just hear it and experience it. And that’s the best feeling, for me. I don’t have to, you know, like, “Hey, check this!” You’re like, “Oh, this… This is amazing.” And I’m like, I’m just grateful that he’s in this space that… he’s one… just like very in-tune with what he wants in his life, very present. A very present person, a very talented person. And just grateful for me even being part of that journey with him, because I never thought of myself as a manager. I never even thought about being a manager, period.
B: And that’s exactly what I was gonna get into. And we’re gonna chime in to that, right after the music break. I got an artist that you put me in tune with, sent me the single. He was like, “Hey, check this record out man.” He calls his sounds “thick R&B,” goes by the name of HXRY, “OOOO AAH.” We’ll be right back after this music break, it’s Vocalo Radio.
Continued on next page.
Keep up with Chris Classick on Instagram, and learn more about Classick Studios here.
Interview conducted and edited by Bekoe
Photography by Rakim Winfert
Written introduction, transcription and editing for length and clarity by Morgan Ciocca
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