When Tricky Stewart received the call from BET to create the beat for this year’s BET Hip Hop Awards 2024 cypher, he knew he had to bring his A-game. And with a track record like his—five Grammy Awards and hits with superstars like Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, and more—it was no surprise he would deliver. Ahead of the 2024 Hip Hop Awards on Oct. 15, we sat down with Stewart to talk about his creative process for the Cypher, which artist he’s excited for fans to hear rap over his beat, and his work on Muni Long’s latest album.

BET: Can you walk us through your creative process in crafting the beat for this year’s cypher?

Tricky Stewart: In this particular thing, the first thing I did was go back and look just to see what they had done previously. That was the first step of the process, just to kind of make sure I had the right information about what was kind of expected. So, when I really heard what was expected, to be honest, what I did was, I spoke to some of my up-and-coming producers, as well as producers around me, and I was like, “Yo, look, this is what we're gonna do, and we're all gonna make beats for it.” 'Cause I really didn't know what they were gonna accept or not, or what they were gonna love because it was kind of a bit different vibe or different ask from what I previously do and kind of known to do, you know? So from that standpoint, two of my producers that I worked with, one named V2, female outta Chicago, and another girl named Dream, that I work with. We kind of all made beats for it to see what ended up happening. And the one that I did with V2 was the beat that they chose. I was trying to make it competitive so that I just knew that we would have a beat that was crazy to do something with. 

BET: What did it mean to you to create a beat for such an iconic show, and how did you feel when you received the call?

Tricky Stewart: I felt excited just because it's such a big part of the history of BET to be part of the cyphers. For me, this was on my bucket list of things to do. This definitely was one of those things that in my career that had never come my way that I was really excited about doing. 

BET: Which talent were you most excited to hear rap over your beat?

Tricky Stewart: I think maybe Tasha Cobbs and Chad [Ochocinco] Johnson. I'm a sports fan, so that was pretty intriguing. And then I'm a fan of Tasha Cobbs, so listening to her and wanting to hear what she was gonna do was pretty exciting. 

BET: You worked as a producer on Muni Long's new album—what was that experience like for you? How did it feel collaborating with her?

Tricky Stewart: It was an absolutely amazing process. We were only supposed to spend two days together and then those two days went so great that ultimately we ended up doing the entire album. She asked me to executive producer her project and that was because of the song “Make Me Forget” and “Superpowers,” two of the very first songs that I did. She just knew that we had kind of hit like a level that she wanted to continue that project. Working with such an amazing talent like her is kind of what the exciting parts of music is still all about. 

BET: Can you tell us about your Sessions Atlanta venture and what inspired you to start that project?

Tricky Stewart: Sessions Atlanta came about because since I've been in Atlanta, where I dedicated myself to the music scene there for the last 30 years, I noticed that we have a creative songwriting community of young up-and-coming creators that was kind of being underserved by not necessarily having places where R&B and pop songs were really getting written at a high level. And with my work, always being a diverse across all the genres, I wanted to create a place where people could really come find a creative, safe space to really figure themselves out. Not only on the music side but also on the executive side to figure out what they want to do. It's almost like a finishing school and a mentorship to a lot of these young people to help them give them the information that can make them more successful in the near future.