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16-Year-Old Wondagurl Talks Being on Jay-Z's Album

Producer explains how her "Crown" beat landed on Magna Carta Holy Grail.

Ontario's 16-year-old Ebony "Wondagurl" Oshunrinde is experiencing a major life change as news circulates that she is the producer behind Jay-Z's "Crown," a track that sits at that ever-important mid-album peak on his Magna Carta Holy Grail.

"I was at home one day and I was looking for reggae samples for a while and I finally found this one that was crazy, Sizzla 'Solid as a Rock,'" she told MTV News. "I took it and I cut it up and I put it in the software FL Studio and I started building around it, adding 808s."

She said she was attempting to make a beat for G.O.O.D. Music signee Travi$ Scott. She had heard him, Pusha T and Popcaan on the dancehall-influenced "Blocka" and got the idea. She then sent her beat to Scott and he said "he was going to add some stuff to it."

Next, "a few days afterwards, he messaged me saying he's about to change my life, and a few days later he told me that I was on Jay-Z's album."

Hov is known for helping to pick up and launch new producers. For example, Kanye West, obvi, who catapulted to the Yeezus that he is now after being credited with revitalizing Jay's career with "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" off his sixth studio album, The Blueprint. That record was Jay's first top 10 single as a lead artist.

And then there's 9th Wonder, who was still somewhat of a newcomer when his R. Kelly flip landed on Jay's almost-retirement album, The Black Album, which also boasted production from 'Ye, DJ Quik, Just Blaze, the Neptunes and Rick Rubin. Immediately afterward, the North Carolinian produced "Girls," "Is She the Reason" and "Game Over" for Destiny's Child, and has since become another one of the most revered soul-samplers in the industry. 

Now, like 9th, with one beat, Wondagurl has joined an elite group of producers, catalogued on MCHG alongside Timbaland, Pharrell, Swizz BeatzThe-Dream, Boi-1da and Mike Will Made It. "At first ... it didn't seem real," she said.

MCHG is Jay's 12th studio album and a historical landmark in music as its release also spurred a change in RIAA rules and its artwork was first revealed and is on display at the Salisbury Cathedral in the U.K. The album only officially releases today, internationally; and tomorrow, domestically. It leaked moments after its pre-release to 1 million Samsung Galaxy users July 4.

Be sure to check back in for BET's track-by-track review, "The Rundown: Jay-Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail," uploading for your morning surf, July 9.

 

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(Photos: Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star/Getty Images; Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

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