When you started branching out into non-TDE releases, was asserting your creativity paramount, or were you okay taking a backseat to a particular artist’s vision?

Because Kendrick and TDE’s style has always been so unorthodox and different, I was lucky enough to be with people that would let me go creatively. I never got put in a box when I was working with Kendrick, Ab-Soul, ScHoolboy Q, or Jay Rock. We were all trying to experiment, and the worst thing that could happen is we’d just say we didn’t like it. That sparked a creativity in myself that other engineers weren’t doing. I was mixing unconventionally, doing things that didn’t make sense.

When Dre signed Kendrick, Kendrick was like, "Everything’s all good as long as Ali is sitting with you while we’re mixing." When it was time to mix Lamar's 2012 album good kid, m.A.A.d city, Dre started teaching me the a***og board. I had crack plug-ins and I stole audio gear that I had to make work. My sound comes from Dre training me on the a***og s--t and me having the basic knowledge of digital mixing. I fuse them together.

Was your interest always in mixing and engineering, or did you shift towards that at a certain point?

I wasn’t a musically-inclined kid growing up. I used to break RC cars just to put them back together and see how they worked. I found out I could do that through audio and I fell in love with the process. I could take a recorded vocal and manipulate it in such a way as to make it sound different. That concept is where Section.80 came from. We tried to take sounds and blend s--t together that didn’t make sense.

Outside of the TDE stuff, do you have a favorite release from the past few years? Or is it too hard to choose?

The last album I did was the Roddy Ricch album, Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial. I’m only as good as my last mix, and I think that’s some of the best work that came out last year.

And you have a new No. 1 single, too.

Exactly. We came off the Summer Walker album 2019's Over It, which also had multiple number ones. We want to keep the catalog growing, and I want to keep building my stake in hip-hop history.

What are you looking forward to in 2020?

I’m getting more into education. I launched a series of workshops where I go around the world and teach kids how to mix records. I’m teaching them about my story, the good and the bad, so they can maneuver around the landmines. I’m doing full deconstructions of some of my biggest mixes so they can get a head start. I want to be the person for somebody that I wish I had growing up.

Read more: billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8548107/mixedbyali-interview

Kendricks engineers having influence before Kendrick has any

Sad how kendrick really came and went smh so much potential

Man of honor. I wanna meet him

👍

Ali let his hair down on hoes

Bro what is with the Kendrick slander on this site I will never understand

I feel the recent albums he's mixing don't sound too good, he's starting to become Mike Dean level of overrated as an engineer

buggin

Honestly though roddys album doesnt sound special

Yea s*** sounds generic just like other Soundcloud projects from bedroom producers

the mixing on the album was clean as f*** tho
the album sounding generic is a different story

I’m saying the mixing sounds too clean

his TDE mixes got creative energy oozing in every decision

This one. Nah..