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Producer Series: Nineteen85

Forty-two tracks from the Toronto producer who half-built the sound the entire 2010s copied. If a record between 2013 and 2020 made you feel expensive and slightly sad, he may well be why.

Nineteen85 and the Toronto blueprint

Paul Jefferies, who produces as Nineteen85, is a Canadian producer of Filipino descent who became one of the central architects of the OVO sound. His breakthrough was Drake's "Hold On, We're Going Home," and he went on to produce "Hotline Bling," "One Dance" and a substantial chunk of the material that made Drake the defining pop figure of his decade.

He is also half of dvsn, the duo with singer Daniel Daley, which is where his own aesthetic is clearest: gospel-scale vocal arrangements over sparse, cavernous production, with lyrics considerably more explicit than the churchy setting suggests. It is a genuinely strange and effective combination.

What to listen for

The dvsn tracks are the place to start. "Morning After," "Keep It Going" and "Outlandish" show the method: enormous reverb, a vocal stacked into a choir, and almost nothing else in the arrangement. "Dangerous City" with Ty Dolla $ign and Buju Banton is the biggest swing.

The Drake material maps his commercial reach. "Too Good" with Rihanna, "Madiba Riddim," and "Get It Together" with Black Coffee and Jorja Smith — the last built on a Black Coffee record and one of the best things on More Life. "Don't Matter To Me" uses an unreleased Michael Jackson vocal, which is either remarkable or uncomfortable depending on your view.

Mariah Carey's "GTFO" is the outlier and a genuine highlight — a producer's record more than a diva's, and all the better for it. Travis Scott's "COFFEE BEAN" is the most introspective thing here.

The Caribbean thread — Popcaan on two tracks, PARTYNEXTDOOR's "Not Nice" — is central rather than decorative, and reflects Toronto's actual demographics.

Go deeper

dvsn's Sept. 5th (2016) is the album, and it is best heard late and loud.

For the wider OVO production world: Noah "40" Shebib is the other architect — his muffled, low-passed drum sound is the other half of the Toronto blueprint. Boi-1da handles the harder end.

And for what this sound owes: Aaliyah and Timbaland for the space, The-Dream and Tricky Stewart for the vocal layering, and gospel — specifically the massed-choir arrangement — for the rest. Once you hear the church in dvsn records, you cannot unhear it.

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