Midway through our interview, Khris Riddick-Tynes’ eyes cut to his phone after receiving a notification from FedEx. “The Grammys are getting delivered today,” he grins, with triumph lighting his eyes. The songwriter and producer just so happens to be reflecting on his creative history with Kehlani, as his statuette is delivered. He co-produced and co-wrote her No. 1 hit “Folded,” crowned Best R&B Song at the 68th Grammy Awards. The heartfelt ballad is lifted from Kehlani’s self-titled fifth album, in which he also serves as executive producer.
“I wanted to sign Kehlani when we were kids,” says Riddick-Tynes, who discovered the Oakland native online. It was around the time he was working under the tutelage of Babyface and Antonio Dixon and had formed his production duo, The Rascals, with Leon Thomas. “She had this short haircut and all these tattoos and piercings. She was talking about shit that was so raw, but she was young. She had to be like 16 or 17 at the time. I was like, ‘Yo, we got to work with this girl.’ She ended up coming down to LA shortly after and would cut demos for me. From there, she went and did her thing with Pop & Oak for [her debut album] SweetSexySavage.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Khristopher Van Riddick-Tynes couldn’t escape music even if he wanted to. “When it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood,” he says. His father was a member of Randy Jackson’s band Randy & The Gypsys and his grandmother was signed to Uptown Records in the ‘60s.
Growing up, Riddick-Tynes’ extracurricular activities centered around sports, particularly basketball. That love for hooping is still with him. “I use a lot of sports analogies because it’s easy to understand.” In high school, he started teaching himself to use Pro Tools, a music software program. As his skill set developed, he began building a small community of fellow music creators.
By the time he graduated, he was signed to Babyface and Dixon’s production company, working out of Face’s studio, Brandon’s Way. Riddick-Tynes saw how involved his mentors were with other artists and wanted it for himself. “My thought process was, ‘Let me find my artist,’ because that was the kind of throughline I saw with Babyface, where him and L.A. Reid always had their artists: TLC, Usher, Babyface, Toni Braxton. It was their people that they attached themselves to.”
After meeting Thomas through a mutual friend, they formed The Rascals. Their first major break was working with Ariana Grande, who co-starred with Thomas on Nickelodeon’s Victorious, on her debut album, Yours Truly. Over the years, The Rascals went from novices to in-demand writers and producers, collaborating with artists such as Toni Braxton, Chris Brown, Drake, Zendaya and Kehlani. For the latter singer, they worked on songs such as “Butterflies” and “Grieving,” among others. Riddick-Tynes also co-produced her hit “After Hours” from her Grammy-nominated album, Crash.
Beyond the studio, Riddick-Tynes has been simultaneously honing his business acumen and building his empire. In 2022, he earned a Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School while serving as SVP of A&R and co-head of urban at Arista Records.
Was there ever a time when you wanted to be an artist, or were you always interested in producing and writing?
I never really wanted to be an artist because I always saw what that came with. I can hold a note and sing a demo, but I know my limitations. My thing was: let me sharpen my skill set and the business and executive sides of things. That’s when I decided I was going to go to law school after college, while I was producing, and figure out how to become the coach.
You were mentored by musical legends Babyface and Antonio Dixon. How would you say that experience shaped who you are today as a writer and producer?
The main thing is always to push for the song. The production is important, but it’s second to the song. It’s like a body. If you have a healthy body, it doesn’t matter what clothes you put on because underneath it’s healthy. Also, having conversations and getting to know the artist helps you as a writer. Kehlani, for example, has relationships with the people she co-writes with; they know where these records come from and that’s important.
What’s the story behind how you got tapped to be executive producer for Kehlani?
We’ve always been cool. With Kehlani, everything is about timing. I remember she was on tour for Crash. She texted me and was like, “Bro, I’m ready for my self-titled album. We need to get in. I want you to do it.” And then in true Kehlani fashion, she goes off like a black cat. You’ve got to let her do her thing. She came back and was like, “We’ve got to make it happen.” I said, “The only way we’re going to make it happen is if we really go for the gusto.” And she said, “I’m ready to do it. I really want to step into it. I got my mind right.”
She got aligned with God and herself. We just said, “We’ve got to get back to the basics and do real music.” That’s where “Folded” and all these records came from. It just shows when you’re true to yourself and believe in yourself, you’ll become what it is. I don’t know if she ever thought she would win the Grammys at this point. You get to the finals, lose, and you’re kind of like, “Man, f**k the finals.” Then you see the overwhelming response. It’s like a dream come true for both of us.
The role of executive producer often varies. Sometimes it’s a vanity title and other times it’s really hands-on. How did you define your role for this project?
As an executive producer, you’re not only responsible for bringing the vision together creatively but also directing the logistics and knowing where to push and where to land. I take that seriously because, as a coach, if I’m drawing up plays, you have to trust me enough to run it because I’m seeing things you can’t see on the court. We have a good flow. Now, we’ve gotten into it but we always come back to the middle. She knows I want the best for her, even if there’s a hot record I didn’t produce or write: “Let’s put it on because if you win, I win.”
As executive producer, what type of statement did you want to make, especially since this is her self-titled album?
It was really to introduce people to her. For me, it was about making sure people see her as a star and for being a star and nothing else. She’s got all the followers, but there’s a world outside of that bubble that you’ve got to break out of. And we did it. She’s never had a pop radio record, and we did that with a Black ass record [“Folded”]. I wanted to put belt to ass to everybody to say, “This is how you do it. This is how you win. This is how you write and you produce songs and trust.” I think we both had chips on our shoulders to prove that we can do this from either side of the field: offense, defense, we’re coming.
It felt like something shifted after Crash came out. The reaction to it was almost polarizing. Some loved it, some didn’t understand it. Then we got the While We Wait 2 mixtape a couple of months afterward, which we got ahead of the self-titled. Was there pressure that came with the follow-up?
It was good pressure. During the Crash period, she had people around her telling her to go in directions I don’t necessarily think were right for her because it wasn’t about her. Kehlani was about her. It was about: “What are songs that you feel? Because you got to get up there and sell it.” There were a lot of cooks in the kitchen. This time, there weren’t a lot of cooks in the kitchen. We have collaborators we worked with, but I had my role, she had her role and David Ali, her manager, had his role. Atlantic Records has been great with letting us do our thing.
There was no overlapping of anything. All the collaborators who came in were amazing, from the young cats to the OGs. We brought in Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis because we wanted to learn from the mentors. We had Antonio Dixon, Babyface, Tank and Keri Hilson. Eric Dawkins came in and vocal produced on “Cruise Control.” But then we had young cats like my mentees, Ashton Norful and Alex Goldblatt. They crushed it. Everybody worked together.
You guys dropped “Folded” last summer and it was well-received, not only from fans and critics, but also from artists across generations. Was that the song that kicked off the album’s creation?
“Pocket” was actually one of the first records we did. What’s crazy about it is that she says “folded” in the song. We didn’t notice until damn near later. “Cruise Control” was another one that was initially going. It started as an Afrobeats record that we were going to try to get Tyla on. At the last minute, I was like, “Let me rework this track.” So I produced it, and she was like, “I love it. Let’s cut it.” Sometimes you have to revive songs from the dead and it just might be the right suit on the body. That’s one of the personal favorites.
With “Folded,” we went to Miami to work with another artist. The session didn’t pan out. We ended up staying in Miami for a little bit. We linked up with my guy Don Mills and Dre Harris, and ended up doing “Folded” there. We did “Folded” at the end of May, and it came out in June. It was a slow burn, but the reception was really well. That set the tone for the rest of the project because it was like, “OK, we can do this, and they love it.”
It’s cool how you guys went to the source of your inspiration to work with them. Instead of just sampling, you brought them in to create a world around Kehlani. What was your vision for bringing in collaborators?
It was just calling people up like, “Hey, put your jersey on. We’re going back in.” I called Rich Harrison, who did “Crazy In Love” for Beyoncé, to do [“Anotha Luva”] with Lil Wayne. I’m like, “Do what you do. I’ll take it from there.” He did what he did, and we landed it. It’s really about respect. If we want to be great, we’ve got to go be with the greats. Being able to be a student was very important.
What’s a lesson you learned?
One thing is patience. For example, “I Need You” with Brandy was a completely different track we wrote with Poo Bear and we were like, “This is dope.” Jimmy Jam always says, sometimes a picture may be crooked, and you just have to twist it. With that one, I loved the drums. I didn’t want to lose that feeling. Months later, I was like, “Let me take this and do something new to it.” Me and Antonio Dixon came up with a new progression and that’s when the skeleton for “I Need You” started. We took it back to Jimmy, and he did his superhero shit on the bridge. Imagine if we had been so hot to be off the record, that record wouldn’t exist. It’s about having the patience and foresight to know what’s good, come back to it with fresh eyes, and build upon it.
The album feels like a love letter to R&B from the ‘90s and 2000s. Nostalgic references can sometimes feel like an easy route to score points, especially today, to a degree. How did you all balance the nostalgia injected into the music while keeping it fresh?
The main thing was with the writing. We weren’t trying to do old school. We were just trying to do stuff that felt good and built around that. When you go to the originators of the shit, you learn and it feels real. You don’t want it to feel cheesy. You want it to feel authentic, but it’s all about what you’re saying and how you do it. I think the most nostalgic one was “Call Me Back” [featuring T-Pain]. It was like, “OK, we’re doing a snap record.” But even that had newer sounds.
With so many veterans and new talent in the mix, how did you narrow down the album’s tracklist?
Kehlani is notorious for doing the album before the album. She had another idea she wanted to do before and got that all out of her system. I was like, “We ain’t doing a hundred thousand tracks” (laughs). I don’t think you have to do that many records. We probably have maybe 23 to 30 records. We didn’t spend much time burning the midnight oil on things. We went to the greats and stayed aligned with what felt great. She had about 100 other records that were not in this world. When it came to this [album] specifically, it was very concise. The general tracklist was done around November, by the time “Out The Window” came out.
Knowing Kehlani as long as you have, was there a moment during this album’s creation where you saw something new in her?
Just her focus. She’s ready and wants to take it. She did an amazing job. I’m proud of her. She’s busting her ass for the road. The tour’s coming in August, and it’s going to be really cool.
As mentioned previously, you earned your law degree a couple of years ago. Why was it important for you to continue your educational journey?
Music is a vehicle for bigger business for me. I look at it like Michael Jackson — he used tour money to purchase the ATV catalog. Law school is a lot like the music industry: you’re on a curve and you have to work extremely hard to beat it. I was used to it because I went to law school later in life, at 25. It gave me an edge in school because I already had 10 years of making music. Being a coach, you have to be able to play different positions. It might be an executive role. It might be a creative role. It might be a writer role. I just wanted to make sure I had my stuff in a row.
Given your experience in music and your legal background, what is your goal for the next 5-10 years?
Continuing to build my brand and business, signing writers and artists and expanding into that realm. I’ve been very [careful] about not signing people haphazardly because I know how much care that takes. I’m at a place now where I’ve got my ecosystem going. The next phase is building up my publishing adventure.
How do you stay sane while balancing it all?
It’s a numbers game. You’ve got to just wake up and shoot shots. They’ll go in or they won’t, but you’ve got to keep shooting. I’ve sold millions of records, but then there’s somebody like Babyface who sold a billion records. You walk into his studio and it’s decades of hit records and the catalog’s still getting sampled. I barely chipped the iceberg. I am thankful for every blessing that has come my way. But I always know there’s more that could be done.
Featured Photo Credit: Eric Michael
