SOPHIE best production credits, songs inspired by: LISTEN

SOPHIE’s sudden death at the age of 34 last weekend shed light on the producer’s broad catalog, with even longtime fans finding new credits for the pioneering pop artist. While SOPHIE entered pop with a unique vision in songs like “BIPP”, from 2013, the producer gained prominence when working with everyone, from Charli XCX and the collective PC Music to Madonna and Vince Staples. SOPHIE released the singles compilation PRODUCTS in 2015 and the revealing solo album OIL OF EACH PEARL’S UN-INSIDES in 2018, but these only tell a partial story of the producer’s broad and influential career. Therefore, this list of songs focuses on some that did not have the name of SOPHIE, but would not exist without the musician – either because SOPHIE produced them or influenced the artists who performed them.

“Hey QT,” QT

PC Music went underground scene as troublemakers, reinterpreting the formalistic rules of pop to the point where some critics mistake the music for a parody. SOPHIE was never officially part of the label, but has worked with AG Cook and his acolytes over the years, starting with this easy-to-swallow piece of pop gum. The song itself is a theme by PC artist QT, named after her energy drink of the same name – launched shortly after SOPHIE chose “advertising” as a comprehensive music genre in an interview and followed by a shrill concert turned into a promotional feat of product at SXSW in 2015.

“Bitch I’m Madonna”, Madonna, with Nicki Minaj

The best Madonna song of the past ten years would not exist without SOPHIE, who shares production credits with Diplo on Madonna’s 2015 album, Rebellious heart. The touches of SOPHIE appear in the details, like that caffeinated and cheeky pre-chorus. The moment SOPHIE referred to a Madonna hit years later, in the very transcendent pop banger of the producer “Immaterial”, it was more than deserved.

“Vroom Vroom,” Charli XCX

Vroom Vroom, a 2016 EP with four songs, changed the entire career path of Charli XCX. Before, she was a DIY spirit trying to fit into a mold of the top 40; later, she slowly became the prominent pop experimentalist. SOPHIE produced the entire EP, and the title track is Charli’s fiery and fun reintroduction. “Bitches know they can’t catch me,” Charli sings about SOPHIE’s synthesizers, more dissonant than anything she sang before. She continued to work with SOPHIE on songs like “Roll With Me”, “Lipgloss” and “Out of My Head”.

“Yes, right”, Vince Staples, with Kendrick Lamar

Vince Staples claimed his second adventure album, Big Fish Theory, it wasn’t a rap record – it was electronic. The credits supported him, including two beats produced by SOPHIE. From others Big Fish Theory songs shine and groove, while a track like “Yeah Right” pits Staples against the beat, heavy and industrial. “At that time in my career, I was at the point where you are reevaluating how you feel about yourself, what is your purpose, what are your sounds,” said Staples Rolling Stone. “SOPHIE had something we were looking for.”

“Hot Pink”, let’s eat grandma

“Hot Pink” begins as an unpretentious pop song before hitting a wall of synthesizers. SOPHIE had the talent to make electronic music visceral, and few songs do it better than “Hot Pink”, the first of many breakthrough moments for the English vanguard duo Let’s Eat Grandma. As impenetrable as the chorus sounds, the pair cut. But this song still has pop bones, and that sparkling one is an equally classic SOPHIE touch.

“745 sticky,” 100 gecs

In the wake of SOPHIE’s death, no point of contact has emerged more than 100 gecs, the frantic experimental-electronic duo that broke out in 2019. Critics compared them to everything from 3OH! 3 to Sleigh Bells, but her irreverent confusion of genres would not be possible without SOPHIE’s challenging concepts of pop from previous years. While 1000 gecs the only “cash machine” featured gecs in its most palatable flavor, the “745 sticky” album opening was a much more assertive announcement, from vocal manipulation (especially to Laura Les, herself a trans woman) to that widespread downfall .

“Not binary”, Ark

SOPHIE appears in another part of Arca’s last album, the dance floor turned KiCk i. But the album, which marked Arca’s public appearance as a trans, builds on what SOPHIE achieved a few years earlier with “It’s Okay to Cry”, which adequately presented the producer’s unedited voice and trans identity for the first time . “What a delight not to be binary, ma chérie”, declares Arca in the opening track, “Nonbinary”, amid a confusion of clangs, pops and zaps. Arca said he wanted to “explore the genre euphoria” on the album, echoing the number of critics who described SOPHIE’s songs as “It’s Okay to Cry”.

“SLIME”, Shygirl

The last song produced by SOPHIE released before the death of the producer was this track by London rapper Shygirl. “SLIME” is more nebulous than many SOPHIE productions, but no less confident, with the pulsating beat highlighting the explicit images of Shygirl’s bars. The song brought back the transgression of SOPHIE’s old music – the 2015 singles compilation, PRODUCTS, came with a sex toy – while SOPHIE’s practice of driving new artists, from Quay Dash to Banoffee to Shygirl, continued.

Untitled, Lady Gaga
Rumors of a collaboration between SOPHIE and Lady Gaga have spun for years, but while the producer ended up not being credited in Chromatica, Gaga collaborator BloodPop confirmed that the three were in the studio together. SOPHIE was one of the first to work on the album, said BloodPop Weekly entertainment, dividing Gaga’s sports car audio into samples. And he added: “We still plan to finish these songs and present something special within the Chromatica universe.”