Pete Rodriguez is Sacramento hip-hop’s secret weapon

It was early February and Mozzy and his entourage had just showed up to Sound Cap Audio. They were a little late. Once there, they were greeted by the owner of the studio, producer Pete Space—real name Pete Rodriguez. Rodriguez was decked out in an oversized hat, long-sleeved T-shirt and loose pants and sported a smile as big as his face.

The producer shook Mozzy’s hand feverishly, making small talk and cracking a few jokes. Throughout the conversation, Rodriguez kept the talk focused on Mozzy—about his project, about life in general.

Finally, he and the rapper got down to work in Rodriguez’s small studio; just a vocal booth, mixing room and hangout area. Within minutes, Rodriguez was fiddling with the backing track, while his co-engineer Ghostsweb (real name Robert Webber) mixed effects on the vocals. Meanwhile, Mozzy was already busy laying down verses.

In less than a half hour, the three are done, with a solid, completed track to show for their time.

This wasn’t Mozzy’s first time at Sound Cap Audio. His 2015 album Bladadah was recorded there, too, and in the time since its release, it has blown up. Rolling Stone, for example, ranked it No. 22 on its 2015 list of best hip-hop albums.

The record, Rodriguez says, recorded at the same furious pace as this latest session. Still, while Mozzy’s gotten big attention for Bladadah, it’s Rodriguez who many would argue is its secret weapon.

And, many would probably agree, he’s also the secret weapon for Sacramento’s hip-hop scene, working with a diversity of artists across subgenres, including gangster rap, conscious hip-hop, horrorcore and alt-rap.

Rodriguez says he doesn’t rule out any style—rather, it’s all about the artist.

“If someone’s excited enough to come in here, then it must be pretty damn important,” he says. “We treat this shit like this could possibly be the last damn thing we ever record.”

In the studio, he and Ghostsweb approach the project through the lens of their collaborators, he adds.

“We try to absorb their vision. We want them to feel like they got out what they wanted, maybe even a little more vividly.”

While most hip-hop fans are probably unaware of Rodriguez’s work, Bladadah’s success means that many Sacramento rappers—and beyond—are starting to understand his importance.

“He’s one of the unsung, great talents of Sacramento,” says local producer Styles1001. “Pete’s opened up my ears to a lot of new music, and got me out of my bubble.”

Rodriguez and Ghostsweb adjust their approach depending on the artist. Some rappers, like Mozzy, require them to simply keep up with their swift pace. Less experienced artists call on the pair to produce beats and guide them along the entire process.

“We’re not here just to hit a damn button and then that’s it,” Rodriguez says. “At the end of the day—if your vision is strong—if you can think it, we feel like we can do it.”

The studio, which opened in 2009, is located in the bottom floor of an unassuming brick building at E and 20th streets. Rodriguez’s career goes back even further: He first got involved with hip-hop in the ’90s while living in Fresno.

There, he rapped in and produced beats in a group called the HGL Crew. Later, he took it upon himself to record and mix their work because no one else seemed to know how. That led him to recording other groups in Fresno like Planet Asia, Living Legend, Skhool Yard and Ariginal Trendsettas.

Rodriguez moved to Sacramento in 2003, working at Apple and recording rappers on the side. One of the first people he met here was MC QBall, who was working hard to bust up what he saw as hip-hop’s tendency toward cliques, throwing shows with every kind of rapper in town. For Rodriguez, MC Q Ball’s philosophy and approach influenced him to want to work with any and every rapper in town.

By 2009, he was working with many of the town’s major players and by 2010 he’d teamed up with Ghostsweb. At the time, Ghostsweb had no producing experience, having spent two decades custom-painting cars. He started coming into Sound Cap Audio because his cousin was recording there and, after he expressed an interest in producing, Rodriguez brought him into the studio and taught him the basics. The two have operated as a partnership ever since.

In the studio, Ghostsweb is the serious one—much more technical in his approach than Rodriguez.

The pair takes responsibility for every task and, together, say they’ve streamlined the process. For example, they do much of the mixing while the artists lays down tracks. It’s a matter of saving time—and also giving the final cuts that human element.

“It’s not just the technology. We try to get the emotional performance more than anything. If we didn’t have any of this gear, we’d still get a great performance,” Ghostsweb says. “We’re not relying on [program] plug-ins. We’re just relying on emotional performances.”

Mozzy’s Bladadah exemplifies this perfectly. The rapper had been coming into Sound Cap weekly to record when, one day, he announced he needed to release a record right away. He had an album cover ready and had narrowed down the list of songs he wanted to include on it.

The tracks aren’t super-produced, but rather convey a raw, emotive vibe. Many, in fact, are in what Rodriguez refers to as a “version one state.” meaning that they weren’t mixed post-production, but rather taken from the mixing process.

“I’m not going to lie to you right now, our ’version ones’ are pretty hot. We cared so much about Bladadah while it was happening, that’s why it ended sounding pretty good,” Rodriguez says in a rare moment of self-praise. “I can’t go nowhere without hearing Mozzy everywhere, which is crazy—just to hear your own work like that all the time.”