DJ Megan Ryte

NYC-based DJ and radio personality Megan Ryte tried as hard as she could to come up with something clever to title her debut album, but for what she’d go through to see it to completion—numerous record deals, the inevitable delays in wrangling talent—titling it after herself was the only thing that seemed to make sense. “I tried to throw about a hundred names on it and nothing fit,” she tells Apple Music. “I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the process of everything, from the time I released the first single, took probably close to three years. It almost seemed like the album represented me and my journey. And the only thing that made sense was to just name it after myself.”
DJ Megan Ryte the album, like the person, is an amalgamation of vibes, experiences, and musical taste, setting things off with the sounds of young Ghanaian talent Kwesi Arthur before featuring a wealth of voices including Atlanta flexer Rich The Kid, dancehall upstart Skillibeng, hip-hop and pop music crossover specialist Wyclef Jean, Brooklyn drill representative Sleepy Hallow, veteran Bronx MC Remy Ma, and the illustrious Griselda camp, among others. The whole thing plays like a late-’90s-style mixtape—something the Heavy Hitters DJ crew member understood while putting it together, consciously opting out of the outdated modality of placing all the biggest names at the top of the tracklist. “Just because someone might be more famous, it doesn't mean that somebody less famous is not making a record of that same quality,” she says. “And I think the artists that I chose for this project kind of prove that.” Below she details why each of them were necessary.
“Kwesi Arthur” “I heard some of [Kwesi’s] music and I just was like, I want to have him on my project. He's one of the few artists on the album that I actually don't have a personal relationship with, but I became a fan of his music after hearing it. I can feel his spirit in his music, and I feel like that comes across in the record that he did for me.”
“Fly” feat. Casanova, Rich The Kid & Kranium “One of the things about my project is I wanted to put people together who hadn't done records together. I think Kranium has an incredible voice and an incredible pen game. He doesn't even write his verses as he's doing them, it just comes straight from his brain. So he laid down his part first. Casanova is somebody who has always been there for me and was like, 'Yo, if you going to do this album, I want to be a part of it.' And Rich The Kid also—I felt like putting him on there would change up the vibe a little bit.”
“Mirage” feat. Wyclef Jean and Yung Bleu “So Bleu is from Mobile and my family's from Mobile. So when I was introduced to him, it's like my ears kind of perked up. So he did his part of the record and what's crazy is I actually forgot about it. I was busy doing other stuff and I was going through it and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I have this incredible Bleu record, but who would sound great on it?' And the guitar reminded us of Wyclef. So I reached out to Wyclef and he was like, 'This is a smash.'”
“Fall Thru” feat. Flipp Dinero and Guapdad 4000 “The original version was Guapdad's brainchild. Everything he makes is just amazing. Flipp Dinero, I just heard him on this record—I thought it would be dope because they’re from separate coasts. I actually called [DJ] Khaled and was like, 'Hey, I've got this record. I know we're in COVID quarantine—I don't know if Flipp is recording from his house, but I need this done and I need it quickly.' And I got it back in like two days.”
“Money Counter” feat. Skillibeng and Young M.A “I was in Jamaica and I heard [Skillibeng’s] ‘Brik Pan Brik’ everywhere. You couldn't go through the gas station, turn a corner, you couldn't do nothing without hearing 'Brik Pan Brik.' I had been talking to Young M.A and she's like, 'Yeah, I want to be a part of your project, but I want to do something different. I don't want to do the same records that people will hear me on.'”
“Remy Ma” “Remy is definitely somebody who can speak on being a woman in an industry. She's been there, she's done it, she has reigned supreme in that situation. And we were just having conversations, and as we were talking, she had her notepad out and just started writing.”
“Strapped” feat. Sleepy Hallow “Sleepy Hallow is very versatile. I feel like a lot of the Brooklyn drill artists, people assume they can only do one type of sound, but this is a drill record, but it also has a melodic aspect to it as well. And he went in and changed some stuff to the beat as well. I believe he changed the tempo of the track, too. I thought that was dope and I kept it.”
“Bun B” “I wanted Bun on my album, but the timing didn't match up and things were obviously really difficult for a lot of people in 2020. But Bun has always been supportive of me and a mentor for me. And just having him a part of my project in any way is amazing.”
“Warner Meadows” “I heard [Warner] performing. And I was just like, this kid can do it all. He can sing, he can rap. He is a classically trained jazz pianist, he produces everything. And I get really involved in stuff normally, but when we got together, I was just like, ‘Do your thing, do what feels authentic to you.’”
“Oscuro” feat. Maylo “One of my producers played me a record from [Maylo] and I was just like, I love this kid and I don't speak Spanish. I had no idea what he was saying, but I fell in love with his melodies. For this record, obviously, I got an interpretation afterwards, but I loved it before I even knew. And it's basically about dancing in the dark. I think he's going to be a star.”
“One Chance” feat. Jay Gwuapo “I really like being in the studio with Jay Gwuapo. Everybody has their own way of recording, whether they take a long time and they write and they sit on it and they go home or they kind of just hear and record different melodies line by line and then fill it in—so that's kind of what the process was with Jay Gwuapo. We did a couple of records, and this one is the one that I felt like was best for the project.”
“You Gotta Love Me” feat. Conway the Machine and Westside Gunn “I met Conway and Westside Gunn years ago, and their fanbase is crazy. They had sent me some merch, and it's the only time that I've ever been stopped on the street from wearing somebody’s merch. I would be stopped all the time. So when I started putting the project together, I was just like, 'I have to have a Conway track.' And then I sent it to Westside Gunn and I was like, 'Can you please bless me with some ad-libs?' And he sent me a bunch to put on the record. And it's a classic.”