Nobody knows prolific and mercurial Atlanta rapper Young Thug quite like audio engineer Alex Tumay. The Queens, NY, native has been the only professional able to keep up with the talented rapper, harnessing his abilities on the *Slime Season* trilogy of mixtapes, *I’m Up* and *JEFFERY*. An unheralded yet essential presence on a number of pivotal Atlanta hip-hop albums, Tumay has also worked with Travis Scott on *Rodeo* and lent his ear to “Highlights” from Kanye West’s *The Life of Pablo*. After finishing engineering school, Tumay wound up at Atlanta’s Maze Studios working under the producer Ben Allen and later landed a gig at DARP Studios, where constant sessions with rappers kept him busy, agile and organized by necessity. His behind-the-scenes work has been especially crucial in shaping Young Thug’s recorded output, and he’s helped round out the hard sound of Atlanta’s top beatmakers.
