Mike Elizondo

Michael A. Elizondo Jr. (born October 22, 1972) is an American producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

A protege of Dr. Dre, Elizondo has worked with 50 Cent, Eminem, Carrie Underwood, Fiona Apple, Mastodon, Ry Cooder, Skylar Grey, Twenty One Pilots, Nelly Furtado, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, among others.

His songwriting credits include "In da Club" by 50 Cent, Eminem's "Just Lose It" and "The Real Slim Shady", "Family Affair" by Mary J. Blige, and Carrie Underwood's "Cowboy Casanova".

A Grammy award-winner and five-time nominee, he has twice been nominated in the Producer of the Year category.

Elizondo was born and raised in Pacoima, California.

His musician father, Miguel, had a diverse record collection and Elizondo grew up listening to artists from the Beatles to Motown to Johnny Cash.

His father hosted jam sessions at home, and in the early 80s converted the garage into a recording studio to record local bands.

Elizondo learned to play the accordion at age 9 and the tenor saxophone at 12.

At 14, he picked up the electric bass, which became his main instrument, and played in a metal band.

He was accepted, and enrolled in the university's music program in 1991.

Already well-versed in jazz and other genres of music, Elizondo's emphasis was on classical music at CSUN; as he studied with Pratt, in addition to Ed Meares, he played in chamber groups and the school orchestra.

He also played in bands with musicians such as Nels and Alex Cline, Vinny Golia, Peter Erskine, and in 1994, as his extracurricular gigs became more time-consuming, he left CSUN to focus professionally on music full-time.

At CSUN, Elizondo played bass and wrote songs for Budahat, a Rock/R&B band that he founded with a childhood friend, Trevor Lawrence, Jr. In 1995, the band was signed by Atlantic.

Although their album was never released, the experience provided Elizondo with an education in publishing and the record industry, and introduced him as a songwriter and musician to prominent producers including T-Bone Burnett, Glen Ballard, Matthew Wilder, and Matt Wallace.

As he became more in-demand as a session musician, he played on records by artists including Sheryl Crow, Ry Cooder, Fiona Apple, Perla Batalla.

In 1996, Elizondo was booked as a session musician for the recording of The Album, by The Firm, a hip hop supergroup composed of Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature.

Produced by Dr. Dre and the Trackmasters, it was one of the first records released on Dre's then newly founded Aftermath label.

The Firm sessions marked the start of Elizondo's relationship with Dre.

Elizondo met Poe through Matt Wallace in 1997, and co-wrote four songs for her second Atlantic album, Haunted, including its title track.

Following the release of the album, he was signed to a publishing deal with producer Steve Lindsey, who had a co-venture with Windswept Pacific.

Elizondo later said: "Steve was the one early on, who truly believed in my potential as a songwriter."

Shortly after he signed his publishing deal, Elizondo began to work steadily on Aftermath projects as part of Dre's core creative team.

Elizondo's first co-production credits were for "True Lies" and "Lay Low" on Snoop Dogg's 2000 album The Last Meal.

Scott Storch, another of Dre's proteges, also co-produced "Lay Low".

He played on Dre's solo album 2001 in 1999, and continued to work closely with him for the next 11 years as a multi-instrumentalist (bass, keyboards, and guitars), songwriter, and producer.

Elizondo—who was with Dre when he and Eminem met —scored his first co-writing credit with Dre for "The Real Slim Shady" from Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP.

Written with Tommy Coster, Jr., the song "made Eminem a phenomenon", with The Marshall Mathers LP selling more than 1.8 million albums in its first week.

In 2003, in addition to playing bass, guitar and keyboards, Elizondo co-wrote five songs on 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Trying, and co-wrote and co-produced the album's first and final singles, "In da Club" and "If I Can't".

A "minimalist masterpiece," "In da Club" was No. 1 for nine of the 30 weeks it charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and broke the Billboard record as the most listened to song in radio history within a week of its release.

It was No. 24 on the decade-long Hot 100, and #13 on the Rolling Stone list of the best songs of the decade.

His run of hits continued through the end of 2004, with Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair" charting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" by Eve ft. Gwen Stefani, and "Rich Girl" by Gwen Stefani featuring Eve, which hit the Top 10.

He co-wrote four songs on The Eminem Show and eight songs on Eminem's Encore, including "Just Lose It", an international hit.

As Elizondo's success in the hip hop and rap genres continued to grow, he was sought out to work with pop, rock, roots and alternative artists.

In 2005, he was recruited to produce Fiona Apple's 2005 album, Extraordinary Machine.

In a 2006 interview with Sound on Sound, he said: "The reason that playing bass stuck was that the role it has, whether you're playing acoustic or electric or keyboard bass, is very appealing to me, because you are the link between the rhythm and the melody."

He went to Hamilton High School Music Academy, where he met future engineer Manny Marroquin and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., who inspired him to devote more time to practicing in order to improve his technique.

He discovered an affinity for jazz, and while he continued to play the electric bass with hardcore and metal bands he formed, in his senior year he picked up the upright bass, studying classically to understand the full scope of the instrument.

Elizondo met bassist and California State University, Northridge (CSUN) music professor Gary Pratt when Pratt guest-conducted Hamilton's jazz band.

Elizondo subsequently studied privately with Pratt, who encouraged Elizondo to apply to CSUN.

"The Real Slim Shady" won a Grammy, hit the US Top 10, and entered the UK chart at No. 1. As of 2019, with more than 35 million in worldwide sales, the record was the top-selling rap album of all time.