Harrison spent his teenage years kicking around the local go-go scene, playing keyboards in a group called Perfection Band. I want to represent this sound and show where I'm from. 'Every beat that I make has that feel, whether I want it to or not.

'Go-go is like hip-hop - it's just in your heart,' Harrison explains. The tune hardly resembled Harrison's later work - it's a delicate, mid-tempo affair - but the track's flickering percussion foreshadows the sound that would later become his hallmark: a drum-heavy mix inspired by D.C.

'Beautiful Ones' earned a spot on her 1999 album, 'Mary.' When Thompson eventually played one of Harrison's tracks for Blige, 'she flipped over it,' Thompson says. He was hungry and ready to rep for the area.' 'But I was more impressed with his determination. 'This young kid Rich had some stuff that was kind of hot,' says Thompson, remembering how Harrison floated a demo his way. Harrison owes it to Chucky Thompson, a former D.C.-based record producer who made his name in the '90s creating tracks under the mogul formerly known as Puff Daddy. 1 hit and his first Grammy.Д«efore the big break with Beyonce, there was his first break with Mary J. Knowles's spotless vocal delivery to a spicy Chi-Lites horn break earned Harrison his first No. On the radio, it sounds like a party on the dance floor, it sounds like a revelation.Д®ven better, 'Crazy in Love,' the 2003 summer banger that cranked up Beyonce's solo-career. His latest mega-hit is '1 Thing,' which he produced for onetime protege and fellow Washington native Amerie, whose vocals soar over a blazing Meters sample with aplomb. Those are conditions that will never be re-created, and I get to use them for my records.' 'You're not just sampling the instrument, you're sampling the arguments they had in the studio, you're sampling the temperature in the room, you're sampling the engineer's attitude, you're sampling the coke they snorted. 'It's co-writing with people that I would never be able to play with,' Harrison says of his penchant for sampling. As with his work on Beyonce's 'Crazy in Love,' a Harrison-produced song is rife with kicky percussion loops and scalding-hot soul samples, amped up to dazzling effect. Most of his singles feature some lovely diva du jour sweating it out over a thundering drum break. And in the car, in the club, at the spring formal. Sure, you might not recognize Rich Harrison at the gym, but you've definitely heard his music there.

District voter records say he turns 32 tomorrow.) A recent publicity blurb says he's only 24. After much cajoling Harrison claims to be 29. ' (Part of his enigma seems to be dodging questions about his age. 'I just want to be the Howard Hughes of this. It works for me,' Harrison says with a shrug. on the map.'ДЄnd he wants to do it all in the shadows. He has hopes of launching a record label in Washington by the end of the year that will, he says, 'establish a movement and put D.C. to Nelly Furtado to Justin Timberlake to Busta Rhymes. He's produced three Top-20 singles in 2005 alone - Amerie's '1 Thing' Jennifer Lopez's 'Get Right' and Destiny's Child's 'Soldier.' He spent the summer lining up collaborations with everyone from T.I. And while this demeanor is more playful than paranoid, it quickly becomes clear that life is about to get 'deep' for Rich Harrison, whether he likes it or not. The story of his ascent unfolds like a secret he's thrilled to tell you, but suspicious of whom you might pass it along to. Dre T-shirt, he speaks of his burgeoning career with the brassy enthusiasm of a teenager, but manages to keep his volume in check, eyes darting around the room. Blige.ДЇoot traffic in the lobby of Georgetown's Ritz-Carlton is light on this Thursday afternoon, and Harrison seems to have chosen the spot, only a few blocks from his apartment, as if it were a certain parking garage in Rosslyn - a safe place to discreetly divulge his life story. native - is back on his home turf after a summer on the West Coast crafting tracks for the likes of Christina Aguilera and Mary J. The words escape Rich Harrison's mouth before his jeans even hit the sofa.

Amerie 1 thing drum cover