XXXTentacion’s engineer gives details on the late rapper’s recording process for some of his most popular releases.
Koen Heldens Talks Working With XXXTentacion
Koen Heldens is a Grammy-nominated, Dutch-born engineer who has worked with several hip-hop artists including Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Lil Yachty, Rick Ross and others. But he holds a special place in his heart for the late XXX. Having worked with the South Florida rapper on hit songs like “Jocelyn Flores” and the diamond single “Sad!,” Heldens has an inside perspective on the rapper’s recording process. During a recent interview with Studio Talks, Heldens offered some scoop on XXXTentacion’s artistry.
“Jocelyn Flores”
“When I heard ‘Jocelyn Flores’ for the first time, and it completely took me by surprise. I had this image of XXXTentacion as a face-tatted SoundCloud rapper, but the raw emotion in ‘Jocelyn Flores’ was completely different from what I expected. X also had another track for me to mix: ‘F**K Love’ featuring Trippie Redd. That’s how we started working together—almost by chance. X had a way of manifesting things quickly, and it felt like fate that I mixed ‘Jocelyn Flores’ on my birthday.”
A Ghetto Christmas Carol EP
“In November 2017, we worked on A Ghetto Christmas Carol EP, which we completed in one weekend. I remember trying to clean up the 808s on the title track, but X and producer Ronny J insisted, ‘No, no, no, don’t clean it up! It’s supposed to feel like an electric guitar for white people but felt through the bass in the trunk.’ That experience taught me that sometimes being technically correct doesn’t serve the creative process—music is about emotion and feel.”
“Sad!”
“That session was incredible. I vividly remember getting a FaceTime call from X right after he finished recording it. He told me, ‘Hey, I have this record—it’s going to be a number-one hit.’ I loved challenging him, but he consistently proved me wrong, which was amazing. It was one of those moments where what initially seemed like an illusion of grandeur actually became a reality.
He sent me the track and said, ‘I need the mix back in an hour.’ Naturally, I thought, ‘An hour? That’s impossible.’ However, after listening to it, I immediately felt compelled to push the snare way out front—making it loud and prominent. There was no second verse, despite some discussions about adding one, but it didn’t need it since the song didn’t follow a typical structure.
Something else happened by accident: I had a delay line on the lead vocal, and for some reason, the feedback was almost infinite, which I would never normally do. I usually keep the delay feedback around 10 percent, so it only delays once, but this time it just kept going. So, after the hook ended, you could hear the vocal echoing throughout the open verse part. It was a happy accident.
Two key elements made the track stand out: the loud snare and the almost infinite delay. For the kick drum, which sounded a bit thin—almost like a barrel-type kick—I re-amped it through an Ampeg 8×10 bass amp with the SVT bass head. I flipped the phase on its return channel and high-passed it at 150 Hz. When I blended that back in with the original kick, it became massive.”
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Listen to “Jocelyn Flores,” “Sad!” and A Ghetto Christmas Carol EP below.
