THE MERCER

Overview
The Mercer is a boutique hotel in SoHo that temporarily became a private recording base for Kanye West and JAY-Z during the making of Watch the Throne. Between late 2010 and mid-2011, the artists rented six second-floor suites for several months and converted them into an around-the-clock production workspace. The rooms were cleared of much of their furniture and fitted with portable Pro Tools systems, samplers, MIDI controllers, small monitoring setups, and the practical equipment needed for writing, programming, vocal recording, and editing. The hotel arrangement gave the project a level of privacy and flexibility that a conventional commercial studio could not offer, allowing different producers and engineers to work in separate rooms while the artists remained on-site. Mike Dean and other members of the album’s production team used the improvised setup alongside outside studio sessions.

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