Bud'da

Stephen Anderson, better known as Bud'da, is an American West Coast hip hop producer, songwriter, composer and rapper for artists such as Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Xzibit and Aaliyah. Through the successful Westside Connection stint, and the mutual acquaintance of fellow Pittsburgh producer Sam Sneed, Dr. Dre wanted to feature snippets of a Bud’da-produced track in the beginning and end of the 2pac & Dr. Dre video for “California Love,” off Tupac Shakur’s All Eyez on Me. Soon after Dr. Dre’s historic departure from Death Row Records, Bud’da was once again recruited by Dr. Dre to co-produce the lead single "Been There, Done That" off the Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath album.

Bud’da was introduced into Blackground Records in 1999, which acquired artists such as Aaliyah, Tank, Static Major, and Timbaland. One of the first projects Bud’da worked on was Aaliyah’s third and final studio album: Aaliyah. The approach of the project was to expand the boundaries of R and B. Aaliyah was wanted to go in a new direction, and Bud’da provided that new sound. As project was breaking new ground Bud’da said in an interview

“But if you create your own sound, your own path then you’re going to be a trendsetter and people are going to do what you want to do and then you’re going to be able to change and make some kind of a movement versus just doing something that everybody else is doing. Aaliyah didn’t want to do that and nobody involved with the project wanted to do that.”

At the end of his tenure with Aftermath, Bud'da reminisce was on his growth being there. "I learned everything that I know from him. I think that those years that I was at Aftermath if anything, to me, I consider it like I went to college. ‘Cause the knowledge I got during that time, it’s priceless."

With the darkness of Rock, the undertones of UK Garage, hard hitting drums of Hip-hop, and the live percussions of latin music, Bud’da mark on the “Aaliyah” project where felt. On songs such as “Never No More” and “I Can Be” was his presence was felt most along with Static Major and Tank as well as other songs (See Discography). Aaliyah was released in July 2001. In the United States, it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 187,000 copies in the week of August 4. She eventually sold 2,600,000 million albums and 13 million world wide. Additionally, Aaliyah was met with highly positive reviews from most critics. Unfortunately, On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah and the members of the record company, died in a plane crash after “filming rock the boat” music video.

In 1996,Bud'da was with the transitioning of the Aftermath records along with Dr. Dre, Stu-B-Doo, Mel-Man, and King T. His brief stent at death row records provide d limited outlook as Bud'da saw an opportunity with Dr. Dre. Bud'da formally introduced to Dre while playing different beats which one of them was “California love”. As Bud'da mention in Hip-hop DX

Some of his influence with Dr. Dre included the "California love", "Been there, done that", as well as the feud between the east and west coast when it can to determining the best style of music. Eventually, Dr. Dre signed Bud'da as a producer and as an artist. His tenure at Aftermath was the main architect of aftermath project was he produce close to half of the records (see discography). Dr Dre Presents...The Aftermath was released on November 26, 1996. In spite of Dr. Dre's name being on the album, and it being certified platinum, it received mixed reviews and was not amongst the year's more commercially successful releases.