Those who know Young Guru understand how important he is to the rap game. He’s the engineer behind 10 (out of 11) Jay-Z albums, his DJ and the keeper of all things Jigga related. Not only that but he’s redefined what it means to be an engineer by going the extra mile and that has kept him around for over a decade. In an unpredictable industry, one might assume Guru to be Hollywood, but that’s the farthest thing you’ll ever see when you meet him. During the A3C weekend, he was all over the place: interacting with fans and artists, educating people about engineering during his panel and most importantly, enjoying himself.

After running into him several times, we finally got the chance to talk after the panel ended. In our interview, he discusses his influence on engineering, why Barclays Center is very important to him, the reason we’ll never heard Jay-Z’s unreleased stash and his work with Jay Electronica.

How much influence he hopes he’s had on the Engineer game (0:15)
The importance of Barclays Center (0:58)
Why we’ll never heard the unreleased material Jay-Z has (1:34)
Working with Jay Electronica and the long wait for his debut album (2:14)