Take A Daytrip Talk about Creating Lil Nas X’s “Panini”

In June 2019, Lil Nas X released his second big single “Panini”. After the incredible success of “Old Town Road” which he performed at BET AWARDS 2019, the new track “Panini” debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music was produced by Take A Daytrip and Dot Da Genius.

David Biral and Denzel Baptiste of producer duo Take A Daytrip showed Genius how the new beat for Lil Nas X’s “Panini” was made.

For the first hour, they just sat in the studio and didn’t even start to produce the music. Just talked to each other. Lil Nas X was 19 at the moment and Take A Daytrip were 26. It turned out that they had quite different references. Lil Nas X was surprised that Take A Daytrip didn’t know the Chowder cartoon. One of the main characters in it is Panini.

Take A Daytrip’s lawyer David Jacobs, who also worked with Lil Nas X, decided to connect them. They were ok with it. As a result, they met each other in LA.

The first beat that they played was Rodeo. It eventually became a part of Lil Nas X and Cardi B collab. Lil Nas X wanted to hear something weird. Take A Daytrip recalled the beat made together with Dot Da Genius.

They restructured it and Lil Nas X went to the audio booth and made the first verse.

The instruments used to produce Lil Nas X’s “Panini”:

• for the lead: Dave Smith Prophet’08 synth, Soundtoys EchoBoy slap-delay, XL Audio RC-20 Retro Color
• for the piano notes: Nord Stage 3
• Arturia MatrixBrute
• for one more lead and bass: Moog Sub Phatty
• bass-guitar

The chorus was inspired by Nirvana “In Bloom” (1991).

Drums for the beat were added by Dot Da Genius. He is also famous for production for Kid Cudi.
Take A Daytrip added 80-kick, which repeats the main kick in the beat.

They also asked Lil Nas X to sing another take one octave higher for the chorus.

At this moment they came to understanding and decoded to add vocal whistle. It seemed that they became a band. Not even finishing the second verse, Lil Nas X leaked the demo version to Instagram. Just in several moments, the song became viral.