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Michael A. Elizondo Jr. (born October 22, 1972) is an American Record producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. A protégé of Dr. Dre, Elizondo has worked with 50 Cent, Eminem, Linkin Park, Carrie Underwood, Fiona Apple, Mastodon, Ry Cooder, Twenty One Pilots, Nelly Furtado, Brothers Osborne, Lauren Daigle, Madison Cunningham, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, among others. His songwriting credits include "In da Club" by 50 Cent, Eminem's "Just Lose It" and "The Real Slim Shady", "Family Affair" by Mary J. Blige, and Carrie Underwood's "Cowboy Casanova". He has won three Grammy Awards from seven nominations, which includes two nominations for Producer of the Year.
Elizondo learned to play the accordion at age 9 and the tenor saxophone at 12. At 14, he picked up the electric bass, which became his main instrument, and played in a metal band. In a 2006 interview with Sound on Sound, he said: "The reason that playing bass stuck was that the role it has, whether you're playing acoustic or electric or keyboard bass, is very appealing to me, because you are the link between the rhythm and the melody."
He went to Hamilton High School Music Academy, where he met future engineer Manny Marroquin and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., who inspired him to devote more time to practicing in order to improve his technique. He discovered an affinity for jazz, and while he continued to play the electric bass with hardcore and metal bands he formed, in his senior year he picked up the Jazz bass, studying classically to understand the full scope of the instrument.
Elizondo met bassist and California State University, Northridge (CSUN) music professor Gary Pratt when Pratt guest-conducted Hamilton's jazz band. Elizondo subsequently studied privately with Pratt, who encouraged Elizondo to apply to CSUN. He was accepted, and enrolled in the university's music program in 1991.
Already well-versed in jazz and other genres of music, Elizondo's emphasis was on classical music at CSUN; as he studied with Pratt, in addition to Ed Meares, he played in chamber groups and the school orchestra. He also played in bands with musicians such as Nels Cline Alex Cline, Vinny Golia, Peter Erskine, and in 1994, as his extracurricular gigs became more time-consuming, he left CSUN to focus professionally on music full-time.
In 1996, Elizondo was booked as a session musician for the recording of The Album, by The Firm, a hip hop supergroup composed of Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature. Produced by Dr. Dre and the Trackmasters, it was one of the first records released on Dre's then newly founded Aftermath label. The Firm sessions marked the start of Elizondo's relationship with Dre.
Elizondo met Poe through Matt Wallace in 1997, and co-wrote four songs for her second Atlantic album, Haunted, including its title track. Following the release of the album, he was signed to a publishing deal with producer Steve Lindsey, who had a co-venture with Windswept Pacific. Elizondo later said: "Steve was the one early on, who truly believed in my potential as a songwriter."
Elizondo—who was with Dre when he and Eminem met—scored his first co-writing credit with Dre for "The Real Slim Shady" from Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP. Written with Tommy Coster, Jr., the song "made Eminem a phenomenon", with The Marshall Mathers LP selling more than 1.8 million albums in its first week. "The Real Slim Shady" won a Grammy, hit the US Top 10, and entered the UK chart at No. 1. As of 2019, with more than 35 million in worldwide sales, the record was the top-selling rap album of all time.
Elizondo's first co-production credits were for "True Lies" and "Lay Low" on Snoop Dogg's 2000 album The Last Meal. Scott Storch, another of Dre's proteges, also co-produced "Lay Low". In 2003, in addition to playing bass, guitar and keyboards, Elizondo co-wrote five songs on 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Trying, and co-wrote and co-produced the album's first and final singles, "In da Club" and "If I Can't". A "minimalist masterpiece," "In da Club" was No. 1 for nine of the 30 weeks it charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and broke the Billboard record as the most listened to song in radio history within a week of its release. It was No. 24 on the decade-long Hot 100, and #13 on the Rolling Stone list of the best songs of the decade. His run of hits continued through the end of 2004, with Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair" charting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" by Eve ft. Gwen Stefani, and "Rich Girl" by Gwen Stefani featuring Eve, which hit the Top 10. He co-wrote four songs on The Eminem Show and eight songs on Eminem's Encore, including "Just Lose It", an international hit.
Seeking to "toughen up their sound," Maroon 5 hired Elizondo to produce their second album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long in 2007. 17 tracks were recorded over a period of 8 months, and 14 made the record, including "If I Never See Your Face Again", featuring Rihanna, which would also appear on her album, . The album entered the charts at No. 1 in the UK and the US, where it sold nearly 403,000 copies in its first week. The reviews were positive, with AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine writing: " It Won't Be Soon Before Long is that rare self-stylized blockbuster album that sounds as big and satisfying as was intended." The single "Makes Me Wonder" was nominated for a Grammy, and the album was the top selling digital LP of 2007.
Similarly, Elizondo was brought in to help Rilo Kiley make their fourth album, Under the Blacklight, more rhythmic. Drummer Jason Boesel said, in discussing the title track, "Elizondo came in and answered our question of how we could get it to feel dancier. He stripped it down, and made it kind of a banger." Acknowledged as a collaborative effort between Elizondo and the band, the album earned "rave reviews" with the BBC stating that it went "one step further in its bittersweetly effortless pop."
Elizondo was nominated for the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year in 2008 based on his body of work between October 1, 2007, and September 20, 2008. The nomination brought increased attention to his multi-genre credits, resulting in a "slew of new projects that propelled him beyond the pop and hip-hop genres in which he had made his name."
Over the following two years, working frequently out of Phantom Studios, a 1000-foot recording studio Elizondo built at his home, he produced four tracks on Regina Spektor's Far; wrote with Justin Timberlake ("Love Sex Magic"), and produced Holy Smoke, the debut album by Gin Wigmore. He also worked with Jay Z and Leona Lewis. In 2009 he went to Nashville to write with Carrie Underwood, and during their second session, together with Brett James, they wrote "Cowboy Casanova." The first single from her third studio album, it was a number one hit, and went on to sell more than 2.3 million records. That same year, he wrote five songs for Eminem's Relapse—an album he also played on—and produced Switchfoot's Hello Hurricane, the album's "varied arrangements reflecting his diverse résumé." Elizondo won a Grammy Award in the Best Rock Gospel album category for his work on Hello Hurricane.
In January 2011, recruited by Lenny Waronker and Rob Cavallo, Elizondo was named Sr. VP of A&R and Staff Producer at Warner Bros. Records. Mainly a creative role, he focused jointly on A&R and production, working primarily with Warner Bros. artists, including Gary Clark Jr, Mastodon, Kimbra, Jenny Lewis, The Regrettes, JR JR, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Daye Jack, and Echosmith, the first band he signed. In addition, he produced Avenged Sevenfold's follow-up to Nightmare, Hail to the King, and played on and co-produced Gary Clark, Jr.'s Blak and Blu, and in 2012 reunited with Regina Spektor to produce her album, What We Saw from the Cheap Seats.
In 2013, to "keep things fresh for himself and his fans," Keith Urban collaborated with Elizondo, who co-wrote and co-produced two tracks on his album, Fuse. A fan of Elizondo's work with Dre, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times Urban said: "He has a great rhythmic gift as a bass player, is an incredible drum programmer and multi-instrumentalist. My music is very, very rhythmic-based...I wanted to explore a much stronger presence of rhythmic elements in my music. It's something that's been there, but often has been pushed to the back." The album debuted at No. 1 in Australia and the US.
Elizondo also produced four songs on Twenty One Pilots breakout album Blurryface in 2015. The second single from the album, "Stressed Out" reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and was the first rock song to surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify. In 2016, with 1.5 billion views on YouTube, "Stressed Out" won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Blurryface hit No. 1 on the album charts, and remained in the Top 200 for more than four years straight. It was the first album in the digital era to have every track certified gold by the RIAA.
In September 2018, Elizondo became the music director of Live from Here with Chris Thile (formerly A Prairie Home Companion with Chris Thile). Elizondo played bass on several early episodes of the show and was offered the full-time music director gig in July 2018. In deciding to accept the offer—a 20-hour a week commitment, which required him to travel—he said: "On a creative level, I was extremely honored, but on a personal level, I had to figure out how to orchestrate my life. It's a lot more traveling than I'm used to. I finally realized that the energy I'm going to gain doing these shows will help fuel my enthusiasm for all the other projects I'm working on."
Among others, during the last half of the decade, Elizondo worked with Ed Sheeran, the Jonas Bros., Young the Giant, K.Flay, NF, Walk the Moon and Brantley Gilbert. He also produced Gary Clark Jr.'s cover of "Come Together" with Junkie XL for the Justice League soundtrack.
Other notable projects during this time include Turnstile's album Glow On, which earned three Grammy nominations, Madison Cunningham's Revealer, which won Folk Album of the Year in 2023, and work with artists such as Brothers Osborne, Lauren Daigle, Lake Street Dive, Sheryl Crow, and Alessia Cara. He has also produced the Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis concept album Warriors.
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