An aspiring producer named Wontel hoped to meet “Lecrae or somebody” when he traveled to Atlanta in September 2013.
He met somebody, Chad Horton.
On a two-hour flight delay in Phoenix, Wontel, bored, forced himself to introduce himself to someone. Horton sat down an estimated 20 feet from him, and he looked mad to Wontel, but he introduced himself anyway because Horton wore a King Kulture shirt.
“Yo, good to meet you, my name’s Wontel,” he said. “Looks like you listen to Christian hip hop. Do you like it?”
Horton does like it. He’s the co-owner of Rapzilla.
Wontel and Horton sat together on the four-hour flight to Atlanta, where they were headed for the Unashamed Conference. While Wontel had no song placements at the time, they stayed in touch.
Two years later, Wontel did have placements — with the Dream Junkies, Beleaf, Skrip and more. And he had impressed Horton and Rapzilla’s other co-owner, Philip Rood, enough by then to be asked to executive produce their Freshman 2015 album.
Watch Wontel’s two-part interview about the project and meeting them below.