Hank Shocklee Nominated for a Grammy!

Producer extraordinaire (and FMC advisory board member) Hank Shocklee was just nominated for a Grammy award!

Hank's nomination is in category of Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or other Visual Media for his work on the American Gangster original motion picture soundtrack.

The driving force behind the Bomb Squad — the legendary production unit heard on classic Public Enemy records and more — Hank has a vast knowledge of music and a keen sense of how it fits into American culture.

Hank wrote and produced new songs for American Gangster film and soundtrack including the title cut by Grammy-nominated platinum artist Anthony Hamilton (composed by Diane Warren.)

“Ridley Scott wanted someone to bring an authentic sound to the film and create music with a retro late-1960s to mid-1970s feel to it," Hank says of his contributions. "I loved working on this project because it allowed me to go in the studio and imagine a period in time that was the very beginnings of hip hop, where blues, soul, funk, Latin and Afro-beat all started to mesh together and inspired the sounds of the hip hop generation on the streets of New York."

In July 2008, Hank and his brother Keith Shocklee appeared alongside Chuck D and journalist/"media assassin" Harry Allen at a panel discussion about the seminal PE album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, co-presented by FMC and Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival. Yes, it was awesome.

Congrats to Hank from all of us at FMC. We'll be rooting for you!