During a recent interview, Dutch-born engineer Koen Heldens recalled working alongside XXXTentacion on some of the late performer's most popular songs. He detailed his recording process during a conversation with Studio Talks , as well as what he was able to learn. "When I heard 'Jocelyn Flores' for the first time, and it completely took me by surprise.
I had this image of XXXTentacion as a face-tatted SoundCloud rapper, but the raw emotion in 'Jocelyn Flores' was completely different from what I expected. X also had another track for me to mix: 'F**K Love' featuring Trippie Redd. That’s how we started working together—almost by chance.
X had a way of manifesting things quickly, and it felt like fate that I mixed 'Jocelyn Flores' on my birthday," he began. "In November 2017, we worked on A Ghetto Christmas Carol EP , which we completed in one weekend. I remember trying to clean up the 808s on the title track, but X and producer Ronny J insisted, 'No, no, no, don’t clean it up! It’s supposed to feel like an electric guitar for white people but felt through the bass in the trunk.
' That experience taught me that sometimes being technically correct doesn’t serve the creative process —music is about emotion and feel," Heldens continued. Read More: XXXTentacion’s Killer Argues He's Not An "Evil Person" XXXTentacion (C) attends BET Hip Hop Awards 2017 on October 6, 2017 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Thaddaeus McAdams/FilmMagic) He went on, remembering how XXX Face.