DEPT. OF REMIXES OH, SAY, CAN YOU SING?

Criteria Recording Studios, in North Miami, is where the Eagles laid down "Hotel California," Bob Marley sang "Could You Be Loved," and Lil Wayne mixed "Tha Carter III."

- Charles Bethea

"That's him that's the guy who tried to eat me." ,,

An unfamiliar name recently appeared on the studio schedule: the Real J6 LLC. "I just thought it was some band," a session observer said the other day. On the first of the new client's two days at Criteria, a young pianist came in and recorded the national anthem. Odd, the observer, a clean-shaven man, thought, but not remarkable. "Then this guy L.J. came up," he recalled. "He started to talk about how he was close with Trump, and how he's been working on this for a long time." L.J. referred to an existing recording of the national anthem that "wasn't good because some of the people singing were in jail," the observer continued. "And that's when everything started to connect in my head. I was, like, 'Oh, I see what that is."" (A group of about twenty men calling themselves the J6 Prison Choir had recorded the anthem over a prison phone in 2023; the resulting song was briefly No. 1 on iTunes.) L.J. said that a group would lay down new vocals two days later.