The day after the recent Grammy Awards, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger tweeted recognition to Virginians who “won big” at the ceremony.
“Congratulations to @SkillzVa, @ShaboozeysJeans, @clipse, & @natesmithdrums on your wins,” she posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. “Congratulations to @Pharrell for receiving the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award in recognition of your generational influence.”
She might not have known about a Roanoke native who picked up a couple of awards that night. Ruchaun Akers Jr., known professionally as Scott Bridgeway, took the stage twice in Los Angeles with hip-hop phenomenon Kendrick Lamar, singer Sza and other collaborators, for their work on the single “Luther.”
Akers has lived in Los Angeles for the past five years, but he was born in Roanoke and lived there until after second grade, when he moved with his mother to Charlotte, North Carolina. He returned to the Star City every summer to be with family.
“I think I’m claiming both” Virginia and North Carolina heritage, Akers said in a Wednesday afternoon phone call.
Follow him, Governor, @scottbridgeway.
Akers joined Lamar, Sza and others, including Lamar’s chief collaborator, Sounwave, and saxophonist/composer/arranger Kamasi Washington, onstage before the televised portion began, when “Luther” won Best Melodic Rap Performance. Their second trip down the aisles came when the TV cameras were on, and “Luther” won the Grammy for Record of the Year.
The event marked the first-ever Grammy nominations for the 25-year-old Akers.
“The night was just, it was so surreal and like a blur,” Akers said. “I definitely felt like I was supposed to be there. I felt like it was just destiny or something. It was just meant to happen.”
His work as a co-producer with Lamar also includes “Squabble Up,” which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Singles chart, and “Peekaboo,” all from the album “GNX.” Akers’ resume includes co-producing Kanye West’s “We Did It Kid.”
Before he was Scott Bridgeway, a 19-year-old Akers was sharing beats he made while playing “Call of Duty” online with a group of folks. Unbeknownst to Akers, one of the video game players hearing his work was a hip-hop producer, Cardo Got Wings, who would bring him to Los Angeles in 2020 to work with rapper Baby Keem on his album “The Melodic Blue.”
Among the numbers that Akers worked on was one that featured Lamar, a cousin of Baby Keem. Lamar and Sounwave then brought him onboard for their sessions. Single and album credits list him as Scott Bridgeway, a moniker that Keem gave him.
Building ‘Luther’
The double Grammy-winning “Luther” flows from a song that its namesake, the late Luther Vandross, recorded in 1982: “If This World Were Mine,” a collaboration with Cheryl Lynn.
Lamar and Sounwave had been holding onto a chopped version of the Marvin Gaye-written number that they brought to Akers.
“I did an idea with the drums and it landed, and we just built from there,” Akers said. “Everybody started putting their 2 cents and spark onto it, and then it just became what it is today.”
The version Sounwave chopped up is a few beats per minute faster than the Vandross/Lynn single. “That was the tempo that felt right,” Akers said. “We just moved on from there and just built on that foundation.”
Akers, using software called FL Studio, created an airy halftime groove that is solid but not static. Within a week, they had the part together, Akers said.
By May 2025, Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” had been No. 1 for 12 consecutive weeks, breaking the record for longest run atop the Hot 100 chart among co-billed duets from a man and woman, according to Billboard.com. The record broke a tie with Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’ “I’ll Be Missing You,” from 1997.
Akers said he doesn’t take sales and chart positions into account with his work.
“I just make sure the music is good first,” he said. “As long as the music is good and it resonates with me, and it touches people around the world, I feel like that’s the most important thing you can ask for besides sales and charts and stuff.”
As for his association with the multi-platinum-selling, multi-Grammy-winning Lamar and Sounwave: “They’re geniuses,” he said.
“They have like their own chemistry and I just try to fit in and give my input and put my sauce wherever I can fit in. I just try to help. That’s it. But those two, they’re like masters at their craft.”
Mama’s proud
Sherri Davis had a big Grammy-watch party planned in Charlotte, North Carolina. Davis, Akers’ mother, had reserved a room at a high-rise with a view of downtown, and had T-shirts made that read: “And the winner is …” for the big crowd she had invited.
Then came about 9 inches of snow.
Instead of hosting a celebration, “I was at home, watching it,” Davis said.
She had a lot of confidence in the son she calls “RJ,” confidence that she had instilled in him ever since she began to see his growing skill level. Davis had for years used her social media to predict Grammys in her son’s future. Watching the internet stream of the pre-television portion, she saw the first win and was nervous but hopeful during the broadcast.
Watching Akers take the stage with a group including award presenter Cher, elation struck.
“There was a moment when RJ approached the stage and his peers and collaborators, the way that they embraced him once he got to the stage, it was an extremely emotional moment for me, because I’ve always told him throughout his career, ‘You belong in every room that this path takes you,’” Davis said. “‘You belong in these spaces.’
“‘You are just as talented as the people in these spaces and you belong there.’ … It was an extremely emotional moment for me.”
Akers gave shout-outs to his mom — who raised him on a diversity of music that included Nirvana, Sugarland, Biggie Smalls and Mobb Deep — and to a legion of other family members, grandmas Cookie and Angie, dad Ruchaun Sr., Uncle Rod, cousins Demetrius and Ashanti, and Auntie Cherie.
What’s next
Out in Los Angeles, the post-show celebration was low-key.
“We just hung out like at a party or two and then we called it,” he said. “That’s pretty much it. … Got to plan for the next one and just keep moving forward.”
That includes the next Baby Keem album, ETA unknown. Further work with Lamar is likely, too.
“Whenever he summons me, I’ll be there.”