Reply To: How does he do it?
I'm no expert, but I'll crack the first section since Bry tackled the second….
"how is one person skilled enough to do all that?"
Well… some people just are. Some people work really fracken hard to get there too. Eventually it gets easier if they keep working on it, which I believe is what JoCo was after with TAW. Using his natural talent and pushing his creative limits by working within a deadline driven environment using all the tools he has available to him to become a better songwriter and producer. And quite clearly, it's worked for him.
And yes.. essentially each section can be recorded individually, played back through a monitor/headphones and a new section recorded in a separate track. Once all your tracks are recorded, you mix them, add effects, etc in something like Pro Tools and Bing! You've made a song. You can use 1 or 2 tracks to make a song, or a hundred if you'd like. Vocals, guitars, screams, boots, sticks, pots and pans… whatever.
All of this is taught in schools around the country, but the best way to learn is to just do it. You could use Sony's ACiD or Adobe Audition to get started and play around. I don't know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet JoCo uses ProTools.
But nothing can help you be as clever a lyricist as JoCo other than simply being clever. (And maybe a dictionary.. lol) The music is good, but what sells the music to me is how damn good the lyrics are.