As a jazz drummer's son and an ex-college basketball star, you'd expect Harvey Mason, Jr. to cram his work with wild rhythms, but the songwriter/producer is all about carving out intimate spaces where emotion reigns. He makes Bieber and Brandy our confidantes by backing them with soft instrumentation and dreamy ambience. And with movies like Dreamgirls, he's an alchemist, converting the plainspoken and personal into something utterly widescreen.