A Bermudian at the epicentre of the New York music scene in the early 2000s is included in a new exhibition celebrating legendary rapper Jay-Z.

“The first I knew about it was when a photograph hit my phone first thing Friday morning,” said Shane Woodley.

The photograph was of him tweaking a console for Jay-Z, at Baseline Studios in New York. Mr Woodley worked in the city as an assistant and sound engineer for nine years.

Justin “Just Blaze” Smith, a hip-hop producer and a friend, told him that the photograph was part of a museum exhibit.

Mr Woodley said: “When I read that, I was like what museum? My picture is in a museum?”

A quick Google search revealed the Brooklyn Public Library in New York had just opened The Book of Hov, a 40,000 square foot exhibition of Jay-Z memorabilia, photographs, costumes, original sound masterings and videos.

Excited, Mr Woodley booked the next flight to the Big Apple.

“If my photograph was being included in a museum, I had to see it,” he said. “Just Blaze mentioned a group photograph was being taken, but I missed that.”

As soon as the plane landed, he went straight to the library at 10 Grand Army Plaza.

It turned out to be a case of “hurry up and wait”.

“It took 30 minutes to get in because the line to see the exhibition wrapped around the building,” Mr Woodley said.

“It was amazing. Two floors of this massive library were taken up with Jay-Z memorabilia.”

TheBook of Hov was divided up into different periods of Jay-Z’s career. One section attempted to recreate Baseline Studios where Mr Woodley worked while Jay-Z made The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, TheBlueprint and other hit albums.

“The organisers spent four months recreating Baseline and used some of the real furniture that had been kept in storage,” Mr Woodley said.

He soon found the photograph of himself, along with other familiar objects.

“They had a trash tin I was sent down the street to buy,” he said. “There was a cable I had made up and two reels with my handwriting. One even had my name on it. It was just crazy to see that.”

It all took him back to the year he was 20.

“In Bermuda, I signed up online, for what I thought was an internship with a prominent studio,” he said. “It was actually an e-mail scam. They spun me one lie after another to take my money from me.”

He was frustrated so contacted one of the studios he was supposed to intern with, Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in downtown Manhattan. They knew nothing about the internship or the scam but invited him to come and talk with them.

“I flew to New York and met one of the mentors I was supposed to have worked with,” Mr Woodley said.

After two days, the man at Electric Lady Studios ran out of things for Mr Woodley to do, but sent him down the street to work for another studio being set up, Baseline.

“He told me who to ask for,” he said. “When I got there the place was a mess and they were still laying cables.”

He introduced himself and they told him to grab a cable. When the studio owner, Juan “OG” Perez turned up, he was a little surprised to see Mr Woodley.

“He said, ‘Where are you from?’ And I said, ‘Bermuda,’” Mr Woodley remembered. “He said, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘Record music.’ He said, ‘You can do that here.’”

When Mr Perez told him Jay-Z would be recording music there shortly, Mr Woodley was disbelieving.

“I thought he is just another guy that claims to know Jay-Z and I kept helping and pulling wires,” Mr Woodley said.

Then one day Jay-Z showed up.

“He was very ordinary, but super cool,” Mr Woodley said. “Juan was his best friend. They did Roc Nation together and also built a bunch of businesses.”

Audio engineer Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton took Mr Woodley under his wing and taught him everything about sound engineering.

“I never took any formal classes, just learnt everything on the job,” he said.

He became a fixture at Baseline.

“I practically lived there,” Mr Woodley said. “I became so at home at Baseline that some newcomers thought I owned the place.”

He soon discovered that Jay-Z had an interesting creative process.

“He would walk around the room mumbling to himself and looking at the sky for about 15 minutes,” Mr Woodley said. “Then he would just create for 20 minutes or so leaving blanks for other artists to fill in later. Then he would leave. Everything we worked on ended up on the radio a few weeks later.”

Jay-Z became president and chief executive officer of multinational record label Def Jam in 2004. Mr Woodley just happened to be there when Def Jam signed Rihanna, now one of the most famous singers in the world.

“I didn’t usually go to the office but that day I was there,” Mr Woodley said. “A door opened and this little girl came out. Then someone said to me, she’s from the same country as you.”

Rihanna, then 17, was actually from Barbados, not Bermuda. Mr Woodley chatted with her briefly, then left.

“I met her ten years later, and she did not remember me,” he said. “She was so young at the time.”

Mr Woodley eventually went to work for one of the artists in Jay-Z’s stable, Ne-Yo.

After nine years in New York things started winding up for Mr Woodley. The music industry was in upheaval with the advent of MP3s and sites such as LimeWire, software used to download and distribute pirated music until it was shut down in 2010.

“Suddenly these big music artists were asking me to record songs for them, but they didn’t want to pay me,” Mr Woodley said. “These were millionaires. I just managed to navigate the industry until it just did not make any sense any more.”

He returned to Bermuda in 2010, and has since retired from music. He now runs a business called H2Zero.

“I developed an app to monitor the water levels in your water tank,” he said

He thinks the engineering skills he gained in the music industry allowed him to do this.

“It is all working with programming and computers,” said Mr Woodley, who has no thoughts of getting back into sound engineering.

“I am content with what I did. I don’t think you could recreate that. It was a moment in time.”

Despite that, he maintained friendships with some of the people he knew from his time at Baseline, including Just Blaze.

“He came to Bermuda a few times,” Mr Woodley said. “I want to thank him because most likely he was the one who put up my picture in the exhibition. He always makes sure I am mentioned.”

The Book of Hov is expected to remain open until the end of the summer. For more information visit www.thebookofhov.com/