I want to put a face to my music, I don't want to be a faceless producer or faceless artist.
Murda Beatz
I actually grew up on rock music; that's what was played around my house. I listened to Led Zepplin, AC/DC, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Nirvana, Aerosmith - really almost everything.
I feel like I've gotten myself comfortable making beats in front of people, so like, if I'm in a big room of people, I'm not like, nervous. I wanna be able to make beats on the spot.
I'm a big Gucci fan. So, just working with Gucci and seeing his creative process. It was also really cool to work with Scott Storch. He's a legend.
I could always play the drums, so I have some musical talent, but I don't live in Atlanta or LA, so I can't just randomly bump into major artists. So instead, I started building my fan base and my name by networking through the internet. Mostly through Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook.
I don't know, samples are just like unlimited ideas, you know? Sometimes a lot of people sample one song. A lot of it is also really just up to the artist and their creativity to see where it goes and what they want to do.
I think the music defends myself. I don't think anyone should put a race on any genre. It's just a way of expressing yourself through instruments and sounds, right? People can just listen to the music.
I played drums since I was 6 years old. And then I got into producing music when I was about 16 or 17. Somebody showed me FL Studios, the program. My beats were bad at first, but then eventually they started to get good.
Super blessed to be in the position I'm in. To be able to inspire people to do what I'm doing and choose a career path that doesn't involve going to school, or like following society.
Honestly, it takes a lot of dedication and sacrifice. When I was trying to get better a couple years ago, I was not going out. I had a couple of people get mad at me. I wasn't going out and partying, I was just doing what I had to do to get better.
I'm from a small town - Niagara, outside of Toronto. When I was a kid, I thought it was really boring, but it ended up being a big blessing because I got to know myself at a young age.
People aren't expecting me to look how I do. But that's one of the main reasons it works so well: the surprise factor.
I listen to a lot of different music. I have a really open ear when it comes to music in general. I like everything. You have to. You have to know your history and learn everything you can, you know?
In the beginning, I wanted to work with Slim Duncan. He actually passed away right around when I started making beats.
I was born in Niagara Falls. The high school I went to had 500 kids and the school didn't have a lot of money. The town itself was whatever. It was a good place to grow up. It was a blessing that I grew up there, because I got to find myself at a young age.
I didn't want to be one of the 10,000 kids on the internet making beats. I went out there and got recognized as the white boy in trap music and made a name for myself.
Well, I believe in God. I'm a very spiritual person, and parts of my family are Christian. I really started believing in God at the beginning of this music stuff. Everything that's happened I have spoken into existence.
When Migos flew me out to see if I was actually making the beats, they didn't expect a white kid from Canada to be making harder beats than the guys in Atlanta. Being white in that environment, it was definitely different.
A lot of young producers will stay at home and make beats all day but making beats is only about 20 percent of the job. The other 80 percent is networking; that's what I feel like a lot of people are lacking.
I'd say a big transition as a kid was when I started to listen to Good Charlotte. They were like a rap-to-rock/punk group.
Atlanta is a very good scene for the type of music I'm making. The biggest radio stations are all trap or rap stations. All the clubs are just based around this music and just the southern sound, that's what I really love about the city.
I just knew I was different from everyone else. I still feel like that today, sitting in rooms with people.
I never wanted to work a 9 to 5. I was always a different kid in class.
I grew up with my parents always listening to rock music. My dad wanted me to play guitar, but I always had more of an ear for drums. He really wanted me to be a guitar player, like him.
People get content - they buy their house, their cars, their grills, and they get comfortable. But I'm not here to be hot for a year.
I just feel like I need to do better and better and better.
I met Drake officially for the first time two years ago at a Wiz Khalifa concert in Toronto. I was with Rich Homie Quan. Rich Homie Quan introduced me and Drake and he said I had good beats.
I don't want to be labeled as a certain style producer; I just want to be producer and musician in general.
But I feel like I developed my own love for hip-hop and rap music by myself. Just growing up and hearing new things. As you grow up, you begin to listen to new music that this kid is listening to, then you begin to like your own music, and start discovering it yourself.
As a producer putting up music, I wasn't dropping a project to do this much numbers or make this amount of money, I really just dropped a project for the streets and the culture of music.
Like, I wanna be the producer with the Selena Gomez top-charting pop song, and like, a top-charting Migos or Gucci song in urban. I wanna just take over everything, you know?
Producers are the people behind the biggest artists in the game. We definitely deserve that title to be considered as an artist, because producers don't get the recognition and the credit that they really deserve a lot of the time.
Instead of giving all your best tracks to artists, producers now have the opportunity where we can take our favorite beats we make and put our favorite artists on them and release fun songs for people to listen to.
I feel like everybody should just spread more love and positivity in the world. You know, positivity and love is what makes the world go around.
I'm making music for people to have fun and party to. I'm also making real music as well. I'm making a lot of pop stuff. I'm definitely just making music for the consumer and the listeners. So shout out to all my fans.
I felt like I plateaued at playing drums, like I wasn't getting any better. I bought an electric pair of drums, sold my drum set, and got introduced to making beats.
If you oversaturate the market with singles, then people will get sick of you.
