If you know Gucci Mane, controversy is always surrounding Gucci.
Zaytoven
There's no record that you done heard me produce that I spent more than ten minutes on.
Gucci is a guy that promoted me to the fullest. It don't matter where we go.
A lot of people want to blow up as a producer, but what helps you blow up as a producer is an artist that matches well with your music. When that artist gets popular and blowing up, and people start knowing them, that's when they start knowing you.
What's so crazy is I always looked at Jay Z and guys on the caliber of Jay Z like they just the big dogs. I didn't think they listen to my music or even know who I am.
When I was in high school, the girls used to tell me I looked like Usher, so to be doing a song with Usher was mind-blowing.
I use a lot of piano riffs in my production, and someone who I was working with said that I played so good that it sound like Beethoven.
Trap is being added to everything. It seems like every genre wants that bit of trap to what they're doing.
We did 'Bricks' and 'Ridiculous' all in one day. Gucci came here, like, 8 in the morning - we were done 4 the morning the next day.
'Birds of a Feather' is on Netflix, and it did big for me. For me, it was a trial and error thing. I never thought about being an actor. I just felt like, in the music industry now, anything you said can go. So now it's a part of what I do. I make movies now.
Most artists value my opinion a lot, and I think that's due to 'Beast Mode.'
I can show these folks I can do more than just the 'trap.' But what I realized is the trap is what they really recognize me for - that's what they want to hear.
I think that the sound that the world knows as trap music is the sound that Gucci and I created.
Atlanta can do crunk music, it can do snap music, it can do swag music. Atlanta has it all.
I was a military brat. My dad was in the military, so I was born in Germany. I moved around a lot; I was in church a lot.
You listen to something like 'Beast Mode,' and it's almost like looking at a pretty painting.
I almost never pitch myself. Me being an independent producer, never having a manager and never being signed, I pretty much just did my own thing: go out and search for the new talent, and when the new talent blows up, it just kinda brings everyone else to me.
I tell people that it's one thing to have the gift and the talent and work hard but another thing to have the favor of God in making it all work, and I think all those are factors.
I started producing in California, and they called it mob music. When I moved to Atlanta, the sound was different. People in Atlanta didn't like to rap over West Coast beats. So I had to make adjustments to what was going on in the South.
I can do R&B, pop, gospel... whatever genre of music that's out.
I feel like every time I make a beat, and the Migos rap on it, it's gonna be fire.
When my dad retired, he moved to Georgia, but I stayed in California. I was in San Francisco: that's where I first went from being a musician to making beats and producing. I was 18, 19. It started going pretty good for me out there in California, so I stayed in SF while my parents moved to Georgia.
The music business, a lot of times, has a big finesse mentality to it.
When I was cutting hair, I felt like that was my trap. I started selling haircuts. I started selling beats; that's me trapping. So trap music is like hustling music to me.
Future's the guy, like, where, if I send him some beats while he on the road, and there's a pack of beats that he really like, if there's a new vibe or new wave, he's like, 'Man, keep feeding me more. Feed me more of this every day.'
I feel like I'm an okay piano player. To the music world, to people that's in the hip-hop culture, they probably look at me like, 'Zaytoven the greatest piano player in the world.' I'm okay.
I'm content with what I've got from the industry, even though sometimes it seems like I might not get the proper credit.
Al Nuke is almost like a real brother to me. Our chemistry is crazy because we're like night and day, but we blend so well.
People looked at me - people still look at me - as 'this is Gucci Mane's producer.' But the music that me and Future put together was so different than what me and Gucci do, it just made people look at the music like, 'Hold on - Zaytoven is the real deal.'
Just the instrumentation of the whole 'Beast Mode' made people open up and respect me in a whole other way. With Gucci, I don't use as many instruments. I don't play the piano as much because that's not really the style of music that me and Gucci have built.
It always surprises me and always makes me proud when I see people that I know I worked with at the house in the basement on TV being superstars.
For a producer, I've been behind the scenes my whole career.
When me and Gucci sit down, I make tracks real fast, and he can write songs real fast.
You can always know, when it comes to a Gucci Mane or Migos project, there is no such thing of them putting out a project without me being a part of it. These are guys that I'm really close with, and we built a sound together, and we got a certain chemistry.
I listen to a lot of music... but there still hasn't been a project yet that touches me like 'Beast Mode' has.
The most memorable part of filming 'Finesse,' I'd have to say, was the kissing scene. It was just so odd for me.
When Zaytoven and Future are working together, then Future's not working on no other tracks, and Zaytoven's not making no beats for nobody but Future.
I started with the organ and drums, and I later got into drum machines as a teenager.
'So Icy' is always going to be one of my favorites because this is a song that blew my mind. I was just making beats for the fun of it. I went to the club and heard the song being played, so I asked the DJ to stop playing the song, and the whole club started rapping word for word.
Future is a real workaholic, so he's the type of guy that's gonna do more than enough songs to make sure you got everything you need.
I'm the type of guy where, if I see, like, 20 songs, I don't even wanna listen to one of 'em 'cause it's too much.
I'm the type of guy, I make a lot of different beats, but sometimes I might stick to a sound for a little while.
My formula is not thinking about what I'm doing; it's about still having fun and making music. I don't go into the studio with a thought pattern or certain goals in mind - sometimes I'll start with drums, other times I'll start with the piano - but it's all done spontaneously, so nothing is premeditated, and nothing takes a long time.
I like to introduce people to each other, especially in the hip-hop community.
In Atlanta, I went to barber school. That's how I met everyone I know in Atlanta, by cutting hair.
I know it sounds funny coming from me, 'cause I produced it, but that's one of my favorite bodies of work. That's what 'Beast Mode' was when it came out and still is.
I'm a church musician. I play gospel music; that's what I do. I never had a chance to produce gospel music, and I did a full album with Lecrae that's the number one Christian album. It's super-big for me.
If you listen to my early music, I didn't know how to mix. I barely knew how to record for real, and I didn't care.
I have a church background. I've been playing piano and keyboard and organ all my life in church.
I play the piano, but I'm not classically trained.
