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.'
— Zaytoven
When I approached my own movies, I went in it real innocent. I didn't pay attention to nobody else's score. I was just going to do it with how I feel it should sound. To me, that's how you create new things.
Guys like Future and me, we help create and shape the sound of music - not just Atlanta music, but music all over. If you really pay attention to the music being made, a lot of that is very heavily influenced by the stuff that we created. I listen to so many songs that's like, 'Damn, this sounds like my music!'
I approached my career like a rapper. I would go to every open mic, every studio session, bringing my beats. I would almost do exactly what a rapper would do to get on.
When you work with Drake, you don't really work with Drake. You send him the song, he rap on it, then y'all done worked together. So it ain't like me and him sitting in the studio.
'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.
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.
You listen to something like 'Beast Mode,' and it's almost like looking at a pretty painting.
Music is about feeling.
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.
When I think about 'Beast Mode,' that's what I think about. I don't think about just a hard project; they just created some art together.
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.
Trap is being added to everything. It seems like every genre wants that bit of trap to what they're doing.
Now, I made the most money I ever made in my life with 'Papers' - I think my first check was like $101,000, my folks couldn't even believe. At this time, this is like 2010, I'm still in the barbershop cutting hair, still being the regular Zaytoven because I felt like after 'Papers,' it wasn't going to get any bigger than that.
I feel like every time I make a beat, and the Migos rap on it, it's gonna be fire.
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.
If you know Gucci Mane, controversy is always surrounding Gucci.
Atlanta can do crunk music, it can do snap music, it can do swag music. Atlanta has it all.
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.
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.
Gucci is a guy that promoted me to the fullest. It don't matter where we go.
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 the type of guy, I make a lot of different beats, but sometimes I might stick to a sound for a little while.
When your dad is a preacher and your mom is a choir director and you're in church all the time, as a youngster, you've got to find something to do. That's where my musical background comes from.
When I work with Future, it's almost like a work of art.
There's no record that you done heard me produce that I spent more than ten minutes on.
When I think of trap, I think of something that is unrehearsed. It's something that's edgy, not too well put together.
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.
It's been a blessing that I can provide for my family just by doing music. I never thought this would ever be my occupation.
I'm content with what I've got from the industry, even though sometimes it seems like I might not get the proper credit.
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.
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 you take your music around to your people in the city or your label, and don't nobody like it, but you really like it, and you like, 'Dang, these folks don't hear what I hear.'
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 like to introduce people to each other, especially in the hip-hop community.
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.
I've been doing two things my whole life: I've been cuttin' hair, and I've been playing the organ at church. Those two things are what I looked at as my life: this is how I'm gonna make my money, this is how I'm gonna make my living... It helped me to be stable in what I do.
The music business, a lot of times, has a big finesse mentality to it.
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.
In Atlanta, I went to barber school. That's how I met everyone I know in Atlanta, by cutting hair.
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.
If I'm spending more than 15 minutes on a beat, I'm not feeling it.
I was listening to Young Jeezy and Shawty Red, and to me, the trap music they had was something special.
Trap music, to me, is hustling music.
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 always up for the challenge of doing more and doing different things. I love being inspired like a new producer all over again.
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.
'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.
For a producer, I've been behind the scenes my whole career.
I like V-Nasty a lot, and I know anytime I like an artist and the majority of people really don't like her, I know it's something special. That's the same way I felt about Gucci.
