The most memorable part of filming 'Finesse,' I'd have to say, was the kissing scene. It was just so odd for me.
— Zaytoven
I've been doing this since 'So Icy' back in 2005.
I can do R&B, pop, gospel... whatever genre of music that's out.
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 started with the organ and drums, and I later got into drum machines as a teenager.
I think that the sound that the world knows as trap music is the sound that Gucci and I created.
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.
To me, my studio is my trap house. That's where I trap out of; that's where I hustle. That's where I make my money.
I listen to a lot of music... but there still hasn't been a project yet that touches me like 'Beast Mode' has.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Anything that me and Gucci do is never thought out or planned real deeply. We always just go off of what we feeling. It's sporadic.
I have a church background. I've been playing piano and keyboard and organ all my life in church.
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.'
When I was a youngster, I might have been about 17 or 18 when I first started making beats.
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 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.
When me and Gucci sit down, I make tracks real fast, and he can write songs real fast.
I play the piano, but I'm not classically trained.
The reason I still go play the organ at church every Sunday and dedicate my talents to God first is because I feel like that's the reason why I'm who I am today.
Most artists value my opinion a lot, and I think that's due to 'Beast Mode.'
When people wanna come buy beats or wanna record a song, I'm trappin'.
When I actually first moved to Atlanta, I was cutting hair. I was making beats and making music out in the Bay Area. But I came here to make - you know, I had to get my barber license, so I was cutting hair.
