The main thing about being a producer and not a beatmaker, the difference is the ear.
School is the same as producing: If you want to make it far, there are a million, trillion people trying to do the same thing. If you're not in over-grind mode, it's probably not going to work the way that you want it to.
My name is Leland Tyler Wayne. My mom wanted to give me a name where, no matter what I wanted to do, I'd be able to do it. An astronaut. President. Whatever.
I stay positive, keep positive energy to myself.
If I stay negative in negative energy, that's what's gonna come back.
I naturally, when I make beats, aim for a darker tone just because I've always preferred those types of feelings.
Future's like an older brother to me, and Thug's more like a brother my age.
Wiz is a cool guy, humble guy, down to Earth guy. You would really think he was just a regular guy if you didn't know who he was. But he still has a superstar aura about him.
I just pretty much go to class, do my work, and go to my dorm and make beats. Or I pull up to a session. That's pretty much my day-to-day.
I try to take elements from all kinds of music. Even if I'm listening to anything off the wall, like Britney Spears, there might be a certain way someone did something, that I can feel, in some hip-hop flavor.
Coming up, a lot of people I looked up to had a signature sound, but I came up, and I was always in search of one, trying to find it, trying to create one. I was never really able to have a creative signature sound, you know?
I'm glad 'Honest' came out right after 'Karate Chop,' because I don't want to be seen as a one-hit wonder.
You just need the ear. But the ear is something, I guess, that you can't buy. And I can't play the piano fluently, but I feel like my ear is my strong point.
I just think about how much worse something could be, and I'm like, 'Alright, cool, whatever.' I'm nonchalant.
When Thug hears a song, he knows how the whole shape of the thing goes. He can nudge the whole frame to the left to make it offbeat and sound how he wants it to sound.
Two people making a beat is really like one person making a beat. But you have another person's brain. So what might sound good to you, they could flip it a different way. It's really a collaborative effort, really.
When I started making beats in the 7th grade - even through middle school and high school - I admired a lot of Shawty Redd, stuff like that, that real dark, trap sound.
I don't look at it as, 'Oh, I'm gonna keep making beats, and I'm gonna do that until I die.' But that's how some people look at it - gonna just keep making beats, get placement after placement.
A lot of people are programmed to think, 'Oh, I want to do this, but I also want this.' It's like they want everything. You want your cake, and you want to eat it, too. Even though I guess you're supposed to eat cake, but I never really get that saying.
I started making beats when I was 13.
