I linked up with Kendrick through Zacari.
As simple as it sounds, one day I was just like, "Yo, when you gonna let me play Kendrick
some beats?"
He was like, "Oh, you think it's that simple?"
I was like,
"Yeah, if you put me in a room with Kendrick I'm gonna get something placed automatically."
Usually people expect you to go to studios, like huge studios.
Go across town and all that.
I do the opposite.
I rather work from the crib.
I wake up in the morning, watch a movie, roll up, pray.
I'm real simple.
I don't like to do too much.
I'm an in-house person forreal.
I'm more than just a beat maker.
I'm not the guy that's like, "Oh, I'm finna make 30 beats today."
Naw it's more of a lifestyle to me.
It comes to me at a certain time.
For example, all the songs that I have out right now I made at the crib.
I met Zacari basically I was working at Bryson's house.
He actually wasn't a singer. At least I didn't think he was a singer.
He had a saxophone in his hand and he's dope at every instrument.
I never really knew that he could really sing until we actually started working together on a
regular basis.
We made a lot of records, but when we made this we were like, "Oh, what is this?"
We knew that this was crazy.
I first started off this beat by putting some filtered keys, just to give it the right build
up that it needs really.
It’s like a Rhodes.
Like a regular piano.
If I was to explain the effects I have on here it would take all day, but I put layers
of effects on all my instruments to make it sound like a total different instrument.
If you was listening to my beats you would think that I'm really good at the piano, but
I'm not good at all.
It's more of just me like...I mastered FL Studio.
I say the second thing I added on this beat is the sample that me and Zacari basically...we
made something original from a lot of content that he had.
Just to build on top of that, a simple kick.
After I did the kicks I did the hi-hats and the snare immediately.
I basically enhanced every instrument I heard in the original sample.
I love this bass.
Again, it’s real simple.
I do simple things so if you put it together it sounds complex.
I'm gonna play the kicks and the hi-hats and the bass together.
It has to flow.
Everything has to be cohesive.
I treat it like a house, like I’m building a house or something.
I’m playing a game.
It's not like just making beats.
This my favorite one.
I don’t even think nobody know this is in the beat.
It’s my voice.
It’s like a whole bunch of different stuff.
I hear a lot of beats and it sounds like a certain person made it, that's one of the
reasons why I don't have a tag.
I want people to know a certain sound that I’m using that like, that’s a Teddy beat.
Zacari had like a vocal chop.
I put a crazy effect on this one.
The last one.
Just to give it that bounce.
Obviously like Kendrick caught the bounce of it.
His lyrics was actually responding to my vocal chop.
After I added the vocals, it was pretty much done to me.
But I wanted to make something pop out a little bit more.
I added these keys.
So the last element that I added to this beat is these crazy snares that I got.
I basically just put like a regular snare there and put like a lot of distortion on it.
To be on some like, ‘Watch The Throne’ shit.
The funny part about this beat is that it's not that many instruments.
Everything's simple but once you put all the instruments together it sounds like a full song.
I think one of the reasons this song has been big is because for one I don't think nobody
ever heard Kendrick on this type of vibe.
The crazy thing about it is I wasn't even playing this for Kendrick.
It was Kendrick asking me, "Hey, play something you're working on."
It was just him being curious of what I'm listening to or what everybody else listening to.
I was just playing this lowkey just showing off what I got.
He just said it was a great song.
He didn't really react until the next day really, until I found out that he liked the
record and he wanted me to come back.
After he dropped ‘DAMN.’
I could see why he picked the beat.
It definitely slid perfectly.
It was almost like it was made for him, honestly.