- How was I influenced, kind of say,
when I made 'The Box'?
It's gon sound crazy but it wasn't really no influence.
Being in the studio, doing what we do on a regular basis
and trying to be different
while we was creating all of this.
I'm 30 Roc and this is Making.
How did I feel when 'The Box'
shot up to number one so quickly?
The crazy thing was, I wasn't hyped.
All my homeboys was, like my manager like,
you know, we wasn't thinkin' about like
oh this one's gonn' be a hit,
or this is gonn' be the biggest song of 2019.
Like we didn't think about nothing like that,
we was just like let's just send it off
and see what it does.
And it did what it was supposed to do.
What did I take from working with Roddy Ricch?
It's basically stay down 'til you come up.
'Cause bro been working for so long,
and like, now he finally gettin'
the recognition that he deserve.
His records was finally getting credit.
You know what I'm saying, he's finally gettin' the credit.
So basically stay down 'til you come up.
I look back and I just remember
how many people doubted me,
or how many people like,
were like oh he would never get to number one,
or this, this and that.
And then like look like I'm up,
you know what I'm sayin', it's there.
It's there.
When I noticed that like it was really goin' up,
first thing I thought to myself was
I'm gonna go get me one of these,
and I'm gonna get me a nice house,
and I'm gonna make sure my family's straight,
and I'm going back to the studio.
If that's the outcome to every number one record
or any successful record, then I want more of it.
Granted I had like a lot of successful records,
so like, like I'm still living hella good,
but like now I'm living hella good.
My background from music came from my dad being a DJ.
When I got to high school I was in the marching band.
My class of like music, it plays a big part in Atlanta
because I feel like, all the new producers,
like from me, Jetson, (?)
we just bring a different type of flavor,
like a different type of drums,
808s, you know, snares, everything is like different.
I was getting grilled on the internet
about us doing this reverse 808 thing.
It was actually in a plug in called SRX Orchestra.
We did something new, fresh,
I ain't heard it on the radio yet,
you know what I'm sayin'.
So like it ain't been done yet.
I did that to motivate people,
to tell people like man it's okay
to be different with your 808s,
it's okay that your 808 pattern
ain't gotta be the same
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Like put some more sauce on it, flip it,
like reverse it, velocity it shit,
like I mean do whatever you wanna do,
put like some girls beat on it,
but just make sure that it's hittin'
and make sure that it is in the right pocket.
I think that I don't have a sound,
and the reason why I say that because
if you go back and listen to tracks like
'King's Dead', you go back and listen to 'Bartier Cardi',
'Stargazing', 'Gucci Flip Flops',
like none of those records sound the same.
I try to like, keep my stuff going in different directions.
I like to try new sounds, different things.
You will never know what I'm coming with next.
If you just open my whole catalog,
like none of of my beats sound the same,
none of the 808 patterns are the same,
none of my claps are the same,
none of my hi-hats are the same,
none of my sounds are the same.
And I mean that's just me,
I just like to keep stuff different
because I like to keep people guessing like
"damn what he gonna come up with next?"
I never really sit back and be like,
oh this beat is gonna be a hit.
I'm in it just to make the music,
you know what I'm saying, and the love of music.
I have my days where I be like,
oh nah I know this is gonna be a joint,
like I know this is gonna be one of them ones.
But like 'The Box' like that whole pack that we made,
hit me and was like ey bro send me, send me beats,
send me beats, send me beats, send me beats.
At that point we just pumpin' 'em out,
pumpin' 'em out and just sending them to 'em.
Seeing when Roddy first performed 'The Box'
it was like damn this is crazy,
you know what I'm saying,
like that's when I get excited,
is when I see the people goin' nuts at the shows,
throwin' water and just having a good time,
that's when I'm like the most excited
about any of my songs that I've ever done.
When you get track from me or the gang
it's gonna be different, it's not gonna be what you expected
and I promise you the next couple of tracks
that you're gonna hear that's coming out from us
is gonna be way on some other different stuff.
Patterns are gonna be different,
it is not gonna be the basic two and four clap
like it ain't gonna be the basic
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Like no it's gonna be on some different shit.
That's what I strive for, is just like,
make sure that everybody just enjoy the music
and feel it when it come on.
If I'm not in the studio boppin' my head
then I know it ain't it.
The statement that KRS-One said I can 100% agree with that.
We are not selling a song, we selling a motion.
If every person that listen to your music
can't feel your music or can't relate to it,
it's not gonna sell anything.
I feel like if us making the beat,
and I don't have no emotion for it,
it's not really gonn' sell when I go
into the room with the artist and try to
ey bro you should hop on this beat,
or you should do this, you should do that.
It's not gonna sell, so like we are selling the motion,
all the time, 24/7, 365.
Yo I'm focused on the next hit.
I'm always focused on the next move,
the next hit, the next operation,
like what we doing next,
and as long as I can continue
to wake up every day and do this,
to continue to get another number one,
or five other number one's, then cool I'm good,
I'm lockin' in every day,
I'm in the studio every single day, every day.