We were at 1501 Studio in Houston.
She came in.
She was like, “I need a beat with no melody.”
I’m like, “Okay, I got you.”
She walked out.
Made the beat in five minutes, sent it to the engineer in the other room.
She came back and she was like, “Oh yeah.
This is it.”
So she went back in there.
An hour, or hour and a half later she was like, “Okay, the song’s done.”
Go in there and listen to it.
I’m like okay, we got us one.
She had some of her friends there, they were twerking.
So, if the girls are twerking, it’s a good song.
Women in hip-hop today?
I’m not gonna lie, they’re better than the men.
Like the men are going just with the wind and the women are the wind.
I don’t know what happened in 2019 but they took over and I love it!
I’m working with the hottest one, so it’s lit.
I think people are resonating with the song so much because you can relate to a lot of
the things that she says.
And also shock value too, she has a lot of those funny punchlines and then DaBaby, he’s
funny every time.
He’s like the new Ludacris.
He’s the hottest male artist.
She’s the hottest female artist, and they just came together like so perfectly like...
Who wouldn’t wanna listen to that track?
I’m from Dallas, so I remember hearing “Southside Da Realist.”
Bass was everything.
Any car going down the street, they’re having 15s in the trunk.
Growing up, I wanted my beats to break the speakers.
Literally, so every time in any beat I make, the 808s gonna crush.
Every time.
So, her being from Texas and me being from the state of Texas it’s just a gumbo pot
of just mixtures, like it’s working so perfectly.
Megan: So when I had linked up with Lil Ju, the producer who made “Big Ole Freak,”
he let me sit there with him and we make the beats together.
He’s from Dallas, Texas.
You know, he got that little flavor in him too.
Linking up with him and working with him definitely brought out some more energy in me.
Lil Ju: So after she came in the room and told me she wanted a no-melody beat, I was
like okay.
I’m gonna start with an 808.
The bass, that’s the most like...that’s the feeling of
the song.
The next sound was just a simple Southside clap.
Just to keep the tempo.
I would usually say that the 808 is the most important part of the song, but the clap is
what keeps the tempo, the clap is like what essentially makes it a beat.
After the 808 I knew I wanted to add four or five different percs just so I wouldn’t
make it a simple hi-hat, clap, 808 beat.
I was going through packs trying to see which little sound effects I was gonna put in there.
So I came across this.
I don’t think too hard about the beat, so when I find something, I just put it in there.
It reminded me of like a video game sound and anybody that knows me knows I’m a big
video game person.
I literally just bought two arcades to put in my house.
The next ear candy sound that I added after that was my water splash.
I love putting this in beats.
I’m all about vibes and waves.
Like a little ear candy, like it just makes you feel good and you’re like okay this
is not just a regular no-melody beat.
It got water in here, it got video game, like it’s going crazy.
What makes the beat complete is when you add the hi-hat in there.
‘Cause the hi-hat is what gets people going.
I’m like the hi-hat god, but in this beat I kept it so simple.
I used two different closed hi-hats, one panned to the left and the one panned to the right.
So this was the first one.
And here’s the second one.
I remember how I found out the hi-hat makes people go is listening to “Pretty Boy Swag”
by Soulja Boy.
And I’m like, “Why does the song turn up on this part right here?”
And I just had to break it down, I’m like okay, it’s the hi-hats.
So I figured it out.
So we’re like three minutes in to making the beat, so I’m like, let me go find a
hard 808 real quick that’s harder than the one I already used.
I’m just gonna copy and paste the melody from that 808 into the new one.
I used two different 808s because I knew the song needed more than one element.
So the louder 808 plays on the verse, and the softer 808 plays on the hook.
That 808, too, is way louder and way more distorted and longer.
It has a longer tail.
I just feel like the hook needed to be as basic as possible.
It’s literally just the 808, the hi-hat, and the clap.
I added an open hi-hat ‘cause usually the open hi-hat will “Sssssp!” into the snare
or the clap.
Like it’ll slice into it.
So I put the open hi-hat right on the money for it to slice into the clap.
I’m pretty much wrapping up the beat.
I’m like I need one or two more little trinkets in here to make the beat just right.
I added a shaker.
My bro Franchise uses a shaker all the time, so I just tend to put that in my beats sometimes
when I can’t think of another particular perc to use, I’ll just throw a shaker in
there.
It lands right before the open hi-hat, which is right before the clap, so it’s like a...literally.
So then, I added my drop.
I’ve been having this tag since 2011.
This was like my first tag.
Before that, I didn’t have a tag.
I didn’t even have a name.
I just was making beats.
But Megan said my name in a new song.
Everybody tweets me that, all day, every day.
People Instagram it to me all day, all day, every day.
So, here’s my new tag.
Megan: And if the beat live, you know Lil Ju made it!
Lil Ju: The reason we have so much success consistently is the fact that we just get
in there and do it.
Like we not thinking about it.
I just get in there.
I ask her, “What you trying to do?”
She tell me what she trying to do, and we get straight to it.
Megan: At first I didn’t think that I would be able to be a part of the production of
the beats.
Like I didn’t know that was a thing.
But when I got with him, he was like, “Okay so what do you wanna do today?”
And I’m like look, “This the words, and this what it should sound like.”
And then he’s just like, “Okay, got you.”
Lil Ju: The last thing I added in the beat were my risers.
I made both of them I don’t want anyone to have them on their computer in the world,
so here’s the whole beat.
This song is gonna go platinum, I’m already putting it into the air.
This song has opened so many doors and so many opportunities, as well as “Big Ole
Freak,” like just the whole.
I’m the cultivator of the whole “Hot Girl Summer.”
It means a lot to me to be able to finally be in the position to break people’s sound
systems.
And I love it but hey, don’t get mad at me.
Turn the music down.
But I’m turning the 808 up.
Know that every time.
My favorite Meg lyric from the track is when she says, “Yo mama don’t bring your dad
to the mall, ‘cause when he be in there she know he be choosin’.”