This is just another beat made in my bedroom at my house in Virginia.
Just making beats to make beats and get it out.
My working relationship with Juice has been the same ever since the beginning.
You can feel the emotion in his voice.
He's just letting everybody know what he's facing and all the stuff that he has going
on and not afraid to show you who he really is.
When I sent the beat I was like, I had all these other beats in there, I was like, he's
about to make a hit to all these other ones and, just picked the one I least expected
and again, that was the intro to the album.
It just starts in the right tone for the rest of the album and it has so much energy.
He’s just coming in like, “This is what the album’s about to be like.”
And like, all that.
Juice hit me up for a pack, and I was just making whatever at the time.
You know, I had no set direction for what I wanted to do.
I got on live, I’m pretty sure.
Probably YouTube or Twitch or something.
I was livestreaming and making beats.
You know, I just made this on site, from scratch.
In this beat, I started off with three chords that loop throughout the whole song.
It’s just like a regular grand piano.
The basic, basic.
After I had those main chords laid down, I went and grabbed a Rhodes keyboard from Keyscape
and I just layered the chords on the bottom so there was more feel to it and it was more
spacious.
I don’t like my beats very monotone and very centered so I put the Rhodes in, there’s
a lot of reverb on it, and it’s very spacious so you could...you know you feel it more.
When it’s just right in the middle you’re not getting the same vibe.
I actually had three other different melodies that I layered on top of it.
First off in this ElextraX arp from my boy Roy Major.
He’s on Internet Money collective.
It’s from the Pluto Bank right here, the arp unknown.
It just had this very moving feel, and it just brought something different.
Like, it stood out so much.
So after that, I went in ElectraX again, took the chords again from the Rhodes and the Keyscape
piano and just played them out on this arp.
The last sound for the melody wise is this Kontakt vocal.
That sound is definitely tucked way in the back and you’ll never notice it.
And then it comes out for the verse.
Because the verse is just the piano and the Rhodes switching back and forth.
You barely even notice that it’s not there.
So after we have all the melodies combined, I started adding in drums.
Usually I like to start with just adding a two-step hi-hat pattern.
And then I fill in the blanks from there.
I added in this clap.
And then usually after my hats and claps, I go in and I either add the 808 or the kick
first.
This is the kick pattern right here.
This is what the 808 sounds like.
I notice a lot of producers nowadays do not have their 808s in tune with melodies.
That's a big no-no from everybody.
It just sounds so off.
It'll be one note off, but it's so low that producers can't hear it.
But if you just bring them octave up you can listen to the actual tone of the note.
Producers, tune your 808s please.
So after I had the kick, 808, hi-hat, clap, I just added in a simple open hat right here.
And that just hits on the down beats of the one and five.
It’s sort of like a…
You know, “Impeach The President” drum vibes.
Everybody does that nowadays with their hats hitting before the snares and all that.
So after I had all those components and I was laying the beat out, I thought I needed
a transition for the melodies.
I don’t know what it is, but my boy Trell had it in his pack.
It just sounds like a spaceship or something.
Like some ‘Star Wars’ sound.
I don’t know, an explosion.
Who knows.
When it came in on the hook with all the instruments, you definitely have that feel.
Like it just crashes and then he comes in, “I feel so empty,” and it’s fire.
When I was younger I had this Wal-Mart guitar I bought.
I just looked up songs on YouTube to play and learn the melodies of.
Like “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath.
I'm pretty sure that's everybody's first song they learn when they get a guitar.
“Smoke On The Water,” just stuff like that.
Now when I make beats it's like subconsciously what I'm making, they're melancholic
and dark but obviously we proved otherwise on the album too.
I went on my Instagram.
I posted the album at midnight.
I said, "What's your favorite song?"
A week later, "What's your favorite song?"
“People: ‘Empty,’ ‘Empty,’ ‘Empty’, ‘Empty,’ ‘Feeling,’ ‘Empty,’ ‘Empty,’
‘Flaws and Sins,’ ‘Empty,’ ‘Robbery.’”
I just saw “Empty” everywhere.
I was just like, "Really did it."