Mike WiLL Made It: 10 Beats That Changed My Life

Mike WiLL Made It is the most in-demand young producer in hip-hop, and it happened seemingly overnight. At just 23, he's already scored No. 1 hits for 2 Chainz and Drake, Future, and Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music crew—and he's just getting started. His production on eventual chart hits like Rihanna's "Pour It Up" and Lil Wayne's "Good Kush & Alcohol" signal a longtail career arc for the Atlanta native, but no matter what work lies on the horizon, he'll always have the hits he started with. 

We got on the phone with Mike WiLL to talk about just that: the 10 Beats That Changed His Life. Whether it was getting a call from Gucci Mane to being in the studio with Juicy J, he broke down each moment with behind-the-scenes stories for each. Read on for a closer understanding of Mike WiLL's already massive career, and previously unknown details on the biggest beats he's produced this far.

As told to Lauren Nostro (@LAURENcynthia) 

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Album: MMG Presents: Self Made, Vol. 1
Producer: Mike Will Made It, Marz
Label: Maybach Music Group, Warner Bros.

"That was a monstrous track to me. It had a lot of energy to it. With Rick Ross coming off of 'B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast),' that song was the perfect sound. I've known Lex Luger for a minute, so this is the sound I bang to. We needed to do something like that with Ross because I had the 'Tupac Back' track. I was playing that track and I also sent a track that I did for Ludacris, 'I'm On Fire,' along with 'King Of Diamonds' that Rick also did.

"He said he heard the 'Tupac Back' beat and he ended up doing the hook right away. He sent it to Meek Mill. They're telling me Meek Mill got on that, but at the time, I didn't know who Meek Mill was and they were like, 'He's this kid out of Philly that Ross is fucking with.'  I'm all about fucking with the new next talent. That's who I really came in the game with. I was messing with Gucci [Mane] when folks weren't really messing with him. Waka [Flocka Flame] is my best friend. I feel like that's more ill than just chasing whoever's on top at the time.

"I got the track through one of Maybach Music's A&Rs. Ross did the hook, he gave it to Meek Mill. Meek Mill laced it. Then I was like, 'Tupac Back?' It's already a controversial title, even though he's not disrespecting Tupac in any kind of way. People are going to want to click on that song. You've got the people that don't want to let Tupac rest in peace that say, 'He's going to come back.' Even though they don't know what he's talking about on the track at first, they'll want to click on that title.

"That song just ended up taking off. That's when I fell in love with Meek Mill's style of his music. He's got the most energy. Nobody slacked up on that track at all. I feel like the beat hit the most energy, Rick Ross came with the most energy, Meek Mill came with the most energy, and I just feel like that was a jumpstart for me and Meek Mill. He had been doing his thing on the mixtape scene before that. I had already been doing my thing on the mixtape scene as well. It was a jumpstart for both of our careers.

"We had already had our local buddies. Meek Mill had his in Philly and up North. I had mine in Atlanta and down South, so I was used to cars riding around playing the songs I had with Gucci, Shawty Lo, 2 Chainz, and Future, but I wasn't used to a song being [that big]. That was the first time I had a video on TV. That was my first song on the Billboard charts. That was the first song I could get one of my aunts to realize [what I'm doing.]

"The semester before that, I was in college. I was going for business but really was going for my dad. Both of my sisters graduated college, so I wasn't going to be the oddball. I was talking to my pops like, 'Man, fuck this school shit. I've got to start focusing on this music.' He was like, 'You've got to take a break from music for a minute and focus on school. Music is not going nowhere.' I'm like, 'Well shit, school is not going nowhere either. I'm going to focus on this music.' The next semester, I ended up not registering for classes. That's when Dirty Sprite came out, that's when 'Tupac Back' came out, that's when Tity Boi's 'La La' came out with Busta Rhymes.

"Even with the artists I'm working with now, it really changed their view. They always rolled with me. They knew I was talented. It shows, 'Oh, this dude can really do me a single. He just did a single that shook the nation.' That shit was an imprint in hip-hop, because it brought all the rappers out. Everyone had their own freestyle version. They were bringing back all the old rappers that had died already, saying each person is back. I felt like that was a big trek in hip-hop, when all the artists I was working with were like, 'This my dude. We can do the singles right here.'"

Album: N/A
Producer: Mike Will Made It
Label: Disturbing Tha Peace


"He was working on Streetz Calling and we were working one weekend, and we did a chick record, and then we did 'Itchin.' He jumped straight on 'Itchin.' I was telling him to come with crazy energy on the verses, because the beat is so open, just come through with something crazy. He came in like, 'My momma said, 'Fuck it nigga!'' H just came in with a crazy line, and I was like, 'That's ill. Keep that.' He kept going, and he finished his verse and went straight to the hook. He didn't even think about the hook. 'I'm itchin my fingers. They itchin, they itchin for the paper.' He came through with the whole, finished his second verse, and I'm like, 'This shit is a smash!'

"I feel like even when I'm working with other artists, people might say, 'I got this much money.' It ain't even about the money. That's what made me and Future click too. When we first met, I was like, 'This is someone I want to invest my time into.' I see how different he is. I just knew he was going to be out of here.

"One day, we were supposed to do a session, and he didn't show up. I had called him, and he didn't pick up. I hit him the next day like, 'Damn, bro, what happened?' He's like, 'Man, your beats cost too much for me.' I'm like, 'Man, call me.' He called me, and I'm like, 'What the hell are you talking about? We ain't talking about no price. Whatever the business is between us, everybody's situation is different. Artists might just be trying to buy a beat from me, but I'm trying to go all in with you—really go in and come up with a sound and really change shit with you. I see the potential.'

"At first, Future was like, 'I don't know about 'Itchin.' 'Itchin' just cool. I knew he was just trying to shut me up. The next day, it wasn't on the line-up again for his album. Matter of fact, it was the last song on the lineup. I was like, 'You don't really fuck with 'Itchin' right?' He's like, 'It's cool bruh, I fuck with it. Compared with all the other records, it's just cool.' I was about to drop my first mixtape, I thought, 'Let me use 'Itchin' for the first song. Let me put it out. Let me get to working with it, because I know what it is. I can't let you sit here and sleep on this record.' He gave it to me, and I put it out a couple days after he dropped Streetz Calling. Everybody was like, 'Yo, what the fuck? Why didn't Future put 'Itchin' on Streetz Calling?'

"Future will tell you that after he did 'Itchin,' that was what made him want to do 'Same Damn Time.' It was like a screaming record. When we first met each other, we first started working with each other in like January, it was like boom. I knew Future was like an ill Andre 3000 type of nigga. So I was like 'Whenever you get the deal, that's when we're going to do all the big records.' I knew he could be a person like B.o.B., that did urban and commercial records. I was like, 'Okay, we're going to kill the streets first and then when it's game time, we're going to show how big we can go.' It was all a plan. So right after Streetz Calling when he got his deal, that's when we did "Turn On The Lights" and "Neva End" in the same night."

Album: Trap Back
Producer: Mike Will Made It
Label: Warner Bros.

"I remember every song I've worked on with Gucci Mane. We've got over 30 songs together. That's the first person to ever really go in and welcome me. He'd scream 'Mike Will Made It' in his verse. He really gave me a name and gave me placement on his DVDs. I met him when I was only 16 and I started working with him. We came out with the records when I was around 18, and he didn't have to say my name in his verses, but he was doing that. He linked me up with Zaytoven, he just had me coming over to his house when all these different rappers were coming over.

"I used to be with Gucci every day. School nights, I was with Gucci going to all the different clubs, going to his video shoots. Just moving around with him is how I met a lot of different artists like 2 Chainz and Shawty Lo and other people I work with now. He introduced me to everyone. When he was going to that next level, we did 'East Atlanta 6,' that was our first big street record in 2007. That shit was just dope. We had put out a couple more records. I had all those records out in the streets with Gucci but nobody really knew who did what then, that's when I knew I needed a tag or something. I thought, 'I need to drop a mixtape that's going to point everybody back.'

"I think one of my favorite parts of doing all of this is the grind. I love the grind. Gucci taught me to never stop working. We did 20 songs in three days, I've never seen anybody work like that. So even when I'm working with other artists now, I just don't really get it because I'm used to working with a machine. Gucci does 20 songs in one night. That's why when everybody asks me who are your favorite two people to work with, I say Gucci and Future. They work so hard and so much. Future verses are so different, and Gucci is so creative, animated and fun. He really understands that he's an entertainer. But he works so hard and he comes with all these different ideas. It makes me wonder like, 'What the fuck? What made you think of this?'

"As a producer, even though an artist can't hear themselves on a dope track, you can hear how hard an artist can go on a track, and you hear how it can be that big of a record. That's what I did with Gucci and Future. Both of them, they both are open to listen to me and let me guide them and direct the on different tracks. That's how 'Plain Jane' came about. We were in the studio, I played the beat, and the beat was kind of a one-level type of beat. It went through the structure, came back, but it sounded real different. So with Gucci, we were just vibing and going with different flows. He goes in the booth, and he starts flowing a whole other rap. I'm like, 'Bro, what happened to 'My body took a lot of?' He was like, 'I didn't know you were fucking with that like that.'

"I was toward the end of the beat, he just starts rapping, 'I know my body took a lot of ehh," but with a lot of energy. So I was like, 'Man, you got to do it with that same grunt flow.' So he went back and did it the right way but he did it at the end of the beat. So I told the engineer, 'Take that, put it at the beginning, lay that as the first verse.' As a producer that's what you're supposed to be doing. There's a difference between being a beat maker and a producer. A producer is going to put the whole record together and make sure it comes out right. So when I did that, Gucci doesn't really like listening to just anybody, but I know the real Gucci. I've known him since I was 16, so he can trust me with that."

Album: Cruel Summer
Producer: Lifted, Mike Dean, Mike Will, Phines Muzic, Kanye West, Hudson Mohawke
Label: G.O.O.D Music, Def Jam

"Working with Kanye [West], you already know. It's everything you would imagine. He's a genius. He's ill. I looked up to him when I was coming up. Future was actually out there working with Kanye, and Kanye was hearing the tracks I was doing for Future's album, and he had already heard the tracks I was doing on the mixtapes. So [Kanye] was just like, 'Yo, who is this dude? Who is this dude with the tag 'Mike WiLL Made It?' Future was like, 'That's my brother.' So Kanye was like, 'Okay, I want to work with him.'

"Future put us in line with each other and flew me out of town and we ended working together. The first day, we were just letting each other hear different music. What I was working on, he was letting me hear what he was working on, and he let me hear 'Mercy' the first day, before he got on it. He let me hear 'Theraflu' and he let me hear a whole bunch of different records. We were just vibing and whatnot, and there was something about 'Mercy.' He's like, 'There's something missing here.' He's like, 'I feel like the drums that you got will help this record out. You're a beast with the drums.' We ended up just vibing with a whole bunch of different records, and I tested out 'Mercy.' I was messing with it a little bit, and it ended up coming out dope.

"One thing about 'Ye, he likes trying something a lot of different ways, and whatever I did, he ended up liking it. That was just dope, and that was a start of many more things to come, hopefully, in the future. 'Ye fucks with my sound, and obviously I fuck with 'Ye's sound, so I felt like that was just the beginning."

Album: Pluto
Producer: Mike Will Made It
Label: Epic, Free Bandz

"With 'Turn On The Lights,' Future was like, 'You know it's go-time. Pull some of those beats out the chamber.' We had already done the other record that's on Pluto, 'Truth Gonna Hurt You.' We did that like a couple weeks before because he was working on his project that he had called Future Hendrix, so we did 'Truth Gonna Hurt You' and that joint came out ill. It was just different and he sounded like he was from the islands. I love 'Truth Gonna Hurt You,' that's one of my favorite songs that we did.

"Future was like, 'Pull some of the other beats out.' So I put on 'Turn On The Lights' and he was recording it. And really we were just vibing with each other in the studio and he came up with that line, 'Is that her in the V.I.P. line/With the Vuitton and Yves Laurent.' I was like, 'Record that shit. That shit is ill. You sound like a poet or some shit. He was like, 'What are we going to do for the hook?' I was like, 'I don't know, but that hook got to just be something big.'

"We were just throwing different ideas and then he said, 'Turn on the lights,' and I was like, 'That's ill.' He just kept saying turn on the lights at first, and then he was like, 'I'm looking for you.' I was like, 'Just go in the booth dog, we're going to do this line by line. Fuck it.' He just went in the booth and laid down that verse, and when that part came on, 'If you wanna live better, we can buy a crib, whatever,' and at first he was just rapping it. I was like, 'You've got to run those words together,' but I didn't want to say sing it. He was like, 'Man, basically you're telling me to sing it. What are you trying to turn me into, an R&B singer?' I was like, 'Bob Marley wasn't no R&B singer. You know you're not an R&B singer. You just got an ill tone.' He laid it down and it sounded hard and he just broke out with the 'Turn on the lights' and he came with the whole hook.

"Even when Future wanted to go with 'Turn On The Lights' for the next single, I was in Los Angeles and I met L.A. Reid and I was telling him, 'We need to push this shit all the way to the moon, this is a number one record.' L.A. Reid knew Future was ill. He knew 'Same Damn Time,' he knew 'Tony Montana,' 'Magic,' he knew the urban side of Future. When he heard 'Turn On The Lights,' L.A. Reid said he wasn't even thinking of it like a single, he was looking for the next urban record. When I was telling him, 'This is the one' and the vision that me and Future had, I was like, 'This is the one. This could be like how B.o.B. had 'Nothing On You.' It could be a big record that crosses him over.'

"When L.A. Reid heard me tell him that, he was like, 'Okay, I never really listened to this record like that. I know Future wanted to push this next, but I never really listened to it like that.' The next thing you know the record did what it did, and when I came back to Los Angeles I was like, 'Neva End' might be the follow-up.' I felt like 'Neva End' should have came first over 'Turn On The Lights,' it was a big record, so I felt like it could have been the next up. 'Turn On The Lights' ended up being the set-up for 'Neva End.' It ended up busting down and opening up a lot of doors for 'Neva End.' Hella people already respected him in that light."

Album: Based On A T.R.U. Story
Producer: Mike Will Made It
Label: Def Jam


"It was really simple. It's just like with Future—boom, it's nothing new. 2 Chainz would call me and be like, 'The album's coming. Let's do something for it.' I went down there, and I already had the 'No Lie' beat and 'Wut We Doin?' sitting and waiting for a project. I had both of those just waiting for him because he had just put out T.R.U. REALigion. He told me it was go-time and he was about to go back in the studio, so I went to the studio with him and played those beats first. He was just losing his mind.

"When he heard 'Wut We Doin?' he walked in the booth and laid down the hook. Then he heard 'No Lie,' and he was like, 'I might have this as the intro to my album.' I was like, 'You should get Birdman to come on hear and talk some crazy shit. You got to get a big feature on here.' He was like, 'Yeah man, that's something I might do. Just get someone to talk and go crazy on the verses.'

"He laid down his verses, and he texted me at 7 a.m. like, 'Bro, we got one. Drake just laid down a hook and a verse.' Then Drake texted me like, 'That shit is out of here Mike.' I was out of town working with 'Ye, I flew back, and then I went on the road with 2 Chainz for the weekend and he let me hear it. He was like, 'I'm only going to let you hear this one time, because you're going to hear this shit so many times you won't want to hear this shit any more. This shit is going to be on the radio all day.'

"After the first time hearing it, I knew the hook, that's how I always know it's a hit record. Think about it, if you listen to a song one time and you know you can sing the words back, just imagine everybody hearing the song. They're going to be walking around singing that shit. I think I listened to the song two times while we were on the road and that was it. Then, the song came out and everybody knew all the words.

"Drake is damn near the best with melodies. People are just walking around, 'No lie, no lie,' and they're not even listening to the song. When I found my mom doing it, just walking around not listening to the song and just singing it back, I was like, 'Okay, this shit is a problem.'"

Album: Stay Trippy
Producer: Mike Will Made It
Label: Columbia


"I grew up on Juicy J, so I really couldn't even fucking wait to work with Juicy J, Project Pat and DJ Paul. Juicy J was always one of my favorites. For one, he was a producer and I just used to love how he came on his verses every time. All of them had unorthodox flows, but Juicy J had the crazy ass ad-libs. He was always crazy to me.

"I saw the work he was doing with Lex Luger, and I heard the mixtapes they were dropping together. I saw Juicy coming back, so I knew we could do some crazy ass shit. He reached out to me when I was working with Kanye and he was talking to me like, 'I fuck with your shit. Why don't you send me a couple beats?' I was working on my second mixtape so I was like we can start off right there because I'm about to drop my second mixtape in a couple months.

"I sent him the beats and he did 'Cash Erewhere,' that's the song that was on my second mixtape and that shit was dope as hell. Then he called me and he was like, 'Yo, I did a song to another one of your other beats. I did it in somebody's kitchen.' I was like, 'You did it in somebody's kitchen?' And he said, 'Yeah man, but it's hard as fuck.' I was like, 'How are you going to rap on one of my beats in somebody's kitchen? Come on. Send it to me.'

"I was in Los Angeles, and he sent it to me while I was in the studio working with somebody else. I played it on the big speakers and I was like, 'Oh shit!' I called him and I was like, 'This shit is number one. As soon as I get back to the A, I'm fucking putting this shit out to all the strip clubs, everywhere.' As soon as we got off the phone, he leaked it. There was a big response. When I went to the strip clubs down in Atlanta, all the DJs were playing it.

"I was telling the radio DJs, 'You've got to get this new Juicy J record.' They were like, 'Juicy J records don't really work on the radio. His solo work doesn't really work well on the radio.' I was like, 'You are a fucking fool if you don't play this record.' This shit is crazy. I don't give a fuck who is singing it. You could have been singing this shit and if you sounded like this, this shit is going to work well on the radio. They were like, 'We'll try it out, we'll test it out.' Then they were like, 'We tried it out and it wasn't really hitting.'

"It got so hot in Atlanta in the streets and at the strip club, they had no choice but to play it. They started playing it on the radio and it got added to rotation before the labels got involved or Juicy J hollered at them. It ended up being a real dope record. Then he got Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz to get on it. I got a text from them like, 'You're going to have a 2 Chainz verse for 'Bandz' tonight.' They sent it to me, and then Juicy J sent me Wayne's verse. I put the song together and I put it out on my second mixtape. That's the one everybody of course picked up on and started going with. It's still spinning till this day."

Album: Pluto
Producer: Mike Will Made It
Label: Epic, Free Bandz

"Right after 'Turn On The Lights,' Future was like, 'Pull up that other beat.' He had the, 'You got all the questions and I know all the answers,' part first. He was just freestyling on the beat and then he did, 'We don't wanna never end.' I was like, 'This is damn near like Usher 'You Got It Bad.' But he was spinning it in a different way. He was like, 'Hell no. This isn't like Usher 'You Got It Bad.'' I was like, 'The song don't sound like it, but the whole topic. It's damn near 'You Got It Bad,' you don't want the relationship to end.'

"We were just talking about the whole concept of the song, and that's when he started coming with words. He laid the hook down, and then he ended up finishing that song in Miami. We had finished 'Turn On The Lights' in Atlanta a couple days after that night when we did both the hooks and he did the verse. I was like, 'It would be so ill if we could get a female R&B artist on here with you.' But we didn't know anybody back then so I was like, 'Fuck it, it is like it is.'

"Because 'Turn On The Lights' is him looking for a female, he can body that by himself. It's really from one person's point of view. 'I'm looking for her.' With 'Neva End' it's, 'We don't wanna never end,' it's a 'we' so something is missing there. Even if he can still be telling the story from his point of view, he can be sitting around thinking about her like, 'I have this girl and I don't want it to never end.' He pulled it off and it ended up sounding right, but I was just saying, if a female artist was to get on that record, I felt like it would have been that much bigger than 'Turn On The Lights.'

"I had already been working with Kelly Rowland. We were going to Atlanta to work at the same time and we were on the same plane and I know there was some talk on who was going to get on the 'Turn On The Lights (Remix).' Future was like, 'Kelly [Rowland] would be hard.' We had Lil Wayne, he wanted to get on it. Drake liked it a lot. Wiz Khalifa liked it a lot. There was a lot of people that liked it. I felt like the 'Turn On The Lights (Remix)' was going to be a movie whoever got on it. People were started to do their own version anyway, so I was telling Kelly we were doing a 'Turn On The Lights' remix. I felt like it would be perfect for her. I asked if she had ever heard 'Turn On The Lights' and she said, 'No, I haven't heard that song.' So I let her hear it while we were on the plane and she felt that.

"We ended up doing like four songs for her album, and I was like, 'You should sing on 'Neva End.' And she did. I re-cut it a couple times to get that right. There's a lot of dope female artists, but I feel like there was only a couple that could pull that off. I felt like Kelly's cool enough to pull that off and do that type of bounce on a beat. I felt like Rihanna would've been ill. I felt like there were only a couple people that could have pulled it off, and Kelly was like the top candidate. It ended up working with her.

"Future hit me back like, 'Man, that shit is hot. We need to just put that shit out.' I said, 'No, we got to put this shit out the right way in a single.' L.A. Reid was like, 'Man, Will, you're a genius. This shit is crazy.' He was telling me he couldn't take it off repeat."

Album: N/A
Producer: Mike Will Made It
Label: Interscope

"We did 'Dead Broke' before we did 'No Tomorrow.' I was bringing up the darker beats for Chief Keef because that's what we were doing but he couldn't come up with a hook. He was like, 'I'll probably get somebody else. I'll get 50 [Cent] on the hook, or you can let somebody else do the hook.' Sometimes he's just good with doing the verses, he didn't come with the hook first. He ended up laying down that verse and we went on to another song we got called 'On It.' After that, we did 'No Tomorrow.'

"I just had his verse on 'Dead Broke' with the beat. I took it to a session and I told Future about it. I know Future is good at coming up with hooks, so I was like, 'Chief Keef laid down this verse right quick. That would be ill if you did the hook.' Future heard the verse and he just went straight in booth and did it.

"With a song like 'Dead Broke,' I feel like anybody like us that's coming from the bottom and whatnot can relate to it. It's on that scheming and robbing-type shit. I like Chief Keef. He's a young cat coming up. He already had respect for my beats. He was telling me a lot of the beats he was getting in the past were like Mike WiLL Made It-sounding beats. He would download them off YouTube, so the was respect already there. He listens and takes direction when we were in the studio. We had an easy vibe. He'd pick what beats he wanted, we'd do the song, and we were just in there chilling and cracking jokes. He likes shopping, I like shopping. It was really all good."

Album: Unapologetic
Producer: Mike Will Made It
Label: Def Jam

"I listen to all types of music. My iTunes will be on shuffle, so I might listen to Foster The People, then that might go straight to a Gucci Mane song, then that might go off to a Rihanna song. It's just all over the place. I've been watching Rihanna for so long and I'm a big fan of her music. With Rihanna, she's not scared to be different.

"I had a No. 1 record with 2 Chainz's 'No Lie,' I had a good relationship over there at Def Jam, and I was dealing with Karen Kwak. She's always involved with a lot of Rihanna projects, and Karen texted me like, 'Rihanna wants some shit that she'd be hearing in the club. She wants to go to the club. I was telling her she needs to fuck with you.' I'm like, You damn right.' The next thing you know I'm out there in the studio and we're just vibing out.

"We were doing some records, like the big Rihanna stadium-sounding records, and still mixing it with a little bit of the hood shit. We were just trying to do the medium instead of taking it all the way hood. But they were like, 'You need to take this all the way hood.' I was like, 'I want to make this go hood.' So, I pulled that beat out.

"It was different because you have never heard anybody do nothing like this in music. I felt if she had cut all three of those records, it would he have been big. 'Pour It Up' is a very different sound for her. It wasn't really just like an unorthodox sound for music because it had the same type of feel of Juicy J's 'Bandz A Make Her Dance,' but it was definitely a totally different record because it's a pop artist singing on it versus a dope rap artist rapping on it. I really feel like that's a game-changing record. It was definitely a change of sound for her.

"I felt like that song in particular was just a game-changing record because it's a trendsetting track. It's like when urban hip-hop records were on the top of pop charts in the '90s like Diddy, Dr. Dre, and Timbaland. Now you have David Guetta, and I salute David Guetta to the upmost, he came through and changed the whole sound of pop. But pop music doesn't have just one sound. Pop music is whatever's popular."