Mike Dean has easily become one of the best hip-hop producers and musicians behind the scenes over the years, due in large part to his continued work as Kanye West's right hand man on the boards. With plenty on his plate for the rest of the year, Dean recently spoke with Fader for their ongoing "Beat Construction" series. During the conversation, Dean talked about Scarface and Kanye West's "Guess Who's Back," collaboration, and revealed that that was about the time when 'Ye wanted to first reach out to time to work together.
On how he and 'Ye's styles are different with samples, Dean said that that is mostly Kanye using the samples in production and he doesn't like to use them as much, but more keyboard stuff like in most trap music today. "I’m not a big sampler myself; that basically started [when I was] working with Kanye. It’s more him—he brings the samples in," Dean said.
As far as how his music with Kanye translates so well to their live performances, Dean said that that actually comes into their minds when they're working on new music together. "Definitely when I'm playing parts, I'm thinking, This will be great to play live. That's about it: we're really still just making the albums. Just making shit that works live better. You grow more, you learn more," Dean said. Dean also shared a few insights on working with Travi$ Scott, and the connection he has an artist with the new generation of producers like Metro Boomin and Zaytoven. "Yeah, they're just the youth, you know—the next movement and shit. I'm always going to stick with the youth. But I really mostly work by myself, stay at home. I'm pretty boring," Dean said about working with Metro and Zay.
You can read the full interview via Fader here.
