Metro Boomin: A Matter of Passion

At the time of our conversation, producer Metro Boomin is in the midst of conjuring up a production for frequent collaborator Future. It’s late in the afternoon, but he has only been up for a few hours, having pulled a marathon all-nighter at a club. And, before his night out, his mind was completely on the beat he’s trying to finish. However, in conversation he’s more alert and sharp than most artists pushing similar agendas. Considering the wealth of beats he has composed and the rate at which he creates them, it makes sense. How can someone’s brain not always be at on-point if they’re continuously working away at generating enough quality productions to supply an established rapper’s entire discography?

From melodic work for Future and Kanye West to apocalyptic, unhinged trap-rap, Metro Boomin — or Leland Wayne as the outside world knows him — has been crafting it all and doing it at the speed of a bullet train. These past couple of years have been banner years for the barely-21-year-old beatmaking workhorse, and at the moment there seems to be nothing seperating him from reaching the upper echelon of his class. As the producer sits at home, chopping up new compositions like the aforementioned Future number, we had an in-depth conversation with him on how he laid the foundations for his career, working with close friend and frequent collaborator Young Thug, recording at Puff Daddy’s house, his goals in the game, and much more.

You’ve mentioned before that rappers like Alley Boy and OJ Da Juiceman were some of the people that helped you get started. Besides working with them on music, how exactly did they help you out?

They would just keep fvcking with me, putting a lot of songs in their projects so people would look out for me and that would just build. I linked with my boy Carbon 15 and, ultimately, Jeezy and all of them through Alley Boy, even way before “Four” came out. Alley put me on the phone and I built that relationship. Juiceman did a lot; I used to be with Jucie everytime I came to Atlanta. We would kick it on the Eastside, right there on Gresham Road; real Zone 6 sh*t. They helped to set the foundation.

How did you originally get connect with Alley boy?

On Twitter. I had seen he followed me so I followed him back — I hadn’t really heard too much of his music but I definitely knew about him. He had this song he already did that ended up being “Four,” but  that was before Jeezy and Gotti got on it, so it was just a rough version. I didn’t really think nothing of it when he sent it but when he re-did it but he ended up re-doing it, and the result was much harder than the original version. Then, he got Gotti and Jeezy on it. And, this was way before “Four,” even came out, but we instantly started doing other shit at that point.

And how did you initially get linked up with Young Thug? What was it like when you two started working on music later?

I met Thug at Gucci’s studio; we just instantly started going in. I would just call him and we’d go to the studio every night.

Was Gucci Mane’s studio the type of place where a lot of people met and worked?

Of course. That was the spot, that was like the recording center for all the young cats on the come up.

Did you manage to get a lot of connections through Gucci and being at the studio there?

Yeah, but really I’ve already known most of the people that were at Gucci’s studio. Thug was the only one that I really met there for the first time; he had still been in the studio before I used to be at the studio with Scooter and Gucci at Patchwerk, but we didn’t formally meet til then. But, everyone else thereI already knew. I knew Migos, I knew them before Gucci even knew them. I knew the rest of the crew, like Longway, whom I met through Scooter and Gucci before.

When it came to working with Young Thug and Longway, was there an instant connection there? Could you guys just hop into the studio and make music or did it take a while?

It did take a while. I went to school for one semester, and that was when I met Peewee. With Peewee, I hadn’t even heard none of his music since he didn’t really have a song out. At first, I heard that he wanted to give me some money for some beats, then I pulled up on him at the trap. He picked up some beats, he gave me some bands, and that was that. Then that whole Gucci situation came and he started doing the label and then people started building relationships as opposed to just buying beats and all that. The whole situation with Peewee is just on another level; We went from there to him recording in my house right now.

Are there times when rappers would just show up to your house and you would just have a night working on tracks?

Yeah, I did a lot of songs in my house. We would organize it, they would come over. A lot of the people that I fvck with have recorded over here. I used to make beats over here but I didn’t have the recording equipment of studios.

You didn’t even have any professional equipment?

No. We used to and still do record in professional studios like Gucci’s studio but the situation has changed, certain things happened.

I remember one night we went to Patchwork because we just wanted to keep recording and be in the studio and I had booked the session on my own for $800 USD. I had Thug over there, we recorded a lot of material that night. I had Peewee up there recording too, Skooly, a whole bunch of people. After that, I was happy with the songs and what I had got but at the end of the day, it costed me 800 dollars to do that. It just made sense to buy all this equipment for myself.

Do rappers like Young Thug and Longway write or do they freestyle?

They just go with what they feel, off their heart, just off the top. That’s how we all do, period. From Gucci to Future to Longway to Thug, all of them, that’s how it is, that’s the real flavor: just saying what it is.

So you don’t try to overthink a beat you just go off the mood and the vibe?

You just go with the flow.

Now that you’ve been able to work with a lot of people, do you notice any big differences working with someone like Young Thug versus someone like Travis $cott?

There are differences. First off, Young Thug and Travis $cott are two totally different people so of course there’s differences in the studio. Travis is a one of a kind type guy, and so is Thug. We’re all young geniuses, so that’s how it clicks, but everyone is just different. I’m from a whole other walk of life than where Thug is from, so is Travis.

“Skyfall” was crazy.

There’s plenty more like that, on the tuck and on the way. We’re working, we’re trying to step up this music period and step up everyone’s taste for music and expectations. It’s like the expectations are too low right now.

Is it difficult to get three rappers, and personalities, on one track?

It’s not difficult at all, especially when it’s someone that I know. It’s even easier when they have their own relationship as well. we just all click together.

We went out of town before at one of Thug’s shows; Travis fvcked with Thug, Thug fvcked with Travis. They all fvcked with each other. The vibes are real, so that, one time, during Travis’ session, we did an impromptu recording session for Metro Thuggin.

It was just out of the blue then?

It was definitely out of the blue. I didn’t even know I was going to go to the studio that day. I was just waking up, normal routine, and Travis hit me like, “man, come to the studio.” I didn’t even know he was at the studio. He was doing the “Basement Freestyle,” that’s why he said shout out to Metro. I didn’t even make that beat, Lex Luger made that beat. I didn’t even hear him say that when he was recording the song, I didn’t hear that until the mixtape came out.

So he did that “Basement Freestyle” and I was going through my archive, and I pulled up this beat. It was already finished — it was really all the way made — it  just wasn’t laid out all the way. It was this beat that I made at Puff’s crib in Miami.

That’s crazy.

Yeah, it’s crazy. I made the Skyfall beat at Puff’s crib in Miami, I made the “Mamacita” beat with Dahi at Puff’s crib in LA. It was crazy how those vibes came.

So Puff had you at his house recording beats?

Yeah, it was great. I initially met Puff through Travis. Me and Travis were at the studio one time, and he said, “I’m going to LA with Puff in two days. You need to come out there and help me with this thing for my album,” and I was like, “who wouldn’t want to meet Puff?” That’s definitely one of my influences. So, we went out there and stayed working for the whole week. Even with all that work being done, me and Puff developed our own relationship. He just pulled me to the side at the end and told me how he respected me. He took my number, then a month later it was time to go to Miami. We worked at his house, put it down in a week. It was crazy. He’s a good dude, he’s fun to be around.

In the future, would you be open to be working with pop artists like Mike WiLL does or do you want to just focus more on hip-hop right now?

I’m not looking at what nobody does, I’m just doing what I do. It’s not like there’s just this one thing that I want to do, I’m versatile. I’m not just trying to consolidate or “just make rap beats” or “just make trap beats.” That’s the point I’m trying to prove by making all different types of sounds. The sky is the limit, music is music. I want to do it all, because at the end of the day, I look at myself as just a musician, period. Michael Jackson did all kinds of tracks with all kinds of people.

Is it true that you played piano on “The Blanguage”?

Yeah, after a whole lot of messing around. That wasn’t even in the beat at first. None of it at the end was at the beat at first. I was digging his vocals, and I took my other computer and just started making a beat with it, just adding on to it. I put it on there, and it just started sounding crazy. I love melodic things. I love all the hard stuff too, but that’s the beauty of it.

Is it easy for you to come up with melodies?

Definitely. Like I said earlier, I tend to go in off the top and just going in; you come in refreshed every day and just start play around and experiment with sounds. It’s something you’ve just done so many years in your mind, it’s just what you do. It’s what I’ve done more than anything so it’s like, “I’ve got to be good at something because I’m not good at much else.”

So this is an “all or nothing” deal?

Exactly. That’s the whole reason I stopped going to school. It was just trying to do too much, instead of just taking one thing and attacking it and trying to be the best at it. That’s the whole reason why, originally, way back in school I stopped rapping. I understood that early on. Everyone just tries to do too much. How are you going to try to be a rapper/singer/writer/producer/choreographer and you’re not even off the ground yet? You have to pick something, whatever you think you’re best at, whatever you have the most interest in. I had more interest in beats than rapping. Rap was way too saturated anyways, it still is. People just now are trying to play catch-up and try to make beats. Now, it’s been seven years messing with this already, and I just turned 21, and I still feel like I’m just starting.

I’m always going to produce, but I want to venture out eventually -– labels, artists, score movies, all types of things. But, right now, it’s 100 percent this.

So in the future you’ll get into something else?

Of course. That’s what you do with this, especially with urban music. With urban music, it doesn’t even pay nearly as good as other genres, like pop music for instance. With urban music, what you’re supposed to do is get in there and, once you’re there, you and go crazy, you take that and do something else. Diversify your income.

A lot of your type of melodies can fit in some type of pop song.

That’s what I’m saying, that’s what I meant when I said earlier that music is music. All I have to do is play out digital melodies and more friendly melodies. It’s all in the chords and the building and just not putting those drums on it (laughs). It’s going to sound like something totally different.

What is the key to surviving in the music industry?

You got to stay working. You have to. That’s the most important thing to come up and the most important thing to do stay on. You can’t be too comfortable, you havet to stay hungry. You can’t lose that, because that’s what gotten you to where you’re at. If you’re not hungry anymore, there’s definitely somebody else hungry right now, trying to take you out.

Do you view it as a competitive thing?

I’m not really thinking of it like that. The people make it competitive, I don’t even trip on none of that. I just like to focus on music and have fun and live a blessed life. I don’t even care about none of that, I just got my own thing going on, so I’m not really concerned about all of that. People are alwatys quick to cheer up the kid on the block, and label other artists as “old news.” A lot of people have been sending me their music lately, saying things like, “Metro the hottest right now.” I can appreciate but I don’t really like to hear things like that. Like, “right now?” I just got in, I’m trying to be in this forever. I’m not just trying to turn up real quick and sit back with a of couple checks. I feel like I’m in another zone. That’s why I look up to people like Puff. I got my eyes set on a level like that. People are always looking at who can have the most hits, who can have the most “this” and “this” this quarter, who can have the most singles out right now. I’m not looking at none of that. As long as I’m better every year and constantly improve myself. Every six months have to be better than the last six months.

It’s all quality really. I want the people to know that every time he go up to bat he’s not going to let us then. Like, it’s not even a joke when his name comes along. I put a lot into this. It’s 3:30pm, I’ve been at home working on this Future song since I woke up at around 12, that’s like 3 hours and I already spent 3 hours working on it last night. It never ends, there’s always something to do. It’s a blessing though, it keeps me busy and keeps me working.

Lastly, could you finish the sentence: “The music industry is…”

The music industry is sus but my love and passion for music keeps me in it. That’s how I truly feel, that’s what I always tell people. There’s so much bullsh*t,” that if you don’t have the burning passion and love for it you’re going to quit. Even if you do get some luck, you ain’t going to stand a chance in this industry. For instance, Thug is going to be here because he really loves music. He loves money and he wants money but he loves music. He’s got a thing for music. That’s the premise. You can still get some money if you’re not passionate, but your days will already be numbered.