

A tireless producer stays the course



The producer is one of the most crucial yet anonymous figures in all of music. Every now and again we aim to illuminate these under-heralded artists with Beat Construction, an extension of our column in the magazine. For today we spoke to Zaytoven, the churchgoing Atlanta rap veteran who has shared marathon studio sessions with Gucci Mane for a decade. Most recently, his falling keys dropped over "Versace," this summer's chirping sleeper hit. Here, he talks about his devotion to low-profile artists and the difficulty of pushing his sound forward when everybody likes it just the way it is.

What was your upbringing like? I was a military brat. My dad was in the military so I was born in Germany. I moved around a lot, I was in church a lot. When you’re dad is a preacher and your mom is a choir director and you’re in church all the time, as a youngster you’ve got to find something to do. That’s where my musical background comes from. I started off playing the drums, but it was me and five other little boys in line to play the drums, so you’d get to play one song then you have to let him play. So I started moving to the piano cause there weren’t as many people interested in that. When my dad retired, he moved to Georgia, but I stayed in California. I was in San Francisco, that’s where I first went from being a musician to making beats and producing. I was 18, 19. It started going pretty good for me out there in California, so I stayed in SF while my parents moved to Georgia.

Who introduced you to producing? A guy by the name of JT the Bigga Figga, a Bay Area legend. He was the only guy who had a deal with Priority around the same time that Master P had his deal. He was known for finding and signing talent. I was doing the keyboard at a football game at the school I went to. We didn't really have a band so I’d set my keyboard up and a guy set up his drums. We might play the songs that were coming on the radio, just jamming, to give the people some music. So he saw me there, introduced himself. The next day I went to his house. I’d never been in the studio before then. JT showed me how to work the drum machine and everything, then he’d just leave me there to play. I just stayed there after that, went every day to make beats. I took a lot of time perfecting things on my own.

What eventually pushed you toward Atlanta? I couldn’t afford to stay in San Francisco. I started wanting to buy my own equipment and my own studio. I started buying studio equipment, but I didn’t have anywhere to put it in San Francisco. All I knew was that my parents moved to Atlanta, they got a basement, at least I could have my own studio there. Once you got a studio that’s gonna attract attention, everybody wanna rap and wanna do music. I started shipping the equipment to my momma’s house and put it in the basement. They wanted me to come back anyway.

How did California influence your sound, which some might call a distinctly Atlanta sound? At first I was nothing but West Coast. I was listening to Dr. Dre, DJ Quik. That’s the only sound I was listening back for back then. I came to Georgia late ‘99, early 2000. My first big song after I moved was “Icy.” If anybody listens to the music on that, it sounds like it comes from the West Coast. Very uptempo and exciting, moving fast. It wasn’t the typical South-sounding music. I tried to add a little South to it though, cause when you’re coming from the West Coast to the South and they hear your beats, they don’t wanna rap on it cause it don’t sound like what’s going on. But Gucci Mane was so in love with the sound that I had, since it was so different.

How’d you come to be Gucci’s right hand man in those days? In Atlanta I went to barber school. That’s how I met everyone I know in Atlanta, by cutting hair. It was funny. I’m like the new guy that came into town that got a little studio. Gucci started coming over. He wasn’t trying to be a rapper, he was just writing music for his little cousin. His cousin’s artist name was Lil Buddy and the name of the song I made with him was called “Lil Buddy.” Lil Buddy was supposed to be famous! I don’t know what happened to him. But after Gucci came over a couple times I started seeing his charisma, the way he was putting songs together. I was like, Man, you oughta be rapping. Once Gucci started rapping, after a while we gelled so good together that it turned into every morning at 7 he’d called me soon as he woke up: “I’m gonna come over, we gonna do some music.” He’s a workaholic. I think that’s what’s kept him successful. And I feed off his energy. If he can write 10 songs a day, I can make 10 beats a day and we can record them. We’re still just feeding off each other, going until we can’t go no more.