How did you first get into music?

It's been in me since I was a toddler. My mom played the drums. My dad was rapping on and off. I used to see him rap and I would grab the mic. My uncle was a DJ, he used to do security with Das EFX. I was born in Long Island, New York. We were from the same neighborhood that Rakim and EPMD were from, Wyandanch. As I got older I was trying to rap and DJ. I was looping beats, the empty parts, and me and my homeboy would rap on them. Then my cousin threw me a Yamaha keyboard and I would just remake everything I heard on the radio. I learned how to structure music and layer sounds. Eventually somebody showed me Fruity Loops. That was '05. I've just been using it ever since.

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We moved to Virginia Beach when I was two, went back to New York for a bit, then came back [to Virginia]. I stayed there until I was 13, then moved to Fayetteville. I was skipping school and going to beat battles in Atlanta. I was like 15, 16. Everybody's like in their 20s and 30s, and I'd be the youngest one in there. I'd stick out like a sore thumb. I would always get to the last round but I would never win. So I was like, fuck this shit. I started emailing beats and people started using them. I'm like, "Well, if it's good enough for people to use, I guess it's good." I started with Soulja Boy ["Top Back"].

How did Soulja Boy get in touch with you?

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Through somebody that would send him beats. They were really trying to use me as a ghost producer. I was cool with it at first, just to get the placement. I would let him tag it and he would leave my tag on it too just to give me the buzz. After a while, I got in some trouble—I got locked up for two years. But before I got locked up, I sent him a gang of beats. He was sending them out to everybody—that's how I got the "Stop Calling Me" with Keef and the "Fuck Em" with Durk and [French] Montana, the Shy Glizzy song "Access." When I came back home, people were still dropping shit that he sent them of mine. Those beats had my tags in them so I was starting to claim credit for everything. That's when I ran into Keef's emails and started sending him shit.

How did you get from that stage to becoming one of Keef's go-to producers?



I first started fucking with him when he was living in Highland Park [Illinois, in 2014]. When Bang 3 was supposed to originally come out, when he was deep into his Interscope deal. I was just sending him shit. He put up 5 or 6 [email addresses]. I would CC all of them motherfuckers on one email; him, managers, everybody. I was emailing, emailing, emailing. Then he started using everything. That's when I got directly connected to him.

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At that time I had my daughter and her mother had moved in with me. I was real tied up during the daytime, cooking, cleaning and chasing the baby. Just trying to juggle. When he would send something, I'd be like, this is my opportunity. So I'd be like, "Watch her real quick," and I'd be making the beats and sending beats off. I got to the point where I had to make a schedule. At the end of the night, around 12 a.m. to 6 a.m., that's when I was free. When everyone was asleep, I'd be up cooking beats. Cali's three hours behind us, so that was perfect, because Keef would just be getting to the studio around that time.

Why did you decide to move out to L.A.? What was it like leaving your family behind?



I got out [of jail] February 10th of 2014. I went in at age 18, came out at 20. [Keef’s song] "Tec" came out around July. It got to a point where I was tired of emailing him. I'm about to turn 21 in January. I need to just go somewhere different and jump out there and see what I can get. It's time to meet everybody face to face and take it to the next level. So I flew there and I'm like, "I'm here." I stayed [with Keef] for a whole four months.

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For me to go from being locked up in a room—at that point I hadn't even been out [of jail] as long as I'd been in. I was on max—I had [been accused of] attempted murder—in the back with everybody with murder charges. So we in the room 22 hours out the day. I was facing 10-23 years. Everybody didn't think I was getting out. Luckily, they didn't have no evidence. It was word of mouth. I got the plea that I wanted. I had to pay some money. But it all worked out.

Some niggas go in there a month and start crying. Some niggas go in there a year and start crying. I couldn't cry in that bitch. I'm in there with killers! There was niggas from the other side of town. Niggas that I done got into it with. Luckily people respected me for always speaking up for myself. If anything happens—ain't no guns in jail. But I ain't never fold, ever, for nobody or nothing. If motherfuckers try me, I be in that bitch fighting. Niggas respect me for that. So my time went by real smooth.

I started appreciating the small things in life, like being able to eat with a fork and a spoon. I couldn't see trees. I didn't see cars. I ain't never been in no planes or anything like that and then I'm flying to Cali. I'm really humble and appreciative for everything. That's why I have so much love for Keef. No matter what we go through, for one, me and him are going to always have that chemistry. And two, he ain't have to open up those emails and use my beats. Even though it was beneficial to him since all the other shit he was getting was fu. But he needed a new sound. He needed me but I needed him too. It was a mutually beneficial situation.

I don't be sitting still. If I'm sitting still my face in the computer. My eyes and my ears hurt. I need to get my ears checked, my ears be randomly hurting and ringing. I be going, going, going, going. My mom be like, "Damn, you ain't sat down and actually thought about everything that's happened to you? I thought you weren't ever coming back. And now you're doing all this."

I've gotten shitted over a couple times, fucked out of money, paperwork. That's what I'm learning now, how to deal with shit. [This business] is slimy and I've got to learn how to deal with that. I can't go throw molotov cocktails and shoot up motherfucking A&Rs just because they ain't do me right on an album. I've got to learn how to maneuver having a bad attitude about shit.

