Metro Boomin opens up about creating hits, working with other artists, finding inspiration for his music and what he wants his legacy to be in his Billboard cover video.
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00:00 I feel like what's unique will forever,
00:02 for the end of time, be relevant.
00:04 You know, no matter what category
00:05 or what anything that's in.
00:07 ♪ Young Metro, I don't trust you ♪
00:08 ♪ I'm the best ♪
00:09 ♪ Bad and bougie, bad ♪
00:11 ♪ Cookin' up dope with a Uzi ♪
00:12 ♪ Congratulations ♪
00:14 ♪ Congratulations ♪
00:14 ♪ Work so hard for God ♪
00:18 I done loved music my whole life,
00:20 so, you know, growing up,
00:22 I always wanted to be a rapper at first.
00:24 In order to do that, I needed some beats,
00:25 so I started to make my own beats.
00:27 And at that time, I was 13.
00:29 Like, even seeing the success of Soulja Boy
00:31 and making his own beats, it was like, it's possible.
00:34 10th grade, I started to, you know,
00:37 get some traction with people online and out of town.
00:40 Started making trips to Atlanta,
00:41 like this, that, and the third.
00:43 Worked with OJ the Juice Man, Don Cannon,
00:45 and from there, Juice introduced me to Gucci.
00:48 I'm like in 12th grade, you know,
00:50 I linked with Future before.
00:52 So basically, to create a song or create anything,
00:57 I just need to be comfortable.
00:59 Ideas for songs and tracks and beats and everything,
01:01 they hit me at all type of times.
01:02 Mostly when I'm outside of the studio,
01:04 just living life, you know what I'm saying?
01:06 I feel like as creatives,
01:07 a lot of people put themselves so much
01:09 in what they're doing, like at their art,
01:11 that at the same time, we sometimes forget to live,
01:14 'cause that's what inspires what we do.
01:16 ♪ Round two ♪
01:17 ♪ My bitches bad and bougie ♪
01:18 ♪ Bad ♪
01:19 ♪ Cooking up though with a Uzi ♪
01:20 Me and Amigo's history, it's so crazy
01:23 that Bad and Bougie came to be one day
01:25 because our history goes way before that
01:27 and beyond that.
01:28 We used to always go to this club on Friday called Mansion.
01:31 You know, they had the bando song just came out,
01:33 started popping.
01:33 You know, we would go to Mansion every Friday, turn up,
01:36 go back to Sonny House studio, do songs, do whatever.
01:39 It's always been like a relationship with us.
01:42 Like we all went to LA for the first time
01:43 in our lives together.
01:44 All our first LA trip, you gotta think,
01:46 coming from Atlanta, St. Louis,
01:48 like going somewhere to LA, it's like out the country.
01:50 Me and Amigo's, we got to watch each other grow.
01:52 Me and Thug, we got to watch each other grow.
01:53 Like me and Trav, we got to watch each other grow.
01:57 [upbeat music]
01:59 One thing that's important to me is
02:04 always just as a producer,
02:05 making sure every artist that I'm working with
02:07 that the track, I look at it like directors
02:10 or someone with a movie in the scene.
02:11 Like you need to have certain backdrops
02:13 or better on other people.
02:15 And at the same time, knowing that consciously,
02:17 but also be willing to try other things and be like,
02:21 okay, I know people are used to you
02:22 with this kind of backdrop,
02:23 but what if we all the way switched it up and did this?
02:26 ♪ Jumpin', jumpin', jumpin' ♪
02:27 ♪ Them walls up ♪
02:29 I can't believe that "Jumpman"
02:31 was Future's first top 20 song.
02:33 Niggas was sleep.
02:34 Turn on the lights?
02:35 Never end?
02:37 When I saw Taylor Swift in the gym,
02:39 I think it was at a treadmill, I believe,
02:42 doing the "Jumpman" thing, the apple I had,
02:43 I was just like, you know, it was great, man.
02:47 It was a moment.
02:52 With me and Future, it's easy.
02:54 We got the chemistry.
02:55 I was 18 and just like ready, you know what I'm saying?
02:58 That's like teammates on a basketball team
03:00 and just over time.
03:01 Think if you've been on the same team with somebody
03:02 for 11 years, 12 years, we always down.
03:06 Just like I know every day he's in the studio,
03:08 he knows every day I'm doing the same thing.
03:11 You know what I'm saying?
03:12 We both know that.
03:13 So, you know, anytime we link up, it's just, it's easy.
03:16 When I'm making music,
03:20 how I approach it really depends
03:21 on what I'm working on specifically.
03:23 Whether that's the artist or the album,
03:26 especially in the new digital world,
03:27 I feel like a lot of the old analog ways are getting lost.
03:31 So I still like to write certain ideas.
03:33 I have a couple of books or just certain stuff
03:35 that I write down that I can always go to.
03:37 If it's like a beat or maybe a melody
03:39 or something I have in my head,
03:40 and I'm not even the best singer or anything,
03:42 but I'll like do it on a phone, like vocally type thing.
03:46 A lot of times if I'm working with songwriters,
03:49 we'll really usually, a lot of times,
03:51 just start with some ideas.
03:52 It might be just some basic, like some chords
03:54 or some melodies, or it might just be like
03:56 something like that, something more bare, vice versa.
03:59 Like a lot of times, sometimes with rappers
04:01 and people that more so have to rely on like the flows
04:05 and the pockets and the cadences they could catch,
04:08 sometimes I might do a bare drum track, like on the MPC,
04:12 and they just rap over that type of thing.
04:15 ♪ Tuesday club going up ♪
04:18 ♪ On a Tuesday ♪
04:19 All my boys, we used to see Makonnen on Worldstar.
04:22 I end up meeting him, linking with him or whatever.
04:25 And one day we was at my house,
04:26 'cause we used to record a lot of stuff
04:28 in my house back in the day.
04:29 So I had Makonnen over there one day,
04:30 and I just called Sonny, I called Southside,
04:33 and I called Tim.
04:34 Like, man, y'all gotta pull up, like this nigga's crazy.
04:36 He's voice, everything, it's crazy.
04:38 I always try to pride myself
04:43 in always being a producer first,
04:45 like a producer to serve the artists
04:48 and serve the people with the music.
04:49 'Cause everybody I work with, I'm a fan of first.
04:52 And working with Post is great.
04:59 Post is just a great guy, man.
05:00 You know, somebody else that, you know,
05:02 we crossed paths both early in our careers,
05:05 like way before even that.
05:06 I remember when I first met him,
05:07 when I was on tour with Travis and Thug,
05:09 the rodeo tour in Dallas.
05:11 I mean, even to do congratulations,
05:13 like it was just natural.
05:14 I feel like I make the best music
05:15 and mesh well with people that I actually like,
05:17 and we respect each other.
05:19 And, you know, it just makes it easier
05:21 to get to that common goal.
05:23 'Cause I don't be wanting niggas to be in the studio
05:25 and be worried about like,
05:27 oh man, Metro probably gonna try
05:28 and take this song off his album.
05:30 I'm more than confident in my ability
05:32 to make whatever I need for whatever I got going on.
05:35 So like for what we did, "Creeping,"
05:36 Savage knew and Abel knew.
05:38 ♪ I don't wanna know ♪
05:41 ♪ If you're playing me ♪
05:43 I love working with Abe because it's like,
05:45 we both respect each other so much as creatives
05:48 and each other's like minds and like,
05:50 but we also just both challenge each other at the same time.
05:54 And I feel like that's how you get some of the freshest shit.
05:58 Never being too like complacent
06:00 with what you got or what you're doing.
06:02 Like a lot of times we'll have a song
06:04 and it'll be real hard.
06:05 I might think it's real hard already
06:06 and he'll just try to come with something.
06:09 I don't know, just like, okay, this is still hard,
06:11 but like, what if we do this or do this
06:13 and like really like flip it upside down on his head
06:15 and like, you know?
06:16 My personal life is always gonna affect my music
06:22 and writing music and producing music.
06:25 'Cause I feel like we all go through stuff.
06:27 Since I started making beats or even producing songs,
06:30 like I've always went off how I was feeling too.
06:33 You know what I'm saying?
06:34 Some days I might be in this mood
06:35 to make this type of beats or not even in the mood,
06:37 but just like something might happen.
06:39 It's like, man, I'm just about to make some beats
06:41 out of this.
06:42 Like just out of, not out of this,
06:44 but just out of this feeling.
06:45 Like what I'm going through this right here,
06:48 just even more so like, so this is not for nothing.
06:50 One of the people that's given me the most direction
06:56 I feel like is Solange.
06:58 Working with her on "One Time" was just like,
07:01 it was great because I could always respect,
07:03 'cause I know what it takes
07:04 to respect an artist who knows what they want
07:06 and know the goal inside.
07:08 Sometimes you go to the studio with artists
07:09 and like, you know, everybody's wanting to hit people,
07:11 be like, oh, I want this.
07:12 I want a club banger.
07:13 Or like, you know what I'm saying?
07:15 But like to be able to articulate like your end goal
07:18 and where we're trying to make it to together.
07:20 So then, okay, we have something in sight to go towards.
07:23 When I know a song is done,
07:29 it's something more so that I could feel
07:31 versus that I could hear.
07:33 Being so in tune with the music,
07:34 being able to just feel like,
07:36 I want to play this all the time.
07:38 It sounds great right now.
07:39 It sounds great when I'm in the car,
07:40 in the gym, just getting me through.
07:42 Like, that's really how much, how I know.
07:44 What do I want Metro Boomin's legacy to be?
07:51 I want it to be just known and an undisputed fact
07:54 that I put a thousand percent of my effort in every time.
07:58 No matter the result, you know,
08:00 and you could hear and tell like,
08:01 yo, there's effort and thought into this.
08:03 I want anything, I want my legacy to be somebody
08:07 who inspired a lot of others.
08:08 You're young, you're watching this.
08:09 So even if you're not young, you're watching this,
08:11 I'll say stay down, run your own race.
08:13 Keep your morals intact.
08:15 Just stay down and be patient.
08:16 I promise that it's the patience.
08:18 (upbeat music)
08:21 (upbeat music)
08:24 (upbeat music)