Innovative music producer Michael Williams created hits for Beyoncé, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus. Now he’s getting ready to release his first new album in seven years and is building on his success with a real estate portfolio in his native Atlanta. Over the last two years, Mike Will Made-It estimates he’s made $40 million from his music production catalog and publishing fees. “I’m great,” Mike Will Made-It says when asked of his financial status. “I’m in a position I never imagined.”
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Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Art is all about layers, you know what I'm saying?
00:04No matter if you're looking at a car, a painting, a piece of beats, a song, an album, you know
00:08what I'm saying?
00:09It's all about the layers that go into it.
00:10So sometimes I like to step away and throw in different things at the wall, like my studio,
00:16just different ideas.
00:17Nothing is really set in stone.
00:18I like to just stay creative.
00:19I feel like that just keeps that side of my brain, that part of my brain going.
00:28He's not just a producer.
00:29He's a super producer.
00:30We are sitting in the studio of Michael Williams.
00:33You know him as Mike Will Made It, one of the top producers of our generation.
00:37Thank you for the time, sir.
00:38I appreciate it.
00:39I appreciate you, man.
00:40Beautiful place you have here, man.
00:41I appreciate the tour.
00:42You're cooking me pizza, man.
00:43No, for sure.
00:44For sure.
00:45It's been a great journey, man.
00:46Look around and take it all in, Mike.
00:49I mean, does it feel like you're here?
00:51I'm looking at the art.
00:52I see the plaques behind me, man, the records and all of the success.
00:58Have you taken it in?
00:59Have you sat down and this place is just ...
01:00I really look at this like my new basement.
01:06I came up out of my mom's basement.
01:08I didn't have a studio I was going to or ... Nine to Five has never really worked out with
01:15me.
01:16You know what I'm saying?
01:17It was just like ... It was like all this is just the grind.
01:22I remember every moment.
01:25I know who shot all these pictures.
01:27I know who did all this art.
01:28All these are my friends.
01:29All the art in here is my friends.
01:32They painted this.
01:33They took the photography.
01:34You know what I'm saying?
01:35There's somebody that I have a real ... It's like a real close friend that I work with
01:40or whatever it is.
01:41It's all friends.
01:42It keeps me inspired.
01:43You know what I'm saying?
01:44When people walk in and they come to the studio, I want them to be inspired as well.
01:52This is the home base.
01:54This is the corporation.
01:55You know what I'm saying?
01:57Everybody has started so many amazing things within us working and us grinding over the
02:03years.
02:04At first, when I came, I had so many different ideas that I wanted to do in here.
02:08I was like, okay, whatever idea I do in here, it needs to be able to be wiped away in 24
02:12hours if I want it to be.
02:15You know what I'm saying?
02:16All the events that's in here, they all look different.
02:19They're out of here in 24 hours.
02:22For me, being a businessman and connecting with different people in the industry or whatnot,
02:27I became the supplier.
02:28You know what I'm saying?
02:29Rob Markman Well, I'm going to get into that in a minute
02:30because I want to definitely get into you breaking down your love and affinity for the
02:34supply chain.
02:35I've heard you say that a few times on how you look at business, but before we get too
02:38deep into that, man, you are the CEO of Air Drummers, right?
02:41That includes Air Drummer Records as well as Air Drummer Entertainment, where you house
02:45your producers.
02:46What's it like to be CEO?
02:48Rob Markman Hard work, you know what I'm saying?
02:51You got to learn.
02:52You got to keep constantly sharpening yourself, you know what I'm saying?
02:57You the guy that people are going to come to when they don't understand something.
03:04You the guy who they're going to come to, or you the guy that they're waiting on to
03:09come to them to make sure that they understand something, you know what I'm saying?
03:14You the guy that you have to understand everybody.
03:17You have to understand every energy.
03:20You got to understand.
03:21You almost got to be like Phil Jackson.
03:24See, I started transitioning myself.
03:26I started thinking I was like Phil Jackson, but then I had to realize-
03:30Rob Markman Which Phil Jackson?
03:31The Bulls or the Lakers?
03:32Rob Markman I had to realize I'm more Kobe.
03:33Rob Markman You know what I'm saying?
03:34Rob Markman So not Phil Kobe.
03:35You're a player.
03:36Rob Markman Yeah, I'm not.
03:37I'm still a player.
03:38You know what I'm saying?
03:39Because I'm so young.
03:40I just turned 35.
03:41You know what I'm saying?
03:42I'm still young.
03:43You know what I'm saying?
03:44I still look at me like I got a jersey on.
03:45So as a CEO, you got to be a coach, but then as a creative CEO, you got to be a coach and
03:51you got to be able to be on the team and be able to, you know what I'm saying, put up
03:54the points and be able to lead by example.
03:57I don't know all the guys that played on the Lakers, but I'm pretty sure Kobe's team really
04:02looked at the hard work that Kobe put in and that really drives them to be like, okay.
04:08And Kobe locked in on his team like, yo, we're about to win this championship.
04:13And I'm pretty sure that's what drove his team.
04:16So it's the same thing with my guys and my production team.
04:20My record label was like, I'm all the way, I'm right here with them.
04:23I'm right here getting sweaty with them and then showing them like, okay, be different.
04:27You know what I'm saying?
04:28No, change this.
04:29No, change that.
04:30No, switch this.
04:31No, add that.
04:33And I really go off the energy in the room like, if I'm working on an album and there's
04:37ten songs, if I don't have nine, if it's ten songs and I have 20 people listening to
04:43it, or if I have, let's just say I have ten people listening to it, right?
04:48I have ten songs.
04:50If all ten people are in there like, man, yo, this needs to drop today, like drop this
04:56today.
04:57I don't feel like it's ready.
04:59So it's a voting system that you kind of use to make sure.
05:01I got to use a voting system.
05:03I play by the numbers, you know what I'm saying?
05:05And everybody around me, I know they're going to give me their honest opinion.
05:08I know they're creative and they're all right.
05:11And I know, you know what I'm saying, I respect everybody's opinion.
05:14And nobody's opinion is right, but it's just their opinion.
05:17So if I'm targeting to putting out music and five to six people in the room are liking
05:25it and we're arguing with the other four to five that don't, man, look, we failed already.
05:31We're shooting at 60%, 50%.
05:34As a CEO, do you step in or do you just let that argument take place and just listen?
05:39No, no, no, because as a CEO, I'll go to certain artists that I might work with or certain
05:46people that I might work with and be like, hey, yo, man, I don't think it's ready.
05:51And then sometimes as a creative, you don't want to hear that.
05:55So I don't want to be like I'm being hard on them, like I'm just making a shot and just
05:59like shooting it down.
06:01Sometimes I want to look at it like, all right, boom, we're going to get everybody in the
06:07room, zero if you hate it, five if it's cool, but you won't play it again, but it can play
06:18in the background, 10, you're going to show it to your best friend, your sister, your
06:22brother and let's write it down.
06:25We can grade it like that or we can just read the room and see how many people are like
06:30this.
06:31The whole room should be like this.
06:32If it's eight out of 10, we're shooting at 80 percent.
06:36So when they come out, we might hit it at 60, you know what I'm saying?
06:39If we're shooting 10 for 10, we might go 10 for 10, but we might go nine for 10.
06:43Of course we're going to go eight for 10, but we know we got it better.
06:47I keep referencing the Black Beatles and that's how it was.
06:51I hear a lot of people say like, man, you don't know what hit record, you just got to
06:55put it out there.
06:56Now you know it hit record.
06:57How do you know?
06:58You know it hit record.
07:00You know what I'm saying?
07:01Everybody's in there.
07:02Yeah.
07:03You're playing for 10 people and 10 people are nodding their head.
07:06You go to the next room, you're playing for 10 people and nine people are nodding their
07:09head.
07:10You know what I'm saying?
07:11There's probability.
07:12There's majority.
07:13You know what I'm saying?
07:14Majority wins.
07:15This is how the music is going to come out and the people are going to react to it.
07:18You know what I'm saying?
07:19There's a billion people in the world.
07:22Everybody in the world don't like every song, but at the end of the day, if this song comes
07:27out and when 10 people hear it, 9 out of 10 or 8 out of 10 of the people that's listening
07:33to it are vibing to it or everybody comes back.
07:37A hit record talks to you.
07:39People come back and tell you like, man, that song right there made me feel like, I remember
07:43when I heard this for the first time.
07:45I remember where I was at when I heard this.
07:47Oh man, thank you for making this.
07:49Or like, yo, dah, dah, dah.
07:50And it don't got to be the biggest record all the time.
07:53A hit record to me isn't a number one.
07:56A hit record is just when you hit the target.
07:58Yeah.
07:59How do you lead?
08:00Like, I was talking to some of your friends before me and you sat down and they said they
08:03refer to you as their fearless leader, right?
08:06And I know you look at Kobe and he was himself a fearless leader.
08:09Do you do anything to lead differently or do you just allow, you know, all your history
08:15and your, like, how do you lead?
08:18You got to lead by example.
08:19Lead by example.
08:20You know what I'm saying?
08:21And then you got to lead, as a leader, you have to continue to sharpen yourself up as
08:26a leader.
08:27You know what I'm saying?
08:28Because there's a lot of things that I saw, like, I didn't understand the product supply
08:32chain when I was young.
08:33You know what I'm saying?
08:34I didn't understand that one of my mentors, Latron, he taught me the product supply chain.
08:39And then he started breaking down the full industry business.
08:43And then I started looking at other businesses and then I started removing it and I started
08:47looking at how the music business goes and how that applies to our empire, our corporation.
08:55And then I started sharpening myself up, okay, more and more.
08:58It's still more that I got to learn.
08:59It's a lot that I got to learn.
09:00Jimmy Iovine tells me all the time, like, man, yo, Mike, man, you're only such and such
09:06an age.
09:07Every time we talk, you're only, how old are you now?
09:10You're only da-da-da.
09:11He was like, man, I started my record label when I was 40.
09:13You know what I'm saying?
09:15I was a producer, I was an engineer, you know what I'm saying?
09:19All the way up until 40, that's when I went music executive.
09:22You're only da-da-da age.
09:23And he always told me, like, when I first did my record, my joint venture with him,
09:29treat these next five years, six years like college.
09:33Learn as much as you can learn, put out as much music as you can put out.
09:38One of your artists might blow up and take over the world, you know what I'm saying?
09:42There might be certain artists that might not blow up, but you learned a lot from them.
09:46And y'all made a lot of great music and had a lot of great times with each other.
09:49And you know what I'm saying?
09:50And just have fun with it.
09:51And you're going to learn different things being creative.
09:55But at the same time, he was like, man, you know how to make a hit record.
10:00Now you got to know how to get rich, you know what I'm saying?
10:03You got to understand the business.
10:04You got to understand, like, being focused on the business is being focused on the business.
10:09That's not letting any bullshit get in the way of the business, you know what I'm saying?
10:13Because business and bullshit don't mix, like water and oil.
10:17So you're either standing on business or you're standing on bullshit, you know what I'm saying?
10:21Well, you stand on business all this time, right?
10:23And I would assume you are rich, Mike, right?
10:25I would think that, right?
10:26I'm working, man.
10:27I'm just working.
10:28Yeah.
10:29How?
10:30When you look and, you know-
10:32Jimmy Iovine told me that.
10:33No, Jimmy Iovine told me that when I was not rich.
10:36He told me that when I had no money, you know what I'm saying?
10:39Working on getting rich.
10:40I was just working on getting rich.
10:41But he saw something in me, he saw something in the crew that I had, he saw something in
10:47the way that the music was impacting, and he just wanted to, like, grow a business.
10:52So he was just breaking it down to me, like, man, you have to understand, like, how to
10:57get money.
10:58You can't get caught up in just straight, like, creative, cooking up, and then trying
11:02to go out here and buy this, and flex for this, and party, and, you know what I'm saying?
11:07Get hooked on something, or just get distracted, because you're not centered on your business.
11:12Or you can't let another person be your problem, or anything like that, because you're not
11:16centered on business.
11:17So it's just how to differentiate the two, and how to break up the two.
11:21Yeah.
11:22What's in your business now?
11:23I mean, I'm looking, right?
11:24Obviously, listen, for people who don't know, you produce hits, top hits, you know, Rihanna,
11:28Future, Beyonce, Ray Strimmer.
11:30The list goes on and on and on, Mike.
11:32They can look at your credit, and your discography, and see.
11:35But what's business look like for you in 2024?
11:38You got the real estate, right?
11:39We're sitting in it.
11:40But what's business look like?
11:41I mean, what's in the portfolio?
11:42What are you sitting on?
11:43I feel like I'm, like, a Mark Cuban, you know what I'm saying, in my own way.
11:48Why Mark Cuban?
11:50Because he's a great investor, you know what I'm saying?
11:53He knows how to, like, invest in certain businesses early, you know what I'm saying?
12:00And then, like, me, I see that in creatives.
12:04So I, you know what I'm saying, I invest in their creativity early.
12:08So my brother, B. Wright, he has one of the biggest marketing agencies right now.
12:13B. Wright with Six Degrees.
12:17And Six Degrees is like, B. Wright is somebody who always worked within our team.
12:22Like I said, came with a lot of the logos, came with a lot of artworks, and different
12:25things like that.
12:27And then now, boom.
12:28He started off making, doing events over here.
12:31He still does events over here, but now he's doing seven, eight activations a week, you
12:37know what I'm saying, around the country with his marketing company.
12:41And they build the stage designs and everything next door.
12:46I'm doing that.
12:47I want to start doing food, like, restaurant business.
12:53Pizza.
12:54Not just pizza, you know, but, you know, restaurant business.
13:00I really have this stuff written down.
13:02I was going to say, do you still use your voice note?
13:05I got this stuff written down, man.
13:07Hold on one second, man.
13:09Yeah, I sit down and I take notes, and then I share notes.
13:13Because I have a whole committee.
13:17I have a whole, like, board, you know what I'm saying?
13:21It's not just me, because the Mastermind is a collective of minds.
13:25You got to have a point of view, but then you have other strong individuals with good
13:31point of views and good wisdom about it.
13:35Like, you know.
13:38Well, what's in your notes?
13:39I was going to say, what's in your notes?
13:40Yeah.
13:41All right.
13:42Hold on, let me show you.
13:43A couple of things I'm working on is, like, a financial literacy program.
13:48You know, just breaking down econ, all that different kind of stuff to individuals, like,
13:56where layman's terms, where they can, like, understand it and, like, understand an expansion.
14:04Because a lot of people, when they don't come from, like, having a business or running a
14:09business or anything like that, they end up getting a lot of money, and then they don't
14:14know what to do at that point.
14:15So they start arguing with, you know what I'm saying, all their peers and individuals,
14:19because they don't know what to do next, they don't understand an expansion.
14:23And that's a growing pain in itself.
14:25So when you grow, I want to be able to, like, give, like, a financial literacy for people
14:33who are, like, hey, y'all cats coming from where I'm coming from on, like, what to do next.
14:38Like, you know what I'm saying?
14:39Continue to be rich.
14:40Yeah.
14:41Like, don't only just be a consumer.
14:45You know what I'm saying?
14:46Don't only just buy stuff.
14:47Like, you know what I'm saying?
14:48You can be a consumer, you can buy stuff, but if you're a corporation and you build
14:53yourself up and, you know what I'm saying, or you're a small business or you're an entrepreneur,
14:57on whatever level you're on, like, keep focusing on what's next, you know?
15:03And I'm assuming this is all a list of business ventures you want to create.
15:06Yeah, it's like, I got a whole bunch of stuff.
15:08Wow.
15:09Yeah.
15:10Wow.
15:11How you spent your first million dollars?
15:15My first million?
15:16I don't know how I spent my first check.
15:18How'd you spend your first check?
15:19For sure.
15:20I bought a house.
15:21You bought a house?
15:22In Georgia?
15:23Yeah.
15:24Okay.
15:25Bought it cash.
15:26How much was it?
15:27It was, like, I got it off the courthouse steps for, like, $600,000, but it was, like,
15:31it was-
15:32Cat.
15:33Wirecrack cat.
15:34Yeah.
15:35And the real estate was, like, it was kind of low then, so I just bought it.
15:37I had got a deal, and then I had bought the house cash, and then I'm, like, man, boom.
15:42I'm going to move my mom out the crib.
15:45At this point, I'm just working on my mom's crib.
15:48And I'm, like, man, I'm going to move my mom out the crib.
15:51I'm going to stay over here, and then I'm going to just keep riding it.
15:55Other than that, we got this big house.
15:57If I ever go broke, I worked at Kroger.
16:01That's how I started off working at Kroger.
16:03I worked at BrandsMart.
16:05I worked at K&G.
16:07That's where I started off, Humble Beginnings.
16:09It wasn't just, you know what I'm saying, Mike Will with the real estate and all that kind of stuff.
16:14I used to run out of gas, you know what I'm saying, going from the studio home.
16:18You know what I'm saying?
16:19I used to, like, the Wendy's, you know what I'm saying, spend $5, and that's getting me through my days.
16:26You know what I'm saying?
16:27You're taking me back, man, now, because I used to be the double cheeseburger from McDonald's when I was coming to high school, right?
16:31Man, for real.
16:32Well, take me there, man.
16:33Listen, in reading up on you, man, let's talk a little bit about your background, right?
16:37You obviously grew up in Atlanta area.
16:39And one of the fascinating things that I love about your career, it feels like everything started off and was organic.
16:45And you start off at the Mars Music Store, right?
16:47You walk in that store just looking for something, and somebody's just teaching you how to make a beat.
16:52And then you leave that store understanding what your destiny is in making a beat.
16:56Take me back to that, Mike Will.
16:57Where you at at that age?
16:59You go home.
17:00You tell your parents what you want to do.
17:01And then you get the reaction.
17:02Where you at in that phase?
17:04Man, at that time, I was playing basketball.
17:07But I was already, like, messing around, like, making beats on the lunch table or playing music on the keyboard.
17:14You remember your first beat you made on the lunch table?
17:16Was it, I want to rock, I want to rock?
17:18No, no, no, no.
17:19It was probably Grindr or something like that or some No Limit, Master P-type beats.
17:26But, yeah, I used to do that for my homeboys that rapped.
17:29And they used to always tell me, like, I should make beats.
17:31And then I'd mess around and learn how to start using the equipment.
17:35And then I started just making beats.
17:37And then me and my homeboys, we formed a rap group.
17:40And I was the producer of the group.
17:42And I was also in a group with another one of my homeboys.
17:46And, like, he took off kind of first.
17:50He caught the buzz first.
17:51And then my homeboys that were rapping, they quit rapping.
17:56And so, like, then I was kind of, like, out here by myself, independent.
17:59And then that's when I ran into Gucci.
18:02Ran into Gucci, started working with Gucci.
18:05And then I just started making my way around Atlanta and just working with 2 Chainz, Future, just everybody.
18:11And then I was meeting different producers along the way.
18:15A Plus was already with me from high school.
18:17And then P Nasty, Mars, J Bro, they came.
18:21And then we just, I really sat down with them.
18:23And I was like, bro, we got to just, man, we got to build a brand.
18:26Like, we got to build, like, something like McDonald's.
18:28Like, when people walk in and they're blindfolded, like, you know what McDonald's breakfast smell like.
18:34Like, you know what McDonald's hamburgers taste like.
18:37I'm like, man, we got to build something like McDonald's.
18:39Like, we got to do something like this.
18:41All these different producers, I had different producers that they were working with.
18:45And I always respected that, like, how they built their production company.
18:49Shawty Red, like, how they built their production company.
18:52Had a sound and had people, like, gravitate to that sound.
18:56And they could do, I always respected, like, the range of the production.
19:03So I wanted to be one of those producers that could have, like, a wide range.
19:07So, like, the producers that I ended up adding, like, okay, he's dope with this.
19:12Okay, he's dope with that.
19:13Okay, he's dope with this.
19:14Okay, you need to sharpen up this, but you dope with that.
19:17You know what I'm saying?
19:18All right.
19:19Now, boom.
19:20Well, when, like, when you hear certain tracks and you hear certain vibes, it starts feeling like McDonald's.
19:26You know what I'm saying?
19:27You can taste it.
19:28You can smell it.
19:29And you already know what it is, blindfolded.
19:31Yeah.
19:32I want to read you this quote, man.
19:33You had said this back in 2011, December 2011.
19:36And you were talking to a local newspaper and you said,
19:38as big and as broad as it sounds, I'm about to change the game.
19:43I'm building a company.
19:44You feel me?
19:45This was all a dream back in 2007.
19:48You said that back in 2011, right?
19:50The dream in 2007.
19:52As we sit here in 2024, right?
19:54Yeah.
19:55Dream came true?
19:57Dream's coming true.
19:58It's coming true.
19:59So it's not done yet.
20:00Nah, we're just getting started.
20:01Wow.
20:02We're honestly, like, just getting started.
20:04Like, honestly.
20:05Well, what's next?
20:06I mean, I know you got the album, right?
20:08That you're trying to come up with.
20:09What's next?
20:10No, the album, the music is like, I told you, that's like making pizza.
20:14That's like playing a video game.
20:15That's like my creativity.
20:17Like, that's like, and I understand that now.
20:19At first, that was just everything to me.
20:21You know?
20:22But, like, now I feel like what's next is expansion.
20:25It's starting new businesses, teaming up with corporations.
20:29If I'm going to have a production company, like, I don't mean to downplay the music.
20:34But if I'm going to have a production company, I want to run this like a real corporation.
20:39We got three buildings.
20:40We have more than enough room to set up.
20:43We have a real infrastructure set up.
20:45Real history.
20:46We have real knowledge.
20:47We have real experience in doing this now.
20:51And I want to build, like, a real empire.
20:53And I want to build this as big as it could possibly go.
20:57Like, you know what I'm saying?
20:58Like, just the product supply chain just made everything simple.
21:01Why would you say that, man?
21:02Because the supply chain, I mean, you heard you say that a lot doing a lot of interviews, right?
21:06And you kind of say raw materials, the suppliers, manufacturers, retail, consumers.
21:11You consider yourself in that process.
21:13You consider yourself the raw materials supplier.
21:17No, no, no.
21:18That's what it is.
21:19That's what it is.
21:20Because at the end of the day, there's no business in the world that don't go off of that.
21:23Right.
21:24There's not even a dollar made without that.
21:26You know what I'm saying?
21:28So that's what made it all the way simple for me.
21:31It just all depends on what industry you're in and how it goes.
21:35You know what I'm saying?
21:36If we're talking about, like I said, if we're talking about, like, big drink companies, you know what I'm saying, that start,
21:42or big major corporations that we looked at when we were growing up and that we see all around here, they're getting rich from the earth.
21:49Yeah.
21:50That's the raw material.
21:52You know what I'm saying?
21:53That's where it starts at.
21:54And then they're able to extract that and they're able to supply that and manufacture a product and distribute it.
22:00If we're talking about music, it starts with the beat.
22:03You know?
22:04It starts with, you know, the songwriter having a concept.
22:07And then who's going to bring that to the studio and put it all together and make it a song?
22:11Yeah.
22:12That's very important for people to look at it like that.
22:14Remove themselves from being that artist and understand that, man, you're a corporation.
22:20This is how corporations are ran.
22:22You're not just going to drink a Coca-Cola out of a paper cup sitting in the cooler at the QT.
22:29You're going to be like, man, that's not no Coca-Cola.
22:32You're going to be looking for a shape bottle.
22:34You're going to be looking for the red.
22:35You're going to be looking for the cursive.
22:36You're going to be looking for classic.
22:38You're going to be looking for all of that.
22:39That's what make it a cult.
22:40Yeah.
22:41So an artist has to see it the same way.
22:43A lot of times artists don't understand that Breckenridge was just a distribution company.
22:48You're supposed to bring them a product and they're going to distribute it and take it to retail.
22:52You've got to let them know where you want to set at, where you want it sitting at, the marketing behind this, and how it's going to sell.
23:01You've got to look at when it goes to retail.
23:04You've got to look at that's your song going into a grocery store.
23:06Yeah.
23:07Well, Mike, listen, that's key advice there, right?
23:10But if you had to tell an artist that did not know about the business side, and you've probably seen a lot that people don't get a chance to see only because of your success, right?
23:18What would you tell them?
23:19What's one of the biggest misnomers about being in the music business?
23:23Not understanding the business.
23:25Right now I'm trying to break down the business right now.
23:27In layman's terms, everybody goes to the grocery store.
23:31You know what I'm saying?
23:32Everybody goes to the grocery store.
23:35At the end of the day, boom.
23:37What makes you grab this barbecue sauce versus that barbecue sauce?
23:41That's the same thing as what makes you want to listen to this artist versus that artist, or listen to this song versus that song, or whatever.
23:49When you're walking around a grocery store, you don't ever just pick up anything random.
23:53People do the same thing when they shop for music.
23:56Once you understand the business that you're entering, that's the most important part.
24:01What's the business that I'm entering?
24:02I'm entering this business.
24:03I'm entering that business.
24:04Okay, boom.
24:05This is my deal.
24:06A lot of times, the artists sign stuff.
24:07They don't even know what they signed.
24:09You know what I'm saying?
24:10They don't even know how to fulfill it.
24:12I understand the process that it takes.
24:14I understand the overall picture is we're trying to get a product on the shelf.
24:18You know what I'm saying?
24:19I have to look at it like that.
24:21I can't just keep tweaking and keep, you know what I'm saying?
24:26I can't keep doing that.
24:27I got to make this a complete product.
24:29I got to give it to you because you're the distributor.
24:32You know what I'm saying?
24:33Boom, you got to take it to whatever shelf we're trying to put it on, whether it's a grocery store, Spotify, or Macy's, or whatever, Mercedes-Benz, you know, wherever.
24:48One word, Mike.
24:49One word.
24:50I want to rattle off some names, and I want you to just tell me in one word what comes to mind with these people.
24:55I'm getting a few more minutes left.
24:56And these are some of the people that you've either worked with and respect.
24:59And I'm going to start with Gucci, man.
25:00One word.
25:02Fearless.
25:03Fearless.
25:04Miley Cyrus.
25:07Fearless.
25:08Fearless.
25:09You can't use the same word, though.
25:10That's the rule, though.
25:11I just made it up just now.
25:12OK, well, a common denominator is always going to be fearless.
25:15Right.
25:16All right.
25:17So we're going to eliminate that word.
25:18They're all fearless, right?
25:19But Gucci's fearless.
25:20What's Miley Cyrus?
25:22I don't want to say believing.
25:24I feel like there's a better word for believing.
25:27Visionary?
25:28She's definitely a visionary.
25:30But, like, Miley, she's real, too, though.
25:33She's, like, real.
25:35Well, that's the word.
25:36She's real.
25:37Yeah, she's real, but that's a little too, like, ah.
25:41Like, all these people that you're naming right now, it's like, I'm humble on how they believe in me as a producer,
25:49the position that they put me in in their careers, at the times that they put me in, and how they believed in me being there.
25:55Like, you know what I'm saying?
25:56Yeah.
25:57So Miley, she made me executive producer.
26:00She was the first artist to make me executive producer on the album, and that was a major pop album.
26:04And she stood on that.
26:06Like, man, make him executive producer.
26:08And let us come in and produce a majority of her album.
26:12And try different new, like, she didn't want to rap, but she tried it.
26:1823 came out.
26:19It was amazing.
26:20Yeah.
26:21So, like, she believed.
26:22Right.
26:23Believer, risk-taker.
26:24Risk-taker, yeah.
26:25That's what I said.
26:26Fearless.
26:27Yeah.
26:28O.J. the Juice Man.
26:29Juice Man.
26:31Turnt.
26:32Turnt.
26:33That's my favorite guy.
26:34I love O.J., man.
26:35Rihanna.
26:36Rihanna.
26:37Rihanna bold as fuck.
26:39Rihanna is, like, she cool as fuck.
26:42I give Rihanna cool.
26:43Cool.
26:44Bold and cool.
26:45Cool.
26:46Future.
26:48Damn.
26:49V2.
26:50Cool.
26:51We leave it there.
26:52We only got one word.
26:53Cool.
26:54Quincy Jones.
26:55Inspiring.
26:56Inspiring.
26:57Only reason I say Quincy Jones, and I want to know the biggest thing you learned from
27:01Quincy, because one of the things I learned from him in his Netflix documentary, and you
27:05probably as a believer, he believes when you write at night, the muses come out.
27:09Right?
27:10And he always believed that.
27:11So, when you think of Quincy Jones, what's the biggest thing that you've learned from
27:14Quincy Jones in just studying him over all these years?
27:16Man, it's crazy, because this new album I'm working on right now, it has nine songs, and
27:22that's because of Michael Jackson's Thriller.
27:24Right.
27:25Something that you can listen to from start to finish.
27:26Start to finish.
27:27Yeah.
27:28And it's bangers, but it don't, when you listen to it from start to finish, you don't even
27:31realize, like, oh, this is only nine songs.
27:33This feels short.
27:34It feels complete.
27:35It feels like a complete thought, and it doesn't feel dragged down.
27:39It feels like, I want to play it over, but it feels like a complete thought, and you're
27:43still catching up to this song, like, every time you hear it, every time you hear, like,
27:49these different songs, and every time, like, even when I go listen to Thriller now, it's
27:53like, I look at Michael Jackson like a Sway Lee, or like a future, you know what I'm saying?
27:59Like, of his generation, like, and just the way he was saying it.
28:03Yeah.
28:04Like, he was just too, he was swag, though.
28:06He was too cool, too, like, and I just feel like Quincy Jones, like, he helped bring that
28:13bring that side out of Michael, and bring that side out of the artists that he worked
28:16with, because he wasn't scared to go in there and be like, yo, we need to add more, or we're
28:21done, or, like, you know what I'm saying?
28:23Or, we need to put this with this.
28:25We need to make the best collaboration.
28:27Like, one thing, one thing, like, I like about Quincy and that, like, I know about myself
28:34is, like, like, I could just see something in somebody, even if they don't see it, before
28:39they even see it, and then I could just put that battery in their back, and then I could
28:44just get with some shoes to walk in, and then, boom, they're going to keep walking into these
28:49until they fill these shoes up, the battery going to stay charged, and I feel like that's
28:55what it means as far as, like, me being a leader, like, Quincy Jones is, like, inspiring.
29:00Yeah.
29:01Yeah, for sure.
29:02Three more things, man, I get you out of here, because you're a CEO, Mike.
29:04You're busy, you got beats to make, you got pizza, right, to make, more pizza to make,
29:07man.
29:08Yeah.
29:09You got business ventures.
29:10Yeah, man.
29:11When you look at the state of the music business in 2024, hip-hop, beefs, and everything that's
29:15included, what do you see?
29:16Because at age 35, man, one might consider you an elder statesman in a way.
29:19What do you see when you look at the music business in 2024, specifically hip-hop?
29:23I'm focused.
29:24Focused.
29:25Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
29:26I understand a lot of what's going on.
29:28I try to lock in on the business, and then when you back to the product supply chain,
29:35it's like nowhere on that product supply chain does it say anything about the competitor,
29:40or does it say anything about the next artist, or the next anything.
29:45You know what I'm saying?
29:47That's not how you get your product done.
29:49That's not how you get money.
29:50Focused.
29:51So when it comes to negativity or low vibration, I try to stay out of people's business, or
29:58what they got going on, or like, you know what I'm saying?
30:01I don't never get caught up in that.
30:03I connect with who I connect with.
30:05You know what I'm saying?
30:06I might not even know these two people beefing.
30:08You know what I'm saying?
30:09We might have connected on two different accords.
30:10I didn't even connect with him because he was beefing with him.
30:12We connected on two different times.
30:14So it's like, I have my own relationship with these two people, and kind of find out they're beefing.
30:19I didn't even know they were beefing.
30:21You know what I'm saying?
30:22And sometimes I try to, if it's certain guys, I try to talk to them.
30:26You know what I'm saying?
30:27Because sometimes I already understand that, like I said earlier, it's about expansion.
30:31So sometimes we just get so much money, we don't know what to do next.
30:34Yeah.
30:35Yeah, man.
30:36That's really how I look at it.
30:37I love where hip-hop's at, man, because, like, man, it's able to be heard worldwide.
30:43You know what I'm saying?
30:45I feel like it's so many different platforms.
30:48I feel like people are ready to receive it, and I feel like they love our music.
30:53You know what I'm saying?
30:54They love our peers' music.
30:55You know what I'm saying?
30:57Even a lot of the producers that I came up with, when I was building Eardrummers,
31:02you know what I'm saying, I was trying to sign them at one point.
31:06And not trying to sign them trying to look boring, or trying to sound bigger than them,
31:11or anything like that.
31:12I just had a vision.
31:13I knew that where we at today, and where music is today, I knew this was going to happen.
31:18So I believed in them, just like they believed in themselves.
31:22And we're a trustable brand.
31:25That's what I wanted to build, was a trustable brand that people know, like,
31:29we can trust them with music.
31:30You know what I'm saying?
31:32Like, we can go to him for a solid project, a solid single, you know what I'm saying,
31:37a solid album, a solid whatever, a solid curation.
31:40And that's what I want to keep doing.
31:42I want to keep expanding that.
31:44Like, yeah, it's funny that, man, Mike Will cook pizza.
31:47What the hell?
31:48It's shit good.
31:49You know what I'm saying?
31:50And there's, like, the tacos, like, damn, that shit good.
31:52But to me, it's just all creativity.
31:54And it's all about just having fun and just having a taste level.
31:58Building an unbreakable supply chain.
32:00Exactly.
32:01Mike, man, this has been great, man.
32:03Thank you so much for the time.
32:04I appreciate it, man.
32:06And listen, here in Atlanta at his studio, Mike Williams, super producer,
32:10and he's a good pizza maker, too.
32:11So make sure you go check out his pizza.
32:24Thank you.