Music producer Michael Williams talks with Forbes’ Jabari Young about the creative process of making beats and his new hobby: making pizza.
0:00 Introduction
0:41 Mike Will Made It Explains How Art Is About Layers
2:26 Mike Will Made It Shares Is Producing Inspiration And Pizza Toppings
5:25 Mike Will Made It On Being More Health Conscious
7:20 How Black Beetles Became A Viral Hit
8:42 Mike Will Made It On His Work Ethic And Collaboration With Artists
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0:00 Introduction
0:41 Mike Will Made It Explains How Art Is About Layers
2:26 Mike Will Made It Shares Is Producing Inspiration And Pizza Toppings
5:25 Mike Will Made It On Being More Health Conscious
7:20 How Black Beetles Became A Viral Hit
8:42 Mike Will Made It On His Work Ethic And Collaboration With Artists
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
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More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00It's Jabari Young, senior writer here at Forbes,
00:02and I am out of Mike Will's studio.
00:05We now in his kitchen, joined by the one and only Mike Will.
00:08Mike Will made it, Michael Williams.
00:09Man, you a chef now, man.
00:11You're not a producer right now, no super.
00:13You're a chef.
00:14The one thing.
00:15Top chef, let me get that right.
00:16And the two, super producer and a top chef.
00:18The one thing, man, I love when I'm taking on new assignments
00:21and I'm learning about people is I love going around
00:23and asking people, what would you ask Mike Will?
00:26And everybody said, we don't know nothing about him.
00:27And now I discovered what it is that everybody
00:29don't know about you, that you know how to make pizza.
00:31And not just any pizza, superior, super producer,
00:34top chef pizza.
00:36Show me how you do this.
00:37And I want you to do it, Mike, in a way
00:39that you're making a beat, man.
00:40Lay it all down for me.
00:42Because that's really how I look at it, you know what I'm saying?
00:44Because art is all about layers, you know what I'm saying?
00:46No matter if you're looking at a car, a pan, pizza, beats,
00:50a song, an album, it's all about the layers that go into it.
00:53So sometimes I like to step away and not just
00:56be hands on with the beats.
00:58I like to create something else.
01:00Even with the buildings, it's like throwing different things
01:02at the wall.
01:03My studio, just different ideas.
01:06Nothing's really set in stone.
01:07I like to just stay creative.
01:09I feel like that just keeps that side of my brain,
01:11that part of my brain going.
01:12So pizza is like a new hobby I picked up on
01:16in the last month, you know what I'm saying?
01:19And it's like, utilize the kitchen,
01:21you know what I'm saying?
01:22And just try different new things
01:24and be creative in different new ways for real.
01:26Yeah, well, I mean, cooking is improvisation a lot of it,
01:28right?
01:28And so me and you were talking off camera
01:30and I was telling you, and I'm like, hey, listen,
01:32let's make it like you make a beat.
01:33And we were saying how the dough is the drums, right?
01:36You agree with the dough being the drums and the pizza?
01:38That's how you want to look at it.
01:40OK.
01:40I want to look at it how a top chef look at it.
01:42That's all for sure.
01:43This could be the 808.
01:44OK.
01:44Sometime I'll start.
01:45Black Beatles, I started with the 808.
01:46OK.
01:47So you made Black Beatles the beat right here, right?
01:49The drums.
01:50This is the dough, right?
01:51The 808s.
01:52The dough is the 808.
01:53If this is the 808, I like to go,
01:56like to put the oil on here, man.
01:58What does the oil do?
01:59It's a hot house.
02:00It's just my technique.
02:02So it's like a-
02:04Oh, that's a nice sauce.
02:05It look like something like a curry sauce.
02:07Word.
02:08No, no, it's kind of like a jerk.
02:11Is that jerk?
02:12You making a hot pizza?
02:13Yeah, we're making a little hot pizza.
02:15We freestyle.
02:16We don't have any ingredients that we follow.
02:19We just freestyle.
02:19Just improvisation.
02:21OK.
02:21Now, when you was making Black Beatles,
02:23was it that same type of improvisation?
02:25Same thing.
02:25Same thing.
02:27Are you going off of your ear?
02:29And in this case, pizza, you're going off your look and taste.
02:31Yeah, that's all it is.
02:33I like to get the sauce spread all the way around.
02:37And so then I go by that.
02:39And the oil kind of helps me spread the sauce.
02:43You know what I'm saying?
02:44Kind of helps me spread the jerk.
02:46This could be our hi-hats, because the hi-hats
02:49make the beat move, you know what I'm saying?
02:51So if we're making Black Beatles,
02:55it would have went 808s, it would have went hi-hats,
02:58it would have went snares.
02:59Like you said, I would have been building my drums up.
03:01You know what I'm saying?
03:02So is this a part of the drum and the dough, right?
03:05When you're mixing that sauce on it,
03:06is this all a part of creating your drum?
03:08Is that all one?
03:09Or is it different?
03:10Is the dough just the drum and the sauce is something else?
03:13So when you make a song, right, all you're doing
03:16is stacking rhythm and melody on top of each other.
03:18Right.
03:18You know what I'm saying?
03:19That's all you're doing.
03:20So you can really look at the sauce or the cheese
03:23or anything, you know what I'm saying,
03:26in different kind of ways.
03:27But the main thing what you're doing
03:29is just rhythm and melody.
03:31So I would say the sauce would probably
03:33be maybe the melody, you know what I'm saying?
03:36Or maybe it could be the drum, because I just
03:39mix a couple of different sauce.
03:41That's one thing about me, too.
03:42I'm a mixologist.
03:43I like to mix a lot of different things up.
03:46A lot of the songs that I was doing
03:48was like this collaborated and this collaborated,
03:50things that people didn't even expect to see happening.
03:53And so mixing these sauces up is like, I mix these sauces up.
03:58I ain't go to somebody and be like, yo,
04:00what sauces taste good with each other?
04:01I was just like, OK, this is spicy, this is a little sweet.
04:04You know what I'm saying?
04:05This is like truffle pesto, you know what I'm saying?
04:08Add a little Italian pizza filet.
04:13And then, boom, I go cheese, you know what I'm saying?
04:17Mozzarella?
04:17Right, OK.
04:19Well, see, the good thing about this pizza
04:21is it's a different sauce.
04:23Yeah, because I don't see no tomato sauce whatsoever.
04:25No, there's no tomato sauce.
04:26So as you're tasting the pizza, you're really confused.
04:31Like, man, what am I really eating?
04:34Because you're never really tasting nothing like it.
04:37So you taste the sauce, then you taste the cheese.
04:41Now, while you're making the cheese,
04:43another thing is you're vegan now.
04:45You're going vegan and practicing that.
04:46How's that going for you lifestyle-wise?
04:49Well, it's been going good.
04:50I like to call myself a fake vegan,
04:52because sometimes I get caught, like, eating
04:55cheese or cheese, and you're still vegan.
04:57Right, but this is mozzarella, so we'll say half vegan.
04:59Yeah, but now, like, I try to make that transition.
05:02I always try to make just healthier transitions
05:05as I get the, you know what I'm saying,
05:08as I get the different knowledge,
05:11you know what I'm saying, along the way or whatnot.
05:13Yeah, yeah.
05:13But I'm-
05:14Did that pick up during the pandemic?
05:15I know a lot of people during the pandemic,
05:17they just really got health conscious.
05:19They were sitting at home and all.
05:20Yeah, and I watched What the Health.
05:21Ah, that's scary, man.
05:23I watched that, too.
05:24I stopped eating meat for almost a year.
05:25Word, word.
05:26I saw, you know what I'm saying, I watched What the Health,
05:30and then I just stopped eating just meat
05:32all the way in general.
05:33Right.
05:34When you're cooking, when you're cooking,
05:36and then you're exercising, and then, like, you're
05:42eating healthy, as long as you're looking to make gains,
05:44as long as you're thinking out of the box,
05:46and as long as you're being creative,
05:47I feel like that's how you start winning
05:49Yeah.
05:50For real, just being unique.
05:51Just everything, just being unique.
05:53Like, all the way from the property to the studio
05:56to the whole lifestyle, I just like to be unique.
05:59Yeah, yeah.
06:00Does cooking help you create in the studio?
06:02Yeah, definitely.
06:03Really? How so?
06:04Because it's using that part of the brain,
06:08you know what I'm saying?
06:08Always using that part of the brain, always being creative.
06:12Making a beat is just like making a piece to me.
06:14You know what I'm saying?
06:15It's like a hobby.
06:16It's just being creative, it's being unique,
06:18it's being different.
06:19What do you do to get you in that creative space?
06:21Is it making pizza like this, and then
06:23going in the studio and cook up?
06:24Yeah, at one point, it was playing NBA 2K.
06:27I spent a lot of years of my life playing NBA 2K.
06:30Yeah.
06:31You know what I'm saying?
06:31And that was, like, my escape.
06:33And then now, now it's like cooking.
06:35I cook pizza, I cook tacos, or, like, all my friends,
06:41they can cook, too.
06:42So we might be in here having a whole cook-off.
06:45Yeah.
06:46You know what I'm saying?
06:47Now, is this the cheese?
06:48This is another mozzarella?
06:50Is this what it is?
06:51This is buffalo mozzarella.
06:52OK.
06:53This is another cheese.
06:54Is this a part of the, again, back to the beat making
06:57process, what part is this?
06:59The piano.
07:00OK.
07:00So I'm going to think Black Beatles, right?
07:02And forgive my humming, man.
07:04But the Black Beatles song, I'm warning,
07:06I'm listening to that song.
07:07Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
07:09Which one of those ingredients is that?
07:11Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
07:15I would say the jerk.
07:16The jerk, OK.
07:18Because it gives you that.
07:19Why is that the jerk?
07:20Because, like, to me, that arpeggiator
07:26that I use in Black Beatles, I feel
07:28like it just drives the song.
07:29And it's, like, the core of the song.
07:32OK.
07:33And I feel like the jerk on this,
07:35like, people are going to taste this piece,
07:37and be like, oh, like, oh, I taste the jerk.
07:41Well, it's going to be a couple of different flavors
07:43that hit you.
07:43But that jerk is going to hit you,
07:44and it's like, oh, it is jerk.
07:46But I'm tasting something else, too.
07:47You know what I'm saying?
07:48So I would say the jerk would be, like, more the arpeggiator.
07:53OK.
07:54The arpeggiator sound that you're talking about.
07:55Yeah.
07:56Because that flows throughout the song.
07:58And the jerk, you're going to feel it,
07:59no matter how many.
08:00OK, OK.
08:01All right.
08:02Now, how long do you put it in the oven?
08:03How long do you keep it?
08:04Everything is improvisation, man.
08:05It depends on what temperature.
08:07I like to cook mine on the grill.
08:08Oh.
08:09So on the big green egg.
08:10Yeah.
08:11Yeah, I like to cook mine on the grill.
08:11What difference does it make between the grill and the oven?
08:14I never cook one in the oven.
08:15I've only been doing this for a month.
08:17You got to cook it in the oven, man.
08:19Well, the grill might be better.
08:20No, the grill is better.
08:21It's unique.
08:22I keep telling you, I'm trying to be unique and out
08:25of pocket and different.
08:26You know what I'm saying?
08:27Like, you know, you go through a couple of burnt crusts.
08:30You know what I'm saying?
08:31A couple of burnt crust moments.
08:33How many crusts did you burn before you perfected it?
08:36Can you be honest?
08:39Probably, I probably burned me a jerk.
08:41Four or five of them.
08:42Four or five of them?
08:43OK, and then you started to understand
08:44what you was doing right or wrong, right?
08:46How many times or how long did it take
08:48you to perfect Black Beatles?
08:50Like, how long was that song from start to finish?
08:52I know it ain't take you an hour, Marty.
08:54You're a perfectionist, and you do this for a living.
08:56How long before you say, yo, this is ready to go?
08:59So Black Beatles, when I made the Black Beatles beat,
09:03I made the beat pretty quick.
09:05But when I made the beat, I didn't think it was done.
09:09So Sway Lee, that's like my secret weapon right there, man.
09:13So I had reached out to him.
09:14I'm like, bro, I made this beat.
09:15It's so hard, and it's so wavy.
09:17I know you can do something to it.
09:18I'm going to add something else to the beat.
09:20But I don't think it's done, but I'm
09:21going to add something else to it.
09:23And he was like, all right, send it to him.
09:24So I sent it to him.
09:26And then when I sent him the beat, he was like, yo, man,
09:28this beat is crazy.
09:30I was like, man, I think I'm going to do something.
09:31I think I got something to it.
09:33But he sent me back the Black Beatles hook and the verse.
09:35And I was like, man, this is too hard.
09:39And so I was working on Gucci Mane's album.
09:42And I told Gucci Mane, I was like, man,
09:43I think you should get on this song.
09:45And then he heard the song.
09:46He liked it, too.
09:47So he was like, all right, cool, I'm going to get on it.
09:49And then Slim Jimmy, Sway Lee, brother,
09:51we were really close to turn the album in already.
09:55And Slim Jimmy was like, man, I thought the album was done.
09:58Then he heard the song, then he put a verse on it.
10:01And then it just was complete.
10:02Then it was all about the mix.
10:04And then I always, with my songs,
10:06I might speed it up one or two BPM, depending on the feel.
10:10And then I had Sway Lee come in and add different ad-libs.
10:13And then Sway Lee changed his verse three or four
10:16different times.
10:17But he had such good moments within his verse.
10:21So it was like, some of the parts
10:23that you hear as the intro, like Black Beatles in the city,
10:26they back immediately to confiscate the money,
10:29that was like a part of one of Sway Lee's verses.
10:31And then I sent you flowers, but you say you didn't receive them
10:34in the intro, that was part of another Sway Lee verse.
10:37And it was like, yo, we're not going to throw it away, Sway.
10:40But we can just rearrange it.
10:41So it took about, I'd say, a good month.
10:45You know what I'm saying?
10:46Good month just getting all the parts and all the pieces.
10:49It's not going to take that long to make the piece, though,
10:50right?
10:50Because I can't be here a month, Mike.
10:52No, no, no.
10:52It'll probably take a good 25 minutes.
10:56So you make pieces faster than you make beats, then?
10:58No, I made the Black Beatles beat probably
11:01around the same amount of time.
11:03OK, but it took a month to finalize it, though.
11:05But it's one thing to make a beat,
11:07and it's another thing to make a hit record.
11:08Yeah.
11:09You know what I'm saying?
11:10So it took me a month to make sure
11:13that my pieces were classic.
11:15But you know what I'm saying, it ain't going
11:16to take a month on the grill.
11:17But it take about the same amount of time
11:19just to make sure, like, OK, I'm about to make a classic piece.
11:26Yeah.
11:26Feel me?
11:27Yeah.
11:27And that takes time, trial and error, like how you said,
11:30like, we burnt the crust a couple of times,
11:33all that kind of stuff.
11:34So you topped off.
11:36It's ready to go in the oven?
11:37It's ready to go in the oven, bro.
11:38Man, this moment I've been waiting for.
11:39There you go.
11:40Mike Will made it, almost.
11:42You going to top it off with some pepper jack, too?
11:44We got to get a little pepper jack on there.
11:45See, it's like a sexy cheese pizza.
11:47I see that.
11:48You know what I'm saying?
11:49I forgot to tell you I'm lactose intolerant,
11:50but we'll keep that for another time.
11:52It's all good.
11:53You won't be here that long.
11:54We'll put this in the oven and show y'all
11:56what it looks like, Michael.
11:56Thank you for this, man.
11:57I'm looking forward to tasting this pizza, man.
11:59I want you to be honest, though.
12:00I am.
12:00I'm not going to lie to you.
12:01Tell a lie to me.
12:02I'm not going to lie to you, man.
12:04I'm not.
12:05I don't like the secret weapon for the pizza.
12:06Sway D could be your secret weapon for the pizza.
12:08I'm going to be the secret weapon for a pizza.
12:09Like my secret consumer.
12:10My secret, your secret advisor.
12:13You ain't advise nothing.
12:14I advise you how to do what you're talking about.
12:16I'm just putting it in the oven.
12:17I just advise you.
12:18All right, so this is called the Mona Lisa, man.
12:26This is the Mona Lisa.
12:27All right, cool.
12:31Pick your pleasure, man.
12:34Man, if I fall over, Mike, that's good.
12:41I can taste the sauce.
12:41You talking the jerk sauce.
12:43I see what you're talking about now.
12:47No meat on there.
12:48No, it's vegan.
12:49Yeah, well, half vegan, right?
12:51Yeah.
12:52Word.
12:52This is good, man.
12:54Anyone ever notice a little what?
12:56Man, I wasn't lying, Mike.
12:59I would have said it was nasty on camera.
13:01This is good, though.
13:02This is good.
13:04Why don't you just make me one so I can take it home?
13:06Really.
13:07I got you, bro.
13:08I got you one.
13:10This is Mike Will's pizza right here.
13:11This is the Fetish Pride.
13:12I already ate two slices.
13:14He was right.
13:15I do taste the jerk sauce.
13:16I do taste all of the ingredients, right?
13:19It's a piece of Mona Lisa.
13:21I'm drooling.
13:22I'm going to call it the Black Beetle.
13:23That's what I'm going to call it, the Black Beetle's pizza,
13:25right?
13:25Off the top of my head, this is number one here.
13:26So I definitely enjoy it.
13:28If you ever want a good pizza, come down to Atlanta.
13:31Tom, I sent you so I can get a approval
13:33to get a piece of property, all right?
13:35Definitely check out Mike Will's pizza.
13:36Old boy hustling, right?