Timbaland and Metro Boomin are sitting in 11th Street Records in Las Vegas one afternoon in July, talking about the difference between a hit and a classic. “You did ‘Bad and Boujee,’ ” Timbaland notes, referring to the 2016 Migos track Metro produced. “That’s a classic.”
Metro offers his own distinction. “There might be a classic that peaks at Number 23, and another song goes Number One,” he notes, “but you can play them both 10 years later, and you might not even want to hear the One.” (For the record, “Bad and Boujee” was a classic and a Number One.)
The producers are more than qualified to speak on this subject — both have more than their share of both hits and classics. Timbaland, 52, became one of the defining beatmakers for the 1990s and 2000s by pushing acts like Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, Ginuwine, and Justin Timberlake into spaces that were at once undeniable pop and verging on the avant-garde. His work with Jay-Z includes many of the legendary rapper’s best-remembered songs, and while he’s mastered wildly disparate sound palettes, Timbaland’s intricate percussion work and industrial melodies make his beats instantly recognizable. Metro, 31, has followed in this auteurist lineage, his heavy bass and relentless bounce buoying work by rappers including Young Thug, Future, Migos, 21 Savage, and many others.
Metro offers his own distinction. “There might be a classic that peaks at Number 23, and another song goes Number One,” he notes, “but you can play them both 10 years later, and you might not even want to hear the One.” (For the record, “Bad and Boujee” was a classic and a Number One.)
The producers are more than qualified to speak on this subject — both have more than their share of both hits and classics. Timbaland, 52, became one of the defining beatmakers for the 1990s and 2000s by pushing acts like Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, Ginuwine, and Justin Timberlake into spaces that were at once undeniable pop and verging on the avant-garde. His work with Jay-Z includes many of the legendary rapper’s best-remembered songs, and while he’s mastered wildly disparate sound palettes, Timbaland’s intricate percussion work and industrial melodies make his beats instantly recognizable. Metro, 31, has followed in this auteurist lineage, his heavy bass and relentless bounce buoying work by rappers including Young Thug, Future, Migos, 21 Savage, and many others.
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MusicTranscript
00:00How do you see music? Do you see it or you hear it?
00:03I would say I feel it. I say I feel it.
00:18The first time I heard, like I really dabbed into his music, you know,
00:22it was really, really what he did was the horns when I came to the studio.
00:26He understands sonics. And to me, that was the beauty because a lot of people clutter music
00:33and he only used four or five sounds, but they felt like 30 sounds, right? And to me,
00:40that's what makes a great producer. Because when you come in from the hood, I know I ain't had,
00:44my mom didn't have money to go buy me equipment. I didn't have all the shit to do the music with.
00:52So I said, like, if you can do shit with just in four elements, that's a masterpiece. Simplicity
00:59is easy to say, but it's hard to do. And if you listen to all his hits, it's a tone in there.
01:10That's all you need. You don't need the 808 tone. You don't need nothing else.
01:14It was necessary. It was most necessary.
01:16He can go add little trinkets for what? It's a hit. But the beauty about it,
01:22he put out a statement and said, I'm retired. Right. So you said that. And I was like,
01:31he came back and killed him. That's a tempo move. You know what I'm saying? To me, that's like,
01:37who does that? You know what I'm saying? That's how to show how great you are.
01:42I appreciate that. Yeah. Sometimes I feel like you just, you got to take those steps back,
01:46but take one step back to take two or three more forward type of thing, you know?
01:52What did you come up on? So I was 13 and my mom had got me a laptop for Christmas. It's a PC.
01:58I want some HPs or something. And I had, I got a cracked version of Fruity Loops
02:05and I just started trying stuff out on there. Really didn't know how to use it or how to
02:11X, Y, Z, you know, but yeah, just trial and error, just like, but I was just into it all day,
02:16all night, just trial and error every day. What drew you to music? I knew even before that,
02:21I wanted to be in music. I mean, when I was younger before that, I had wanted to rap because,
02:26you know, I'm from St. Louis. So growing up, seeing like Nelly, the Tigs, I was just like,
02:30man, like, this is what I want to do. Like, you know, type of thing. I was always writing raps
02:35and then like stuff like that, but just not knowing how to tell like your mom, your grandma,
02:40your own girl be a rapper. This is like back then. It's like back then too, where it's like,
02:44you know what I'm saying? People mostly had real jobs. I'm like today, you know, so music producer
02:50just sounded more like, you know what I'm saying? Not like a rapper sounded like some halfway like
02:56business type shit. You know what I'm saying? So I really just got Fruity Loops to start
03:01trying to make my own beats to rap on. But then I just like really just fell in love with
03:06that side of it. I figured that like being a rapper was already like such a saturated thing.
03:12It's like 2007, eight. And it's crazy to say, just think about now how it is,
03:18you know what I'm saying? But I already felt like it was then, or just how many people were trying
03:22to do that. So I felt like, man, it'd probably be easier to get my foot in the door as a producer.
03:29And instead of trying to split the time, trying to do both of these things, let me try to like
03:33master one of these things and just put all my time and energy in one of these things.
03:36Wow.
03:37So that's how I ended up going with producing.
03:39How do you see music? Do you see it? Do you see it or you hear it?
03:45I would say I feel it. I say I feel it. Like I see it more than I hear it.
03:53Exactly.
03:53I see it more than I hear it.
03:54I see it too.
03:55You know what I'm saying? Like I definitely see it more than I hear it. The seeing part for me is
03:59it's a part of the vision. Like, okay, what would this album be like at the end of it?
04:04You know, I see different things for different artists that I work with,
04:07you know what I'm saying? To bring out the best in them. I know you know all about that.
04:11Like, you know what I'm saying? You're the master of that.
04:13Didn't you do Bad and Booyah?
04:14Yeah.
04:16That's a classic. You do know that, right?
04:18Classic?
04:19That's a classic.
04:20Wow. That's crazy.
04:21You know, like it's a difference between hits and classics. Think Rodney when he was competing.
04:27He was like, he pissed me off once. I was like, oh, I'm gonna get you. He said,
04:34Tim got his first number one. And I was like, I got a bunch of number ones. No,
04:40he got his first number one. And it hit me. It was my first top 100 and it was a Leah record.
04:48And I was like, then I looked at the Brandy records, all of them was number one, top 100.
04:53Yeah, that top 100.
04:54Yeah, top 100.
04:57The hip hop chart number one or the radio number one.
04:59I told him, I said, oh, he got me. I said, now I got the beat. It's always number one.
05:04And so for me, even though the top 100 is a great thing, but
05:09classics is still just different.
05:10It's different.
05:11It's just different.
05:11Because it might be a classic that might have peaked at number 23 or something.
05:15Exactly.
05:16And it's number one, but you could play them both 10 years later and it's like,
05:20you might not even want to hear this one. Like, you know what I'm saying?
05:23Yeah.
05:24It's definitely a difference.
05:25And I think Bad & Boujee is a classic.
05:28Wow, that's crazy that you say that.
05:29Let me tell you something. Play it today. How many years has it been now?
05:33Maybe like seven, eight, seven, six.
05:35But it's eight. I'm telling you, you play it now and people go crazy.
05:39I played it out here last night.
05:41Exactly. Exactly. So I go through your catalog. I'm like, okay, how many classics you got?
05:46You got a lot of hits. What's the classic? Bad & Boujee.
05:48Because I heard it again. It's the same thing when I did Work It. I knew that's a good song.
05:53I played that last night too. On everything.
05:56And they went crazy as soon as the beat dropped.
05:58I said, this is a classic. I knew it was a classic. That one, I said, this is going to be a classic.
06:03When I go sleep with Missy, she always beat me up. And it'd be mentally...
06:08I done read about that. About you trying to play her beats and being stiff with the beats.
06:13A hundred percent. She'll sit. I'm a girl and all this. So I was trained by one of the best.
06:21You know what I'm saying?
06:22Mentally, to take criticism, to know how to accept the no and turn the no into yes.
06:29She really took me through the ring. As a creator, when you do something,
06:32you come in there and you be hype.
06:33Yeah, you think, I got it.
06:34Then they shut you.
06:37Back then, I never saved. So I had to click my keyboard and cut it back on and restart again.
06:42Oh, no, bro.
06:44You understand? Every time.
06:46Or just race the whole sequence. And I was like, man, what? I don't know.
06:53Then she'll cuss me out. What my beats? I'm like, this is hard. You just killed 10 of them.
07:05So from that point, when I did work it, I pushed her. She heard the beat. I said,
07:14nothing you can say about this. She was like, no, this shit is hot.
07:20Because I never watch a record. She never let me watch a record.
07:22So it's like, I can go to the club and come back. And she's like, all right, go do your thing.
07:26And so I'm like, OK. So I come back and she did it. I was like, dang it.
07:32Then she looked at me. I said, you see how it feels?
07:36Then she went back and she said, oh, you should realize that that ain't it.
07:39That ain't what they want from us. So I said, go back. She came back again. I said,
07:44it ain't that. She's like, oh, man. I said, imagine how I feel.
07:52But it ain't. Then the third time she said, this ain't it. I'm going to go drink it. I quit.
07:58And I said, no, I just can't do it. This ain't it. We just got to do something else.
08:02She was so frustrated. She said, but I know this is it.
08:06When she pushed play and that backward sound came, I said, stop.
08:11And she looked like got nervous. I said, we number one forever.
08:19I said, this is insane.
08:21It's one of the hardest beats of all time to me.
08:23It had three styles.
08:25I remember my mom having that CD. I remember that CD used to always be in the side of the
08:28car door and she would play this song every day, bro.
08:32Every day. But like, that's all you need. A lot of this room to like,
08:37you know what I'm saying? We really kind of got to play the background and like,
08:40I know what I'm saying?
08:41She taught me that. I would have never known that.
08:44They got to shine.
08:45Pharrell was like that, too. He always used simple sounds.
08:48Yeah, for sure. About two, three of them.
08:51Yeah.
08:52Like two, three. That's it.
08:53Maybe these strings come in on the bridge one time. That's it.
08:56He was cold. He cold. I used to be like, yo, this dude is nice.
09:00We used to look at each other like, oh, man, we used to go to my house.
09:05He used to go. We'd look. He'd say, what you got? I said, what you got?
09:08And I remember we had our studios right beside each other.
09:11And we was working on Missy. He's working on Kelis.
09:14I walked in the booth and I hear this, I hate you so much right now. I said.
09:23I walked to the mic and I walked back and I said, I hate.
09:27I said, Missy, we got to rethink our whole shit.
09:32He made me, I had to go sit in the lounge.
09:35He had me stuck.
09:36Yeah, sit in the lounge.
09:37Yeah, because I'm like, who does a hook like that?
09:39But I guess that was the beauty because it's like,
09:42we didn't allow no bullshit to come up.
09:44Still shopping, still.
09:45Yeah. He'd give me validation on the ones he thought that was amazing,
09:49than the ones that might have been.
09:50He would say, nah, it must not be good.
09:53He ain't going to probably tell me it ain't good,
09:55but I can tell by his body language.
09:57And I'm like, I got to go back and redo it.
10:00I'm that same type. Somebody played me something in the studio.
10:03I never want to gas somebody, be like, oh, this is hard.
10:06If I'm not feeling it, I just want to say nothing and just be like,
10:08OK, I hope they hurry up with the next thing.
10:11Then I'd be like, nowadays, I'd be like, you know what?
10:14I have went back on a couple of people that I listened to the second time.
10:17I'd be like, hey, man, I'm sorry, man.
10:20I ain't like it at first, this shit jazz.
10:21Yeah, why do you have to do that?
10:24I hate doing that.
10:25I had to call people.
10:27I had to do that.
10:27I was like, yo, man, bad shit, man.
10:30I'm wrong.
10:31And I'm cool with saying that because I like to be like,
10:34because I don't like to be like, am I tripping?
10:38And it'll bother me because I love creatives.
10:40You know what I'm saying?
10:41Regardless of if I'm in competition, I just like to see how other person things
10:45and how weird or other person can get.
10:47So because we didn't, you know, New York was New York.
10:50Coming from Virginia, it was like, oh, y'all can't get in.
10:52So we did.
10:55You had the clips.
10:56It was just so much.
10:57It's like we couldn't, we couldn't, we could not.
11:02If we put out a record, a wack record, the club gonna let you.
11:06No.
11:06Like I was doing all the Jay-Z records I got in New York.
11:09I'm riding.
11:10I'm chilling out here.
11:14Ho!
11:14I said, I pulled over.
11:18I said, I think I might have to go on retirement for a couple of years.
11:22Then I go back home to Virginia.
11:25Then he said, watch yourself.
11:27Shit in the whole club.
11:29I said, pack it up.
11:31We got to go back and rethink our whole shit.
11:33It's like he took that James Brown shit.
11:35And had a run out of this world.
11:38It's like when your boy got a run, you just fall back.
11:42He had like four bangers and I was like, oh no.
11:45I asked him, you put anything out anymore?
11:48Then I could come sneak in the door.
11:49You know what I'm saying?
11:50That's how it was with us.
11:51It's like, okay, he got it.
11:54Just them bounces, bro.
11:55It's like, it be the bounce, bro.
11:57And then it's not even just the bounce with the drums.
11:59That's what I be trying to stress to people.
12:02It's like the rhythm and the bounce with the sounds you're using too.
12:05So it's all just like, you know what I'm saying?
12:07It all like come together and make it like a puzzle.
12:10Yeah, exactly.
12:11Everything's in its own pocket and slot.
12:13You know what I'm saying?
12:14Yeah.
12:14We used to have fun though.
12:15We had, that's the beauty about us.
12:17We had a lot of fun making music together.
12:19Nah, you could tell.
12:20You could hear it.
12:21Yeah.
12:21It was like friendly competition.
12:24And I always liked that about our community.
12:27That, like you said earlier, Iron Kinshaka's Iron.
12:30You know what I'm saying?
12:30It's cool to be in competition, but not like to be like disrespectful.
12:35Nah, I wouldn't care if this nigga see him dead.
12:37Nah, I don't like that.
12:38Nah, it's like, okay, you did that.
12:40Okay, all right, all right.
12:41I'm in charge of the studio right now.
12:43Exactly.
12:44That feeling.
12:45That, that's, and that's how I like to keep it.
12:47You know what I'm saying?
12:47That's the beauty about us because that's how we kept it.
12:50And we give each other props versus like the artists.
12:52They don't, they be, they be weird.
12:56The artist community different.
12:57Yeah, like the producer community, we like, we chill.
12:59We like, okay.
13:00It's competition, but like a friendly competition.
13:02Yeah.
13:02Like, what?
13:03I see what you did there.
13:04Okay, hold on.
13:05Okay.
13:05Hold on.
13:06I guess.
13:072.2 seconds.
13:08Yeah.
13:08I like it, man.
13:10Yeah.
13:11I remember I did Big Pimpin'.
13:13It was actually for me and Magoo.
13:15And I was like, that just, that just not, I knew in my spirit in my gut,
13:20I'm not even trying to do this beat.
13:22Like, so as he was walking out, I walked.
13:26I said, yo, I got something I want to play you.
13:27I don't want to play it for you.
13:30But my business mind say I should play it for you.
13:34Yeah.
13:35I had the moment.
13:36I was like, damn, I want to cut this up.
13:38Yeah.
13:39But I think it's a smarter move.
13:41And I played, he pulled the jacket.
13:43He's right at the door.
13:45He looked, he heard the beat.
13:46He said, took the jacket off.
13:51And I said, hold on, hold on, man.
13:53You're not going to be able to finish this song tonight.
13:56Because we always challenge each other.
13:57I said, this beat going to beat your ass.
14:00Then he called me the next day.
14:01He said, come to this early, like in the morning, come to the studio.
14:05And I was like, you ain't got it.
14:09Get over here.
14:10So he get over there and he puts play.
14:12He said, he walking around.
14:14Because I was walking.
14:16Because he don't write.
14:16He already scratched.
14:17He's like, he told Jimmy, my engineer, hit play.
14:20He's like, love, I leave him, but I don't need him.
14:24I was like, stop, stop, stop, stop.
14:27I said, oh, my God.
14:28I can't imagine hearing that for the first time.
14:30Man, I said, he's like, oh, I told you, I'm the best.
14:37I'm like, wow.
14:39That's crazy.
14:40It got to the point that I ain't want to work with no other rapper besides him.
14:43Yeah.
14:44I couldn't wait for him to go in the booth because I said, this man is a walking.
14:48You know he's going to smoke it.
14:51I'm like, oh, this dude, he's a genius.
14:54I know it's a different time.
14:56Yeah.
14:57Put that purple rain out.
15:00Oh, yeah.
15:02Yeah.
15:04That's a sleeper.
15:06Classic.
15:09Classic.
15:11That's one of my favorites.
15:12That's on my dog.
15:13What?
15:14That's on my playlist today.
15:17That's crazy.
15:18What?
15:20Man, do you know how many bangers on that?
15:22It's a lot on there.
15:23I ain't gonna lie.
15:24That's a classic album.
15:25I'm going to tell you another classic song.
15:27Percocet.
15:29Oh, man.
15:30Bad Sky.
15:33Classic.
15:34That would play 10 years.
15:36You play that right now.
15:36Go crazy.
15:37I played that last night, too.
15:40My music takes no point, right?
15:42See, I told you.
15:43All the stuff you did with Thug.
15:45Yeah.
15:46I gotta really go.
15:47He's a player.
15:48He put so much music out there.
15:49Nah, for sure.
15:51But the stuff you did with him, I think it was a top-notch one.
15:54Nah, I appreciate that.
15:55Yeah, we did a lot towards the beginning of both our careers.
16:01We were both still trying to figure it out, trying to come up.
16:05We had this studio we were using early on back in the day that we would be able to use for free.
16:10So we would always use it.
16:12I did Xanadu Glover there.
16:13We did so much stuff there.
16:14I did my first mixtape there.
16:16And when we weren't able to use that anymore, and we had this flow going and just recording,
16:20it's just like, damn, what we do now?
16:23So I had the townhouse, and I went and got Pro Tools.
16:28I got a little home Mac.
16:31Got a mic, a couple pair of headphones, and just figured it out at the house.
16:35I just started recording them.
16:38And then I just started just trying stuff.
16:40And then not too long after that, I started working with Travis.
16:44And this was in the beginning, too.
16:46And I would just watch him.
16:47I would do background vocals and stuff.
16:49So I would try some of that stuff on Thug and just be editing.
16:53It was just a whole new world to me.
16:55Because before that, I was still producing, because I would make beats and still work
17:00with the artists, go back and forth with ideas.
17:03Might give a hook idea, might do that.
17:05But now it was up in my technical game type of thing.
17:10Then I just fell in love with that.
17:12You do that?
17:12You like Pro Tools?
17:13You edit and all that?
17:14Oh, yeah, for sure.
17:16That's what you love to do?
17:17I mean, I love making beats.
17:18I love all that.
17:19But once I have everything and have it just in the same session, I just feel like I could
17:23paint and sculpt.
17:25It's like I got everything vocally.
17:27I got everything production-wise.
17:28And now it's like, how are we going to shape this or sculpt it from start to end type of
17:34thing?
17:34We'll run everything.
17:35We'll mix on that either SSL or Neve.
17:38You know what I'm saying?
17:39Neve is my favorite.
17:40I know you both with the Neve, yeah.
17:42Dre, he good on that SSL.
17:44Yeah, that's his thing.
17:45That's his thing.
17:46How he worked that SSL is like real defined, sharp.
17:50You know what I'm saying?
17:50It's just like, it is what it is.
17:52Dre would work on a song for a damn, let's see, come on, one song.
17:57I'll tell you, we grew up hard.
18:00I used to be like, god damn.
18:03And Dre be like, when he's doing the quality, I used to hear the stories.
18:08He's like, yeah, he just go to the clubs and just keep playing them and make sure
18:12the vibe is right.
18:13And I'm like, wow.
18:14And we'd be doing the same thing.
18:16I'm not saying the same thing, but as far as working on a song for so long type of thing.
18:21For real?
18:22Oh yeah, one million percent.
18:23I didn't think you'd do that.
18:25Man, if it didn't take me that long, I probably would put albums out more frequently.
18:29I just want to put that time in because I know once I let it go, I can't un-let it go.
18:33So it's just like.
18:35How often do you make the artists redo their vocals?
18:43As I get older more and more.
18:45Me and Savage get into that a lot sometimes.
18:48Y'all got a great chemistry though.
18:49Yeah, and it's like the same thing you said with you and Missy.
18:52He's the one artist who the most out of everybody I've worked with in my life that
18:57he's the most picky with the beats.
18:59You say you have to sit there and play 100 beats.
19:02I might have to sit here and play this man 35, 40 beats before he want to get in the mood.
19:07And if he draining, especially when you come in prepared, you think you got this,
19:11like you my boy, I know what you.
19:13And then it's just like, next one, next one, next one, next one.
19:16That's why in return, like you said, it's like, all right now,
19:19so you're going to have to overly bring it on this one.
19:23All right, no, I'm not taking no okay shit.
19:26Nah, we're going to have to try that again.
19:28But I mean, even his verse on Creepin' with The Weeknd,
19:31he did it like two, three times.
19:33What do you say when you say, bro, that ain't it?
19:36I mean, he wasn't even trippin' on that instance.
19:39It was our first song with the three of us together.
19:42So it was like, I feel like he knew and understood what kind of moment that was.
19:46So it's like, you know what I'm saying?
19:48And he didn't fight back that time.
19:52But me and him, usually we go back and forth all the time.
19:56That makes sense.
19:57That's why y'all make the best music.
19:58I think y'all make some incredible music.
20:00I appreciate that.
20:02He's definitely one of my favorite to work with because it's like,
20:04we'll get on each other's nerves.
20:05We'll go back and forth all the time.
20:07But at the end of the day, I always make both of us better.
20:10Because if I go in here, I'm playing 20 beats,
20:12you're not really feeling it.
20:12I'm going home, like, cooking up.
20:15Like, I'm going to show this nigga tomorrow.
20:16Exactly.
20:17You know what I'm saying?
20:18I feel like you've got your top three acts that you can constantly like.
20:22He and I really think you've got something with James Blake, too.
20:25Oh yeah, James, that's a whole nother.
20:27Man, we got a whole album in the can.
20:29I feel like that's your next wave.
20:30I feel like his style, he has a style.
20:34But when y'all come together, it's what he need.
20:38James is so crazy as a songwriter, artist, producer, vocalist, just all the way around.
20:45And he can get real crazy, extra complex, and crazy with shit.
20:50So I feel like when we get together, it's still beautiful,
20:54but it makes everything a lot more digestible.
20:58And on the other end, I feel like he helps to take what I do in East Sonics
21:03and just take it and lift it like somewhere else.
21:06It do.
21:07You know what I'm saying?
21:07At the same time.
21:08So yeah, that's the beauty of it.
21:10I feel like you and him is like me and Justin Timberlake.
21:14I never thought about that.
21:15That's crazy.
21:15I ain't say you got to do the Kramer River,
21:17but what's Metro and James Blake Kramer River?
21:20Yeah.
21:21What's Metro and James Blake Future Sex Love Center?
21:25Yeah.
21:25And I feel like once you crack that code, that's a whole nother...
21:29Well, you saw it with I Don't Wanna Know.
21:31Yeah, right.
21:32But once you go down that other line, that's a whole different road.
21:37That road tough.
21:38And then you start getting into like, with Pharrell,
21:41like the Despicable Me's and all that type.
21:44He started, he did it with Spider-Man.
21:45But now like when you hear he's dead and we all make that magic.
21:53Trust me, bro.
21:54The world, they gonna talk.
21:55Cause I feel like you the perfect producer for him.
21:58I don't even think I could do it.
21:59And I love when he do stuff on his own, but I feel like he'd be awesome radio head.
22:04Exactly.
22:06You know what I'm saying?
22:07I feel like James is so like urban, but alternative.
22:12Y'all together make it more pop.
22:14Yeah, exactly.
22:15With all those elements in it.
22:17Yeah.
22:18That's what it feels like.
22:19Yeah, that was a crazy description.
22:20I can tell you the key players I would bring in to make the album.
22:23I would bring in Chris Martin from Coldplay.
22:25That's another good friend of mine.
22:26That's my boy.
22:29I'm giving the blueprint.
22:31I would go to Benny Blanca just to like, he ill.
22:34He from Virginia.
22:35So he...
22:36I didn't know he was from Virginia.
22:37That's why.
22:37I would say Sia.
22:40I see you playing with tempos and different things.
22:42I feel like you get your...
22:44You get your shit on with you.
22:45For sure.
22:46I bet.
22:47Same here.
22:48I'm gonna call you for that too.
22:49Yeah, I'm gonna call.
22:50I just want to go and say, no, y'all should do that.
22:51Don't do that.
22:53All those mistakes and the trials and errors that I learned.
22:58I just try to give all the stuff back to somebody that I see that's going to surpass me.
23:03You got to accept when you got to pass.
23:06When you got to pass the buck, yeah.
23:08You can't, you got to know how to play the background.
23:10That's it.
23:10And I really know how to play the background now and sit and be like, I did it.
23:15Man, I appreciate you, bro.
23:18Even for the past few years, you've always been there and willing to listen or lend any advice.
23:23Like I told you that week, we was at Conway.
23:26You and JT would come through and just listen to my album and give y'all thoughts on stuff.
23:31Like, you know what I'm saying?
23:32All that kind of stuff is surreal to me.
23:34It means the world.
23:35I'm just grateful for that.
23:37I'm going to give you everything because I'll be like,
23:39man, this beat, that's why he called Metro Boomin because that shit is booming.
23:45So somebody must have told you like, yo, your beats be booming.
23:48It should be cracking.
23:50Man, it was really, and it was coincidentally, it was really like
23:52the first artist I worked with back in high school was OJ Juice Man.
23:57And he had this song called Boomin and Bunkin.
23:59And I didn't even make that beat.
24:00But Boomin was just a word he would always bring up in his raps.
24:02And like, I was really making his beats.
24:04So I was like, and my name was just Metro.
24:06And I was always thinking, I was like, man, my name's just Metro.
24:09I was always thinking about the future.
24:11So I was like, man, if I'm on one day, like, how's somebody going to Google Metro?
24:14Like, Metro Plumbing, Metro this and me,
24:17other things going to come up before me.
24:19So I was like, what word am I going to put with it?
24:21And I was like, boom, I just threw it on the end of it.
24:24And you knew the significance of a tag.
24:29Right.
24:29Because these dumb ass tags, these people be doing.
24:31I ain't going to lie, some bad tags.
24:32Bad.
24:33I tell you, that's when I come in because I can do that.
24:37You can't.
24:38You just sit in the back.
24:39If I say, Metro, is that shit trash or what?
24:42You just got to say, I don't want to say it's trash to them, but it ain't.
24:45I know because we humble.
24:46It disrupt the whole thing.
24:47Yeah, but I got it.
24:49I'll be like, yo, when producer comes out, I was like, hey, bro.
24:52I can't go play this for my man.
24:54You ain't got to say nothing.
24:55You just put your head down.
24:57Man, it's been a cool conversation.
24:58Nah, for sure.
24:59I appreciate you, bro.
25:00It's been a blessing.
25:00Blessing, King.