From Gucci Mane to Queen Bey, producer Mike Will Made It proves the line between hip-hop and pop is just an illusion
I DO IT ALL, MAN. I PRODUCE, I DO My own wardrobe and my own ironing, too!” Mike Will Made It, the hottest producer in hip-hop, is on set at Studio Space in Atlanta, carefully pressing a $1,000 red-and-black-striped Vetements jersey as he prepares to film a cameo for Gucci Mane’s “At Least a M” video. With the Mike Will-produced track blasting over the speakers and the pungent odor of high-grade marijuana choking the air, the soundstage resembles some sort of Felliniesque hip-hop fever dream: Against a graffitied backdrop, Will mugs for the camera, juggling a half-dozen cellphones; a chalkboard off to one side reads “I Will Not Use Spotify in Class,” Bart Simpson-style; fellow Atlanta music icons Usher and Young Thug mill about, filming a video of their own on a neighboring soundstage. No one seems to bat an eye as a live zebra wends its way through the set. With his 6-foot-2 frame, gold-rimmed Cartier glasses, black beanie cap and that striped, now-wrinkle-free shirt, Will is hard to miss.
“You look like Where’s Waldo in that thing,” cracks someone in his entourage, which includes Atlanta rapper Jace and various managers.
“That’s exactly the look I was going for,” replies Will, grinning.
Like Waldo, Will seems to be everywhere if you look hard enough. In five years, the 27-year-old producer has gone from creating Future’s hit single “Turn On the Lights” in his mother’s Marietta, Ga., basement, to hand-delivering “Formation” to Beyoncé, a song that ended up eclipsing even the Denver Broncos’ performance at Super Bowl 50 in February. He helped turn Miley Cyrus from Disney Princess to transgressive diva. And most recently, he was the main creative force behind Everybody Looking, producing nine of 12 tracks on the long-awaited Mane album that dropped July 22.
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