The Rise Of Mike Will Made It

This article details the rise of Mike Will Made it.The Atlanta producer/songwriter is extensively best known for producing trap beats for several Southern hip hop artists as well as for producing several hit singles, such as “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd, “Mercy” by GOOD Music, “No Lie” by 2 Chainz, “Bandz a Make Her Dance” by Juicy J, “Pour It Up” by Rihanna, “Love Me” by Lil Wayne, “Body Party” by Ciara, “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus, “First Day Out the Feds” by Gucci Mane, and “Formation” by Beyoncé. He has released five mixtapes.

Mike Will first developed his talent for music by re-playing popular instrumentals that he heard on the radio while he and his friends would freestyle to them. Mike Will began to develop his own beats on a Korg ES1 beat machine, which his father bought for $500 for him as a Christmas present from the local music store Mars Music. As Mike Will became more accomplished, he also began to use production equipment, including the Korg Triton, the Akai MPC1000, the Yamaha Motif, and the Roland Fantom. By the time Mike Will was 16, he was hanging out at local recording studios in Atlanta, trying to shop his beats to established artists.

In an interview with XXL, Mike Will said, “Gucci Mane was the first [major artist] to ever rap on my beat.” Mike Will first met Gucci Mane at Atlanta recording studio, PatchWerk Recording Studios, and upon introducing himself and giving Gucci Mane a CD of beats, Gucci Mane proceeded to freestyle over each of the instrumentals. He then offered Mike Will $1,000 for one of his beats. The two artists began releasing songs together, such as “East Atlanta 6”, and a number of songs from Gucci Mane’s mixtape, No Pad, No Pencil.[8] After developing this close relationship with Gucci Mane, he began working with other big-name Atlanta rappers such as Future, Waka Flocka Flame, Rocko, and 2 Chainz.

Since from there he never looked back, with impressive records from everybody in the game. The ATL producer has had numerous topping charts records like nobody. In interviews, Mike Will has named a number of musical influences on his own production work. In a “Behind the Beats” interview with Complex magazine, he says that he “always admired Dr. Dre’s drums”, and calls Timbaland “the first crazy pop producer… He brought so many artists to the game.