But Mike WiLL Made It — the producer who reinvented Miley Cyrus — is obsessed with trying to figure out how he can.
Mike WiLL Made It / Eardrummers
Recently Mike WiLL Made It, the Atlanta-based hip-hop and pop producer, asked painters to redo the work they'd just completed at his house in Atlanta. "I be on my interior designer shit," he told BuzzFeed. "I didn't like the way the paint looked. The guys were like, 'This is gonna cost a lot of money,' and I was like, 'I don't care. I don't even wanna walk in my house looking at this.'"
Born Michael Williams, the 25-year-old is as obsessive about his songs as he is his home. He's created meticulous hits for Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Juicy J, Future, 2 Chainz, Brandy, and Mariah Carey. He signed his own deal with Interscope last year, and on Tuesday, released his second-ever solo single, "Buy the World," a collaboration with Lil Wayne, Future, and Kendrick Lamar. Here, he talks about why it took half a year to make, and the challenge of making a rap song that appeals to everyone.
I've been working on this song for six months. I was just imagining stadiums — something that will come on and everybody can sing the hook. I don't want it to be the typical hood anthem, I want it to be something anybody could feel or relate to. A person that's working a 9 to 5, all the way to the person that's owning a company, people on the corner, or people who are homeless. I wanted it to work for everybody.
"Buy the World" is some hood Phil Collins shit. It sounds like a country western mixed with trap mixed with some stoner rock, mixed with a club banger. At first the track had more sounds in it, but I took a lot of them out. So the song is kinda slowed-up and gloomy, but still bright. It's almost like the beat is just looping, but you're not mad at it repeating.
I'm a perfectionist. I'll work on songs for a year or two. The little sample that's in there, that little "ooh yeah" that's going throughout the whole song? That's Brandy. I was in a session with Brandy and asked her to get on top of the beat. I ended up taking her part out and putting it back in and chopping it up how I wanted it. I had Juicy J chant that little "eyy" you hear. And the whole track samples Lord Huron's "In the Wind." Lord Huron said it was crazy that I'd sample that, because it's one of their least popular songs. But it just felt good.
As a producer, I don't really look at my singles like, "How do I become the star of this song." I just always wanna attach my name to dope-ass music. For "Buy the World," Wayne sent me two different verses. He liked the second better, but I took certain lines from the first verse and blended them in, because I liked them. I just want people to hear Wayne, Kendrick, and Future's best shit, because I'm a fan.
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