Quotes from Zaytoven

People looked at me - people still look at me - as 'this is Gucci Mane's producer.' But the music that me and Future put together was so different than what me and Gucci do, it just made people look at the music like, 'Hold on - Zaytoven is the real deal.'

I can do R&B, pop, gospel... whatever genre of music that's out.

I'm a church musician. I play gospel music; that's what I do. I never had a chance to produce gospel music, and I did a full album with Lecrae that's the number one Christian album. It's super-big for me.

We did 'Bricks' and 'Ridiculous' all in one day. Gucci came here, like, 8 in the morning - we were done 4 the morning the next day.

You can always know, when it comes to a Gucci Mane or Migos project, there is no such thing of them putting out a project without me being a part of it. These are guys that I'm really close with, and we built a sound together, and we got a certain chemistry.

I tell people that it's one thing to have the gift and the talent and work hard but another thing to have the favor of God in making it all work, and I think all those are factors.

Future is a real workaholic, so he's the type of guy that's gonna do more than enough songs to make sure you got everything you need.

When Zaytoven and Future are working together, then Future's not working on no other tracks, and Zaytoven's not making no beats for nobody but Future.

Now, I made the most money I ever made in my life with 'Papers' - I think my first check was like $101,000, my folks couldn't even believe. At this time, this is like 2010, I'm still in the barbershop cutting hair, still being the regular Zaytoven because I felt like after 'Papers,' it wasn't going to get any bigger than that.

I've been doing this since 'So Icy' back in 2005.

When me and Gucci sit down, I make tracks real fast, and he can write songs real fast.

I almost never pitch myself. Me being an independent producer, never having a manager and never being signed, I pretty much just did my own thing: go out and search for the new talent, and when the new talent blows up, it just kinda brings everyone else to me.

I play the piano, but I'm not classically trained.

I was listening to Young Jeezy and Shawty Red, and to me, the trap music they had was something special.

To me, my studio is my trap house. That's where I trap out of; that's where I hustle. That's where I make my money.

What's so crazy is I always looked at Jay Z and guys on the caliber of Jay Z like they just the big dogs. I didn't think they listen to my music or even know who I am.

I can show these folks I can do more than just the 'trap.' But what I realized is the trap is what they really recognize me for - that's what they want to hear.

Trap is being added to everything. It seems like every genre wants that bit of trap to what they're doing.

When I think of trap, I think of something that is unrehearsed. It's something that's edgy, not too well put together.

I think that the sound that the world knows as trap music is the sound that Gucci and I created.

When I was cutting hair, I felt like that was my trap. I started selling haircuts. I started selling beats; that's me trapping. So trap music is like hustling music to me.

Trap music, to me, is hustling music.

'Birds of a Feather' is on Netflix, and it did big for me. For me, it was a trial and error thing. I never thought about being an actor. I just felt like, in the music industry now, anything you said can go. So now it's a part of what I do. I make movies now.

Atlanta can do crunk music, it can do snap music, it can do swag music. Atlanta has it all.