Quotes from Zaytoven

When you take your music around to your people in the city or your label, and don't nobody like it, but you really like it, and you like, 'Dang, these folks don't hear what I hear.'

When your dad is a preacher and your mom is a choir director and you're in church all the time, as a youngster, you've got to find something to do. That's where my musical background comes from.

When I was a youngster, I might have been about 17 or 18 when I first started making beats.

When I was in high school, the girls used to tell me I looked like Usher, so to be doing a song with Usher was mind-blowing.

I like V-Nasty a lot, and I know anytime I like an artist and the majority of people really don't like her, I know it's something special. That's the same way I felt about Gucci.

Guys like Future and me, we help create and shape the sound of music - not just Atlanta music, but music all over. If you really pay attention to the music being made, a lot of that is very heavily influenced by the stuff that we created. I listen to so many songs that's like, 'Damn, this sounds like my music!'

If you listen to my early music, I didn't know how to mix. I barely knew how to record for real, and I didn't care.

Just the instrumentation of the whole 'Beast Mode' made people open up and respect me in a whole other way. With Gucci, I don't use as many instruments. I don't play the piano as much because that's not really the style of music that me and Gucci have built.

You listen to something like 'Beast Mode,' and it's almost like looking at a pretty painting.

I listen to a lot of music... but there still hasn't been a project yet that touches me like 'Beast Mode' has.

Most artists value my opinion a lot, and I think that's due to 'Beast Mode.'

When I think about 'Beast Mode,' that's what I think about. I don't think about just a hard project; they just created some art together.

I was a military brat. My dad was in the military, so I was born in Germany. I moved around a lot; I was in church a lot.

The music business, a lot of times, has a big finesse mentality to it.

My formula is not thinking about what I'm doing; it's about still having fun and making music. I don't go into the studio with a thought pattern or certain goals in mind - sometimes I'll start with drums, other times I'll start with the piano - but it's all done spontaneously, so nothing is premeditated, and nothing takes a long time.

I've been doing two things my whole life: I've been cuttin' hair, and I've been playing the organ at church. Those two things are what I looked at as my life: this is how I'm gonna make my money, this is how I'm gonna make my living... It helped me to be stable in what I do.

When my dad retired, he moved to Georgia, but I stayed in California. I was in San Francisco: that's where I first went from being a musician to making beats and producing. I was 18, 19. It started going pretty good for me out there in California, so I stayed in SF while my parents moved to Georgia.

It's been a blessing that I can provide for my family just by doing music. I never thought this would ever be my occupation.

The most memorable part of filming 'Finesse,' I'd have to say, was the kissing scene. It was just so odd for me.

I have a church background. I've been playing piano and keyboard and organ all my life in church.

When I work with Future, it's almost like a work of art.