Producer ATL Jacob talks about refusing to release beats until they're perfect, his intense workflow of producing dozens of beats in days followed by breaks, and his unreleased Young Thug beat "Fighting Depression" where he added his own Auto-Tune vocals.
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Hey, this is Wendy Day from Rap Coalition. Welcome back to Producer 2020. I've got one of my favorite young producers here, ATL Jacob. So how did you get started producing?
I started producing, uh, you know, running around trying to just keep perfecting my craft before I wanted anybody to rap on my beat. I just wanted to make sure it sounded right before anybody did rap on my beat, so I just kept kept perfecting over the years and years. And finally I started getting placements, got my first Dirk placement, just elevated from there on up.
Did you start giving beats away for free, or did you start— was your intention to start like selling them when you started?
I didn't give beats away at all. I didn't want nobody to rap on them. I felt like they wasn't ready. They wasn't ready yet. So I had to keep perfecting, get my sound like— I'm still getting my sound together to this day.
Really?
Yeah, I still— wow, like, it'll sound good and then it'll be like 6 months later sound even better, and 6 months later sound even better.
So I'm still perfecting because you're growing, you're growing as a producer.
Yeah, like, sound get sharper and sharper.
How long do you spend making beats? Like, do you do it every day, all day?
No, I take breaks. I used to do it every day, all day, but that's really draining. Like, you know, for me it's really draining. I got to take breaks. So then By the time I start back making beats, I go, I drop the hardest beats ever, hardest 30-pack ever. Like, I ain't make beats in probably like 2, 3 weeks. Then I made beat, I made 50 beats in 4 days out of there.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Okay. How did you learn the music business? How did you learn like what to do and what not to do?
You learn by making your mistakes. You learn by, uh, you learn from just other people telling you what they went through too. But a lot of mistakes, just learning. You gotta learn how to move, learn how to build structure and stuff. So I'm still learning at the same time too.
You're doing an amazing job.
Yeah, thanks. Still trying to— nowhere near where I want to be yet.
Have you made the perfect beat yet? Yes, you have. That's awesome.
It's Young Thug, uh, Fighting Depression.
That's your favorite?
Whenever he dropped the song.
That's awesome.
He, he posted a snippet and never dropped it. 2 years ago.
I hope he does. I want to hear the perfect beat.
That my favorite song. Yeah, I'm actually singing in that beat in the background. People don't know.
You can sing?
On Auto-Tune.
Okay, fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. Is there any advice you want to give to an up-and-coming producer that looks up to you and wants to be you?
Keep grinding, be yourself, and perfect your craft. You never— you're never the best that you could be.
That's true. I've been doing this 28 years, I'm still not the best I could be.
Facts.
That's real. Thank you, Jacob. Thanks for talking to me.
