The most important ingredient is soul.
I just try to go for something that reminds
me of what I grew up on
and I grew up in a soulful era with the funk and the R&B.
I just go off that vibe.
So I had a website called the Surfkid when
I was in the Surf Club and they had the OVO
blogspot, which is now the full website.
So, one night I just ended up lurking the
OVO site and he had posted this video with
Static Major.
The bounce that Smoke played in the piano
determined everything and Static was snapping.
You know, you can hear Static snapping at
some points of it and shit like that.
And I just didn’t want to interrupt that
bounce.
The piano melody came in and something was
just telling me like, “Man, I need to sample
this shit for Drake.”
And I sampled it from YouTube.
It was an amazing piece of music.
It was the only way I could get it, so I’m
going to get my hands on it.
Drake told me to remove the drums on the verse
– I basically did that and that led to the
hook portion that we all know that stayed
in the record.
I’ll play these kicks out solo.
So the kicks are going left to right.
Just to give it a different bounce.
I did that more for like a heartbeat vibe.
I wanted to give it a pulse and not give it
a regular drum pattern.
When 40 ended up taking the first drums out,
that made that part stand out so much more
because I don’t even think anyone expected
that bounce to come in.
It was just very different and when it came
in, it was just some soulful one-two step
type shit.
That’s what I really wanted to go for.
I wanted to have an old school R&B’ish vibe
to where even though I know a lot of young
people listen to Drake, I wanted people
who are older who maybe not be familiar with
the singles or anything like that, to hear
something like – hear a record like this
from him and be like, “Ok, he makes something
for me also.”
And then there was also a percussion loop
that I added with that.
I think you do hear, you might hear the breath
more than you hear the actual lasers and
shit like that.
Because if you listen to the version with
Drake and you hear the hook, you can hear
the girl breathing in the back, but it’s
like you said, man.
I have so many different elements in this
shit, then 40’s mixing just took it over
the top with him knowing how to place all
the sounds in the right pocket and
shit like that.
Now, if you listen to that with the loop,
you’ll hear how well it blends.
Also added a clap.
You cannot do nothing without a bass line.
I didn’t want to put an 808 in it because
I didn’t think it deserved any BOOM or any
random shit like that.
When it got to the hook, the piano was perfect
but it just needed something else to take
it to another level and the bass just added
what I would call the meat with the potatoes.
Like, the potatoes was already there with
the piano and it was just – people need
that big steak.
That 16 ounce steak to go on the plate to
complete it.
That’s what the bass line provided.
It just came through – it was that nice
sub.
I really look for an instrument that may give
me some type of memory jog.
I like to get people to sit and think.
A lot of music is meant to make people move,
but I kind of like to make people move in
a different way.
Maybe sit still and move up here.
Where you’re moving so much in the body
you ain't got time to think.
This record is literally Drake featuring Static
Major.
You know, we did everything in our power to
make sure Smoke and Static and everybody that
was involved with it got their just due.
