9lokknine: Yeah, me and Melly, we ain’t
plan to make that song.
He was working on “Mixed Personalities”
with Kanye.
We was in the studio.
I pulled up the the Hit Factory in Miami.
So I was walking up the stairs.
I had some weed in my back pocket, like a
whole zip.
Boom, walking up the stairs.
It fall out my back pocket.
When it fall, he pick it up.
I never knew he was behind me the whole time.
He pick it up.
I walk in the room, in the little studio room.
He say, “Bruh you dropped your weed.”
I’m like, “What the fuck?”
We end up walking in the studio and he was
like, “Bruh you know we gotta get something,
right?”
Like, ‘cause we’re from Florida.
Rocco ended up cutting on the beat I told
him to cut on.
He was like, “Oh this hard.”
I’m like, “You wanna get on that beat?”
He’s like, “Yeah.”
He ran in there, jumped in there and ran 
the whole thing.
Off the dome.
Rocco: When I first found 9lokk, I just felt
like he was the future.
Something about him.
Something about his look, his style.
The way he came on, the track was just different
than anything I heard in the moment.
I felt his passion and the pain in his voice.
He’s just real.
I feel like he’s going to be one of the
biggest artists in the next 10 years.
9lokknine: Rocco be trying to make me look
at it like that all the time.
“9lokk, you a star.
Woop woop.”
I tell him, I don’t know what you’re talking
about.
I don’t really be…
I don’t know… like that.
Artists and all that.
I see past that.
I see who you is.
That’s why I be telling people, I ain’t
no celebrity.
I’m a regular person just like you.
Probably just got a little money.
Rocco: We were going through a time where
he was working on this project.
The label’s like, “We need a record.”
I was like, “Man.
I know what he likes.
I’m just going to make a beat myself.
This was the first beat I made in years.
Where I learned a lot of my stuff, I managed
T-Pain.
That was the first artist I managed.
T-Pain: I got my tall dog back here.
Rocco Valdez.
Rocco: I was in the studio with him all the
time.
He used to use Logic.
I used to watch him and study that.
His engineer is Javier.
That was T-Pain’s engineer for 10 years.
Probably longer.
Javi is the autotune master.
One thing he likes is a certain tempo.
I know he likes 95 bpm.
So I started off with the hi-hat.
After I did the hi-hats, I added a snap.
After that, I said, “Ok it’s slowly going
together.
I want to layer the snap with something.”
Because it wasn’t strong enough so I added
the clap.
After that, I added the kick.
I layered it with another kick.
I felt like a reggae vibe would be cool like
on this type of track so I went looking through
some loops and I found this loop.
It was straight island vibes but I was like,
“That doesn’t sound great.”
So I worked on it and flipped it, and this
is what we get.
9lokknine: Now…
If I were to hear this like this, I’d start
rapping “223s.”
Blood walk baby, this the blood walk.
Ain’t gon’ lie.
That hook hard.
Rocco: Next to me is the most important part.
This 808…
I made myself.
After the 808’s, I was like, “Okay this
is done.”
What’s crazy is that…
Since this is like the first beat back, I
didn’t even add like any EQ, any nothing.
This was all just raw.
So you really don’t have to go crazy with
effects and stuff if you just pick the right
sounds to begin with.
9lokknine: So my boy, my boy Rocc hit me like,
“9lokk, I need a tag.”
At first I was like, I’ll do it but then
I was like, I don’t know.
I don’t know what to say, you feel me?
He sent me a tag.
This same tag right here.
Y’all won’t believe that’s his daughter.
Rocco: I was trying to figure out what should
my tag be and I was like…
I asked my daughter Summer if she could record,
“Rocco did it again.”
So now she thinks she’s a star.
9lokknine: At first, I was getting carried
away with doubling my vocals.
I started doubling them, tripling them, quadrupling
them.
I was doing a lot of stuff to them things.
I don’t do all that no more though.
Rocco: Here’s the acapella of the song.
Rocco: After we put everything in, this is
how it came out.
9lokknine: Rocco sent it to me on TikTok.
He’s like, “9lokk.
This female, she got one of the biggest TikTok
accounts.
She just did a video to your “223s”
song.
He said, “Make a TikTok account.
The song is going crazy on there.”
9lokknine: We is going to get the chance to
run it back ‘cause my boy finna get out.
But when he come home, it’s gonna be a lot
more where that came from.
Florida boys, florida boys.
9lokknine: Me and Ariana Grande got something working.
I ain’t gonna too much put it out there
like that yet but we got something coming.
Real soon.
Pop star.
