Quotes from Mike Will Made It

Putting together a hit record is like putting together a puzzle.

With Yo Gotti 'Rack It Up,' that was him hitting me like, bro, I'm about to put out a single next month, I want you to produce it.

Me and Miley just clicked. She has good ideas. She's real creative.

With rapping, that's just another form of expressing your music. Whether you're going to rap, you're going to sing, it's whatever you want.

I like everything rare - cars, shoes, clothes.

When people question me about whether something is hip-hop, I ask them, 'Does it sound hard? Does it hit home? Is it raw and real?' If it is, I did my job. And you can call it whatever you want.

If I get a Grammy, that would be dope.

I first heard Trouble in 2008. At that time I was on my grind, trying to work with all the next-up artists. I had sent him a couple beats; he had done a couple songs. We was always around the same age.

I used to grind. I be telling people, you don't grind, you don't sell. I was like 15, 16 getting dropped off in the city by myself, with my own beat CDs.

I was able to bring Gucci and Rae Sremmurd on a track together. It was crazy because it seemed like it was destined to be.

If I tell you purple look good on you, and you ain't never wore purple, your favorite colors are red and green, and you're like, No man, these my colors. You won't know purple is your color until you try it on.

When I tried to send him beats in 2010, he told me I was too expensive for him. I told Future we had to work together, that it would be beneficial for both of us, that we didn't have to worry about the money.

I love the grind. Gucci taught me to never stop working.

We Can't Stop' was the first song we did. We didn't try to reach and be too 'hood:' It's hip-hop-influenced, but Miley's a pop singer, and she's going to have country in there.

I feel like when I came in the game, I was more focused on like, 'yo how many times can I get on the radio?'

Once you start getting money, it relieves your stress of worrying about how you're going to pay your next bill. It's more like another stress of how many bills you have to pay.

I wanted to find raw talent and help build it from scratch. I wanted to build from rags to riches. That's the way Ear Drummers did it. We took over the music industry from my mom's basement. That's why my first album is going to be called 'Made It Out the Basement.'

That's the most important part of all the music I produce: making sure the artist is bringing themselves out in the music.

When I was still at Interscope, I told them about Rae Sremmurd and we were talking about signing them. I was like, 'This is the hood Backstreet Boys, the black *NSYNC. This is the most ratchet pop is gonna get and this is the most pop hip-hop is gonna get.'

I really believed in 2 Chainz, I really believed in Future, and I was going to the studio with them every single day.

2012, I feel like I was still grinding. It was a good year for me, but that was my year breaking down the barriers. It was like my introduction.

We Can't Stop' - everyone said that it wasn't going to work on pop radio, because it didn't have an EDM-type beat. But it went to No. 2 on Billboard and No. 1 on iTunes.

God has blessed me with something. One day, I do see myself being like Jimmy Iovine. I'm trying to build an empire.

The 'trap' sound is a sound from the city. We've always liked music with bass. We've always liked old schools with big speakers in the trunks. We like our music loud. We've always had a nightlife scene in Atlanta.