{"id":193927,"date":"2024-03-05T12:21:37","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T12:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=193927"},"modified":"2024-03-05T12:21:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T12:21:37","slug":"were-not-trying-to-do-the-bare-minimum-were-trying-to-change-hip-hop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/were-not-trying-to-do-the-bare-minimum-were-trying-to-change-hip-hop\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We\u2019re not trying to do the bare minimum, we\u2019re trying to change hip-hop.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Producers series sees us interview \u2013 and celebrate \u2013 some of the outstanding talents working in studios across the decades. Here we meet TM88, the co-founder of 808 Mafia, who has already worked with some of hip-hop’s greatest but who insists he’s only just getting started. World\u2019s Greatest Producers is supported by Hipgnosis Song Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>\"Music<\/i><\/a><\/figure>

When Bryan Lamar Simmons was first starting out on his music career, he found himself essentially homeless.<\/p>\n

His mother had moved to New York, but the young Simmons, now much better known as TM88, elected to stay in hip-hop hotbed Atlanta to pursue his producer-writer dream. Which, at the time, meant crashing on a lot of friends\u2019 couches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d wake up, wash their car, take the trash out,\u201d he reminisces. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to do what you\u2019ve got to do to have somewhere to stay. I always believed in playing my part \u2013 if you\u2019re going to get somewhere, you\u2019ve got to bring something to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s a philosophy he\u2019s also brought to a stellar production career that has seen him alter the DNA of rap production on multiple occasions via his work with the likes of Future (Puffin On Zootiez<\/em>), Drake (Way 2 Sexy<\/em>), Lil Uzi Vert (XO Tour Llif3<\/em>), 21 Savage (Drip<\/em>), DJ Khaled (Beautiful<\/em>) and Travis Scott (Nothing But Net<\/em>), to name but a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to earn your keep, man,\u201d he shrugs. \u201cThat\u2019s just how the world was built. Before everything was all about money \u2013 and I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s been about money since way before we were born \u2013 everybody did something to help. Whatever you decide to do in life, it should help the next person. If everybody pulls their weight, the ship is going to sail. If one person don\u2019t paddle, it can mess the whole ship up.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, of course, TM88 could travel by private yacht if he chose to. But he still laughs modestly at the thought of joining MBW<\/em>\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Producers pantheon (\u201cI know we did a lot of great things,\u201d he says, \u201cBut once you get to thinking you made it to the top, that\u2019s when you fall short of everything you worked hard for. So, I\u2019m one of the greatest students of the game\u2026\u201d).<\/p>\n

He credits the burgeoning 1990s\/2000s Atlanta hip-hop scene for giving his career lift-off. A music obsessive from childhood, his cousin taught him how to make beats aged 12. In 2010, he and fellow Atlantans Southside and Lex Luger formed production and songwriting collective 808 Mafia and TM soon earned his first major placement on local star rapper Waka Flocka Flame\u2019s Lurkin<\/em>, earning $7,000 in the process (\u201cI cried and called him five times to thank him!\u201d).<\/p>\n

Since then, paying the rent has not been an issue for TM88. His enduring collaboration with another hometown rapper, Future, has proved particularly productive. He once created more than a dozen beats for Future in a single night after his laptop, containing all his music files, was stolen \u2013 and the rapper powered through them all. The partnership also yielded their first No.1 with Drake and Young Thug on 2021\u2019s Right Said Fred-sampling\u00a0Way 2 Sexy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sony Music Publishing-signed TM has made a habit of cooking up good beats for bad times, essentially inventing emo-trap with Lil Uzi Vert on\u00a0XO Tour Llif3, built at a time when the producer was recovering from the trauma of being caught up in a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale airport.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m trying to go Dr Dre level. That\u2019s my next step.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He’s also expanded his reach beyond production, via his Crash Dummy Records producers collective (which, he says proudly, was behind a new song a week during Q4), and tells MBW<\/em> of his plans to become \u201cone of the biggest tech moguls in the world in the next five years\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak about it now, but I\u2019m going to create something,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cI\u2019m trying to go Dr Dre level. That\u2019s my next step. I do a lot of things in music besides making beats\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, however, he still has production jobs stacked up around the block, including one project with a pop superstar that, if it makes the finished album, could see him expand his power base way beyond hip-hop.<\/p>\n

Now, though, it\u2019s time for him to wind down from his brutal-sounding workout by talking MBW<\/em> through Drake, AI and, er, Billy Ray Cyrus\u2026<\/p>\n

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WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND CRASH DUMMY?<\/h6>\n

We\u2019re crashing the world with knowledge and beats! It means a lot to me because, to get in the game, we had to kick a lot of doors down.<\/p>\n

You go in this game, you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on and you learn a lot during the process. Producers meet us, they\u2019re getting knowledge and swag. Crashing the world, that\u2019s the motto \u2013 kick those doors down and don\u2019t let nobody hold you back.<\/p>\n

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IT’S USUALLY QUITE COMPETITIVE BETWEEN PRODUCERS\u2026<\/h6>\n

Everything is competitive. It\u2019s like sports \u2013 basketball or football and when I talk to my guys, that\u2019s how I explain things.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always good to have friendly competition because you might hear a beat and be like, \u2018Oh snap! That\u2019s crazy. Now I\u2019m going to make the craziest beat you ever heard in your life\u2026\u2019 And when somebody else gets a placement, it should make you want to go get a placement. Competition is the greatest thing you can have, because you\u2019ll never get lazy. And if you do get lazy, then it wasn\u2019t meant for you, or you just didn\u2019t have it in you.<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t have to cut people out of deals, because there\u2019s a lot of money for all of us out there. If producers stuck together, it\u2019d be better. A lot of rappers and artists stick together on publishing and rights, but as producers we never stick together, it\u2019s always this man against this man.<\/p>\n

But really, we\u2019re all working towards the same common goal and that\u2019s keeping hip-hop alive. I want younger producers, and the producers my age that are still stubborn, to know that we can share the knowledge and make sure we put hip-hop in a better place. It\u2019s suffering at the moment, because everybody wants to do the same things and work on the same type of beats. Nobody wants to push the needle. This goes for me as well, because I get comfortable too.<\/p>\n

As producers, we\u2019ve just got to stick together and come up with a plan to make sure we\u2019re taking hip-hop to the next level, and make sure it\u2019s not falling off because of us.<\/p>\n

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IS HIP-HOP FALLING OFF THEN?<\/h6>\n

I don\u2019t want to sit here and sound like one of those guys. I like rap, I like hip-hop, I just feel it can be more versatile.<\/p>\n

We need the music that\u2019s out now, but you have to have an abundance of other stuff too, not just for hip-hop. It\u2019s a balance when you\u2019ve got rock, country, rap, R&B\u2026 As producers, we\u2019ve got to push ourselves to make different stuff.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ll still push the needle forward, because that\u2019s just what I do.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ll still push the needle forward, because that\u2019s just what I do. But I don\u2019t want to be the guy that\u2019s bashing hip-hop, when I love hip-hop. I\u2019ll be the help that hip-hop needs to change.<\/p>\n

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YOU HAVE HELPED COMPLETELY CHANGE THE SOUND OF RAP A COUPLE OF TIMES. DO YOU GET THE CREDIT YOU DESERVE FOR THAT?<\/h6>\n

A lot of people don\u2019t give us the credit, but 95% of some producers\u2019 sound today is because of us. We don\u2019t get mad or anything, we just know. You don\u2019t get any cookies or awards for being the first to do some shit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s not cool to copy; you copy to get your own style. I copied so many producers to get my sound today.<\/p>\n

But when we first came out [as 808 Mafia], everybody was copying our sound. We had to change our sound two or three times a year. We\u2019d have a whole new sound by the time their song came out, and it made us better.<\/p>\n

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IT’S ALWAYS SEEMED LIKE MAKING BEATS ISN\u2019T JUST TECHNICAL FOR YOU THOUGH, IT\u2019S EMOTIONAL TOO\u2026<\/h6>\n

Yeah. I\u2019m very spiritual. I pray all the time, but I also feel connected with the earth. My Grandma passed away a few years ago and she was a soldier; I can feel her when I\u2019m making certain beats.<\/p>\n

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