Mike Will: Rhythm and melody, I always keep this in mind when I'm making beats,
rhythm and melody are the universal language.
if the beat is bouncing, and it has an ill ass rhythm to it, or if it has a good melody—
then anybody in the world can bounce.
You know what I’m saying. We at Tree Sounds kicking shit as usual.
The way I look at music is like, we're creating a wave form. All the way in the pro tools and everything.
When I started "Black Beatles" I really just started with the drums and what not.
So first I would add a clap.
And then 808.
And then by that time, you know what I’m saying, I pretty much got the beat going.
So I’ll take the metronome off. So it’s just all natural drums and there’s no more click track.
Add a snare in there.
And then like, I feel like the high hats add the character to it and bring the bounce into it.
At that point I feel like I got a good loop track.
I had this arpeggiator and it was just sounding cool. And I was just fucking with it and it sounded like...
I don't know... it just sounded like a video game.
And I was like, "How can I make this shit weird?" And I was just fucking with it. And I was just like man..
I just held that shit down, like...
You know what I’m saying. It’s an arp.
Then it's back to that melody and rhythm go a long way.
The drums are already rocking.
I just laid this arp on it with the piano. I just went along with the beat.
I heard this melody.
With the pianos, I was thinking like some fucking 90s R&B.
You know what I'm saying? That's why I wanted the beat to sound like that.
Because I felt like the vibe of the arpeggiator and the vibe of the piano, there was just like two different vibes.
I sent it to Swae Lee and I was like, "Man here's an idea
I came up with the other day." Because I knew we were close to wrapping up the album.
So I'm like "See if you fuck with it."
And then he did "Black Beatles" immediately and sent it back like "Yo tell me what you think about this. It's a hook I just laid on there.”
I'm like "Yo, this shit hard!"
And at the time I was over at Gucci's house, so I was like, "Gucci, you know we gotta have you on SremmLife 2."
It was crazy because the first interview ever with Rae Sremmurd on DJ Drama's station,
Gucci called me from prison and he was like "Yo, that group Rae Sremmurd? They're gonna be big, bruh."
The first interview ever. Way back. A couple of years ago.  So he was like, "Man, I wanna do a song with them."
Of course they always looked up to Gucci and respected his music. It was the perfect matchup. Perfect timing.
We had just wrapped up the album. Bro was just coming home. And I had just made the beat and everything just lined up.
