Video: MTV Mixtape Daily - Zaytoven (Behind The Beats)
via MTV:
Xavier “Zaytoven” Dotson literally is crafting the sound of the South as we know it right now. Usher, Jagged Edge, Rick Ross, Slim from 112, Yung LA — all are on his just-done list, but his biggest clients are the two dudes he’s been rocking with for years, Gucci Mane and OJ Da Juiceman.
Zaytoven moved from his native San Francisco to Atlanta back in 2000. With the price of studio time on the rise, Z converted his parents’ basement into his own personal lab and got to work. All he originally had was a computer and a keyboard — the rappers he worked with recorded their lyrics in a closet.
“Checks done helped us out, got us looking better,” he said about improvements made to the space. “I never moved the studio, ’cause I like its home feel. This is where all my family comes and we kick it. We been doing this since day one. I’mma always have this studio — this is home. We call this Zaytown. We in the A-Town, this basement is Zaytown.”
To get to Zaytown, you pull up to an unassuming house, walk through the front into the kitchen, then ease through the living room where his grandmother might be watching TV, down to the basement. He’s made hundreds of beats down there (most of them take only 10 minutes to finish), and all the big Gucci Mane and OJ Da Juiceman songs originated there, from “Bricks” to “Make the Trap Say Aye.”
“We did ‘Bricks’ and ‘Ridiculous’ all in one day,” Zaytoven offered. “Gucci came here, like, 8 in the morning — we were done 4 the morning the next day. OJ came way later that day, and ‘Make the Trap Say Aye’ was one of the last songs we did.”
“When me and Gucci sit down, I make tracks real fast and he can write songs real fast,” Zay told us about his friend of almost a decade. Their winning game plan was to just release new music as frequently as possible.
“We felt we could do that faster and more than anybody else,” Zay explained. “We put out more music than anybody else has. We felt that what’s was gonna separate us from everybody else. Everybody don’t get a chance to breathe. People be like, ‘They putting out all that music’ — it made them pay attention.”
The Gucc is back in the studio after his jail stint, and ‘Toven said people are just now recognizing what he’s known for almost 10 years.
“He actually came and was trying to write music for his little nephew,” he said of how Gucci first started making his own songs. “He was coming by [my studio], trying to get his nephew. Once he started recording and I heard him … I said, ‘This guy got it right here.’ A lot of people didn’t hear it then, but I liked Gucci Mane’s music a whole lot. We were doing our own thing. I’d make beats, he’d rap and we’d go to the club and perform.
“The sound I got is how Gucci Mane rap,” Zay explained. “It’s hard, but it’s still bright and got character to it. It ain’t just hard and gory — it’s got life to it.”
Now Gucci, OJ and Zaytoven are all moving from the streets to the mainstream. OJ laid tracks with R. Kelly, Gucci is on songs by Black Eyed Peas and Mariah Carey and Zay made a song for Usher’s new album.
“I can’t wait for something like that to come out, so people can see I do more that just hip-hop,” Zay said. “I can do R&B, pop, gospel … whatever genre of music that’s out. If you listen to [this new Usher song], you can’t say, ‘Zaytoven did that.’
“All this stuff is big for me,” he added. “It’s our time. The sound we put out for so long and gave away for free on the mixtapes — now it means something.”
July 10th, 2009 at 11:22 am
underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/snapple_bottle.jpg
^
to actq this is a smoking hot menage
July 10th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Zaytoven > J Dilla
July 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Zaytoven, Zaytiggie, aye, aye, aye, okay, aye, young juice, zaytoven
July 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
*yawns*
July 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Max B >
July 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
once my neighbours let me look after their guinea pigs s o i had access into their house to get food out the fridge
i ventured upstairs wary of any booby traps or cams
then, proceed to dive into the underware drawer and found the milfs knickers put it on my face n jacked one off on the floor of the room
i felt liberated..
July 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Ghost Writer Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Zaytoven > J Dilla
^^^
why snitchy?
July 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
If I was a chick I’d let Reinaldo da Cruz Oliveira ravish my guts (c) Sean Coonery.
^ this is in print somewhere in the nah Archives
July 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I feel like there is no way that a snapple bottle would fit snugly around ones penis…am I crazy?
super pause
July 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am
zaytoven is that nigga. . . .
July 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Zaytoven?! Seriously?!
July 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
# Wallace Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:21 am
i once used an xbox controller as a vibrator on a chick
^^^^
The fuck?!
*blank stare*
July 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Jesus needs to stop lurking and save some of y’all…
July 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
i once used an xbox controller as a vibrator on a chick
July 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
co-sig beezy, i call bullshit - atcq ain’t got a 3.5 inch thick penis [||]
i want proof [||]
July 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
KzA Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Anyone see that shit on CNN bout MJ takin liike 30-40 xanax a fuckin night?
———
its in all the papers nationwide…
last week they said Son had hella track marks on his arm when they found him ..
no disrespect, but MJ was a straight up junkie …
Demerol, Morphine, Heroin, Anesthesia Machines, Xanax, Diprivan… etc
you wouldve offered MJ a good blunt of Purple, he prolly look at you like GTFOH… what ima do with that trash?
July 10th, 2009 at 11:27 am
From what I’ve read this morning, this is by far the corniest shift on Nah Right. You people are sick! Sick I tell you!
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
CiCi The Intern Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
# Wallace Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:21 am
i once used an xbox controller as a vibrator on a chick
^^^^
The fuck?!
*blank stare*
^^^
That’s understandable. If I’m doing something all important like playing legend of zelda and a chick wants to bother me with menial things like sex, she can take this controller and wait till i’m done!
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
@ atcq aka long dong silver, send a pic of ur equipment [||] to cici so that she can confirm the python size and let the bredren know if ur fugaze or not [||]. or send it to a chick, she’s part horse so she seent dicks that big before among her kind.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
If I was a chick I’d let Reinaldo da Cruz Oliveira ravish my guts (c) Sean Coonery.
^ this is in print somewhere in the nah Archives
^I thought he said allen iverson? Well, I wouldn’t put it pass him (pause) that he mentioned another random ass nicca he wanted to burn his insides up.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
speaking of production……….forgive me for being so late on this discovery but Black Milk is nothing short of amazing
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
ATCQ is purporting to have a penis with the girth circumference wise of a cucumber…
Lies lies lies
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
# Beezy Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I feel like there is no way that a snapple bottle would fit snugly around ones penis…am I crazy?
super pause
^ Depends on what age I guess. If you’re 12 years old… why wouldn’t it?
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
!Ven-Tech? Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Ghost Writer Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Zaytoven > J Dilla
^^^
why snitchy?
^
Trying to change the topic…lol…
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Wesker Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:27 am
From what I’ve read this morning, this is by far the corniest shift on Nah Right. You people are sick! Sick I tell you!
^^^
Nah, we just have “real” jobs is all…
July 10th, 2009 at 11:29 am
# Wesker Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:27 am
From what I’ve read this morning, this is by far the corniest shift on Nah Right. You people are sick! Sick I tell you!
^ I don’t disagree.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:29 am
If you’re 12 years old… why wouldn’t it?
^
doggie are you saying that people dick’s get *smaller* as they get older
what type of backward benjamin buttons type shit is that
July 10th, 2009 at 11:29 am
If ya’ll call bullshit thats fine, im not trying to convince anyone lol
I was young(er) and dumber(er)
July 10th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Cordial Cashmere Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
@ atcq aka long dong silver, send a pic of ur equipment [||] to cici so that she can confirm the python size and let the bredren know if ur fugaze or not [||]. or send it to a chick, she’s part horse so she seent dicks that big before among her kind.
^^^
There’s something wrong with this…
July 10th, 2009 at 11:29 am
^I thought he said allen iverson? Well, I wouldn’t put it pass him (pause) that he mentioned another random ass nicca he wanted to burn his insides up.
^ yea he mentioned A.I too in that same sentence… lol thats one funny knucca. Gay but funny.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Okay now niggas wanna see or get reports on other niggas shafts?
This can’t be life (c) Shawn cory
July 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
co-sig beezy, i call bullshit - atcq ain’t got a 3.5 inch thick penis [||]
i want proof [||]
^^
no way you can pause this shit!!
you just said “lemme see your dick, tribe! no homo!”
July 10th, 2009 at 11:31 am
So what about them Lakers? Artest FTW
July 10th, 2009 at 11:31 am
# Beezy Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I feel like there is no way that a snapple bottle would fit snugly around ones penis…am I crazy?
super pause
^ Depends on what age I guess. If you’re 12 years old… why wouldn’t it?
^ yo this is going a bit too far
PINKY!!!
July 10th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Dilla >
July 10th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Joe 88 Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
If I was a chick I’d let Reinaldo da Cruz Oliveira ravish my guts (c) Sean Coonery.
^ this is in print somewhere in the nah Archives
^I thought he said allen iverson? Well, I wouldn’t put it pass him (pause) that he mentioned another random ass nicca he wanted to burn his insides up.
———-
he said “Ghostface was the cutest member” of wutang …
July 10th, 2009 at 11:32 am
niggas up in here love each others dick game and shape and size
yes homos
July 10th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Wait hold up, you guys cant fit your penises into a snapple bottle?
before you little dick mothafuckers answer rememeber the technique.. In while its flacid
No homo (although this feels very homo-ish)
July 10th, 2009 at 11:32 am
# Wesker Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:31 am
So what about them Lakers? Artest FTW
^ Yeah, no kidding.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:34 am
still can’t believe nobody saw that jordan crawford clip from espn. . . . that nigga’s funny.
i was on the right wing, and i drove to the basket. lebron was under it, and i rose up. . . i guess he didn’t think i was gonna dunk it b/c he jumped late. . . and i just dunked it on him.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:34 am
# A tribe called quest aka The Latin Teddy Ruxpin Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Wait hold up, you guys cant fit your penises into a snapple bottle?
before you little dick mothafuckers answer rememeber the technique.. In while its flacid
No homo (although this feels very homo-ish)
^^^
You know how wide that opening is? That’s wide….
If you would’ve said a Sprite bottle or something, I’d be with you but a Snapple bottle … that’s Lexington Steele-worthy….
July 10th, 2009 at 11:36 am
CiCi The Intern Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
# Wallace Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 11:21 am
i once used an xbox controller as a vibrator on a chick
^^^^
======================
the 2 way pager worked too
July 10th, 2009 at 11:36 am
If you would’ve said a Sprite bottle or something, I’d be with you but a Snapple bottle … that’s Lexington Steele-worthy….
^^
you honestly…its not that big. greatly overestimating here.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
i fuck with zay. he developed his own sound.