FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

TM88 Wants the Fire Department to Shut Down His Shows

Ahead of his upcoming tour with Young Thug, the Atlanta producer talks going solo and shares a blazing mix of hip-hop hits.
Courtesy of artist

When it comes to career highlights, 2015 was good to TM88. Last year, the Atlanta-based producer (whose real name is Bryan Simmons) checked off a few more bucket list items, the most impressive of which being his first placement on a platinum-selling project (he helped produce "Company" on Drake's don't-call-it-an-album retail mixtape If You're Reading This It's Too Late), which also earned him his first Grammy nomination.

Advertisement

That's not to say there weren't bumps in the road. For awhile, his association with 808 Mafia—the influential production collective he helped start in 2010 who have supplied beats for everyone from Waka Flocka Flame to Future to Wiz Khalifa—was questioned after a few not-so-delicate words from fellow producer and 808 Mafia cofounder Southside last spring. "Fuck TM88, 'cuz he's not 808 Mafia anymore," Southside remarked in a March 2015 interview with WatchLOUD, before offering a decidedly less antagonistic opinion of his former partner ("That's my brother, I don't beef with my brothers" he later told Pigeons & Planes).

After clearing up the rumours regarding their relationship himself, TM88's focus has shifted to his solo career, which has included starting his own imprint (Sacii Lyfe Enterprises) and venturing into the world of DJing. Ahead of an upcoming tour with Young Thug, including an appearance at New York festival Mysteryland (June 10-13, tickets available here), he's also shared an exclusive, hits-packed 42-minute mix with THUMP.

88 World Mix Tracklist

ASAP Ferg feat. Future - New Level
Travis Scott - A-Team
Wiz Khalifa - Bake Sale [Prod. by TM88]
Madeintyo - I Want It
Lil Uzi feat. Young Thug - Yamborgini Dreams [Prod. by TM88]
Young Thug - Oh Lord [Prod. by TM88]
Future - Wicked
Kanye West - I Love Kanye (TrapYeezy88) [Prod. by TM88]
Waka Flocka feat. Southside - One Eyed Shooters
21 Savage - Red Ops
Rae Sremmurd - By Chance
Travis Scott feat. Swae Lee and Chief Keef - Nightcrawler [Prod. by TM88]
Future - 7 Ring [Prod. by TM88]
Future - Program
Young Thug - Big Racks [Prod. by TM88]
Madeintyo feat. Travis Scott - Uber Everywhere (Remix)
Zoey Dollaz - Hate Real [Prod. by TM88]
Future feat. The Weeknd - Low Life
Drake - Summer Sixteen
Kanye West - Facts
Lil Yatchy - Minnesota
Future - Codeine Crazy (Prod. by TM88)

Advertisement

THUMP: In many ways, "Company" is your biggest placement yet. Tell me the story behind recording that track.

TM88: Basically, I flew to LA and went to Travis [Scott's] crib. We all stayed at this crib in the [Hollywood] Hills together—me, Travis, Southside, Metro [Boomin], Sonny Digital—where we were working. One morning Travis woke me up and he was like, "I got this Drake record, and I want you to be a part of it." Long story short, I got together with him and we finished the record at Chalice Studio. It was me, Travis, WondaGurl, and Allen Ritter.

WondaGurl had her own version of the beat, but Travis thought it was too mellow. He wanted to amp it up and add a turn up part to the track. I was like, "Alright, I'm the best person to do that," so I did it. It took damn near 24 hours to finish the record, because Travis wanted his shit extra on point. If you send Drake something and it's not hard, he won't use it.

When did you know it was going to make If You're Reading This It's Too Late?
Drake hit us back almost instantly. If you make music and an artist doesn't hit you back right away, nine times out of 10, they're not really feeling what you did for them. 40 minutes after we sent him the track, he sent us back a whole bunch of flame emoji, some bomb emoji, all sorts of emoji like that. It was funny as hell because once Drake sent us those texts, Travis jumped up on the console, which no one does—it was like a $100,000 mixing board—and shouted, "We did it!" It took us forever, but we did it. I'm still waiting on the platinum plaque though.

Advertisement

Is there a chance we hear TM88 on Views From The 6?
You're just gonna have to buy the album and find out.

Your remix of "I Love Kanye" sounds nothing like any of the other The Life Of Pablo remixes.
I didn't listen to any of the remixes because I didn't want to hear what directions they were going with theirs. I kind of figured everybody was going to try and go old Kanye, like some mellow soul shit, but I wanted to bring Yeezy to the trap. I brought the church out, you heard the choir on there, people thanking Jesus. And then once I put it out there all of the blogs started picking up it and the response was epic. The crazy thing is I didn't even go into the studio to make that. If I would've gone into the studio, it would've been even crazier.

You produced "Not Invited" from 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne's collaborative album ColleGrove, and it's perhaps the most atypical TM88 beat yet.
That's that new wave. I've got a whole new wave coming out. From now on, there's nothing you're just going to be able to pinpoint as a "TM88 beat." I just feel like I did what I needed to do to get people's attention enough for me to now be able to primarily make the stuff that I want to make. At first the majority of the people that hit us up wanted the kind of beats we were doing for Waka and Gucci Mane. When we started working for Future, then everyone wanted the Future sound. Soon it won't be "Let me get a Future beat," it's going to be, "Let me get a TM88 beat."

DJing is something you've started doing over the last year. What has it taught you about performing?
That it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. But I've been in LA for six months, and I've been killing everything. The fire department is coming to shut down the shows on some real rock star shit.

TM88 is on Facebook // Twitter // SoundCloud

Renato Pagnani is on Twitter.