You can watch Mike WiLL Made-It’s Summer Beat performance live from Atlanta on Friday, May 26 at 8:30 p.m. ET. Click here to view the concert on ESPN3.
If you don’t immediately recognize the name Mike WiLL Made-It, you’ll almost likely recognize one of the many radio and club hits he’s created over the past few years. As a composer and producer, he’s powered chart-toppers from Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles,” to Juicy J’s “Bandz A Make Her Dance,” to Beyonce’s “Formation,” to Ciara’s “Body Party,” to Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble,” to….
Get it? The twentysomething producer, who hails originally from Marietta, Georgia – near Atlanta United’s new, shiny training facility! – has defined a new era in hip-hop and pop megahits. His discography reads like a who’s-who of Atlanta and beyond. So Atlanta United fans lucky enough to get tickets to his MLS Summer Beat concert this Friday night are in for a treat. (More information is here.)
He recently stopped by Atlanta United to take in the training center, and we caught up with him to hear about his keys to success, and how he sees the team’s prospects. Here are five take-aways on Atlanta’s culture from Mike WiLL Made-It:
On who makes it in Atlanta:
“Atlanta’s just like, you gotta work hard out here. You gotta grind until you get whatever success or whatever you need or want out here. It’s like nothing is handed to you. I’m not saying anything is handed to people New York or LA, but there’s bigger businesses and film industries and everything like that [there], but Atlanta’s been growing since I’ve been growing. I’ve been seeing the city grow my whole life.”
On the common thread of Atlanta culture:
Culture in Atlanta is creative, innovative, forward-pushing, original. You’ve got to be original if you’re coming out of Atlanta. If you’re not original, then you stand out a little too much in a bad way. But if you’re original you stand out and shine like a star and take off. Atlanta’s an underdog city. It’s the city of winning underdogs.
On what makes music special in Atlanta:
Mike WiLL Made-It, EarDrummers, things of that sort.
On why the city supports its own:
Like I said, this is the city of the underdog champion, so they want to see the next person out of their city blowing up and making I feel like, man, Atlanta’s a big city, but it’s so small. You wanna champion someone from your city and it blows it up.
On what Atlanta United brings to the city:
I feel like soccer brings another dynamic to the city, it makes it more eclectic. I never expected a soccer team to be in Atlanta. I feel likeit opens doors for people who grew up playing soccer here their whole life.
We’ve got some rings on the way, trophies on the way, and we’re gonna win, and we’re gonna stand behind Atlanta United just like we stand behind everything else out of Atlanta.
Mike WiLL Made-It performs Friday night in Atlanta as part of MLS Summer Beat. Click here for more information on the concert. Atlanta United host NYCFC on Sun., May 28 at Bobby Dodd Stadium (5 pm ET, ESPN and ESPN Deportes in US, MLS LIVE in Canada).
