The whole '400 Degreez' album was inspired by what Outkast was doing, Organized Noize. That was what I was listening to around that time.
From the outside-in, Atlanta is kind of perceived as like popcorn. People don't respect it as having artists such as myself and EarthGang and other lyrical talents and album-worthy artists.
I like the New York style of funk, the California style of funk, but the South I never felt like - and Atlanta particularly - got the credit for taking their lessons and progressing on it.
Oh man, I love what the South brings as far as the soul, and I really have noticed from even the early days of listening to OutKast and Goodie Mob that Atlanta and the South has a diverse sound to it. You have bounce music. You have soulful musicians. You have artists with vocals who try to do different things.
I like Future, Young Thug, Mike WiLL, DJ Spinz, Metro Boomin, Drake, Kendrick.
Atlanta is just different. It's the music city.
I like 'Confide' a lot. It was just like a great vibe for me. I was in the studio in Atlanta, and I recorded it and thought, 'This is definitely going on my album.'
I was really only around country music on the radio, and I think because I grew up so close to Atlanta, and R&B was such a big part of that culture, by proximity I think a lot of that music influenced me without knowing it.
I plan on making my mark on the legacy of hip-hop, period, but also in Atlanta production because there's a lot of history there.
I'm a fan of the mythos of Atlanta hip-hop, and it's something I grew up imagining. It was very interesting to get there and see the real version of this world and then reconcile the differences between what's presented as Atlanta hip-hop to the rest of the world and what the real, breathing version of it is.
I'm in Atlanta all the time shooting and recording. That's why I stayed.
When Migos flew me out to see if I was actually making the beats, they didn't expect a white kid from Canada to be making harder beats than the guys in Atlanta. Being white in that environment, it was definitely different.
I love David Bowie and Cher and Diana Ross. I wanted to follow in their footsteps. So I set out to do that in a rock-'n'-roll band in Atlanta, Georgia. That led me to nightclubs and to the sort of Andy Warhol experience of creating a personality.
I worked with Snoop, but I would love to work with him again, but DMX... I would love to work with him as well... I met him in Atlanta; I went to one of his concerts; I would love to do a song with him. I respect him and really like his music.
Since he was 17 years old in Atlanta, I think people always knew that there was something different about Key. He's obviously been able to adapt to so many sounds and time periods in his own way, which is clear from the long list of collaborators; but he has always retained an effortlessly weird perspective.
People like Tay Don, Don Cannon, and OJ Da Juiceman - those were the core people that I rock with. And I still rock with them.
