Mike Dean

“'Black Skinhead' almost got deaded because it was too much like a soccer song.”

“I try to keep track of what the kids are doing on Soundcloud, and all the new guys coming up.”

“Willie D is one of the first people I worked with.”

“I raced motocross; I raced for Suzuki when I was a kid.”

“One of my favorite moments was when me and Jay-Z made a song 'For Rhyme or Reason.' It ended up on 'Reasonable Doubt,' but they switched the beat because we couldn't get clearance from my label.”

“I grew up on a bayou. The small town that I lived in was, like, 10 miles from me. I grew up in the middle of nowhere.”

“If I hear music that has a hole in it and has a space for me to fit in, I go for that stuff.”

“It's great to watch people come up and help mold their careers. I really took it literal when Kanye said, 'Listen to the kids, bruh.' That really means something.”

“Major labels don't play with samples not being cleared.”

“Music and motorcycles was my thing when I was a kid.”

“Moog embodies a sound luxury like no other.”

“I've always been fascinated with sound, since I was a little kid when my mother Dorothy Dean took me to my first piano lesson. Later on, my guitar, bass guitar, and synthesizer were my secret weapons.”

“That's just what I call myself when I DJ: Mexican Wrestling Association.”

“My taste for rappers is very high. I've only worked with, like, Pac and Jay-Z and Scarface.”

“I'm not a gangster. I'm a musician.”

“For 'Twisted Fantasy,' I probably spent 180 days in the studio.”

“No disrespect to people that don't use music theory or don't know it. It does help to be able to figure out what key a song is in, even though with your scales you can figure it out so you can set your Auto-Tune right. So many songs with Auto-Tune are off or have the wrong note playing on the 808. And they pass it off as being hood.”

“People come with the record done but just need a little more sauce on top. That's what I'm good at.”

“Justin Vernon is one of the collaborators Kanye will always go to. He doesn't fit in with any genres - you never know if he's gonna sing, like, the Bee Gees or some crazy, distorted thing. And you don't know what he's saying half the time. He's kind of like Michael McDonald, like he's got marbles in his mouth.”

“I worked with Pimp C since he was 14 years old, and he was one of my best friends.”