Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff, collectively known as Migos, or “The Urban Beatles,” are in the middle of their second SXSW. In this exclusive interview with HipHopDX, they bounce off each other and glide seamlessly between conversation and song lyrics from their upcoming album YRN Tha Album, slated for a June 16 release. Despite having a clothing line and a world tour in store for the near future, the first trait they display in our sit-down is humility.
“SXSW is crazy, it humbles you,” Quavo says. “It lets you know where the grind start so you gotta start from ground zero, all the way back again and push push, push, push. But right now we hot so we got interviews we gonna get out there. But we’re talking about June 16. Then we gonna drop YRN the label. We got a lot of boys up under the label that we pushing today so we’re gonna be walking around and promoting them.”
Migos Detail YRN Tha Album
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HipHopDX: So you said YRN the label is dropping?
Takeoff:YRN Tha Album, along with YRN the clothing. June 16. YRN Tha Album along with the clothing. Young Rich Nation. We here with it.
DX: So what can we expect with YRN Tha Album?
Takeoff: Hits. Masterpieces. We put our all into it just like we do everything. We been working hard for this man.
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DX: What does the album sound like? Does it sound like your old stuff? Are you trying anything new on it?
Takeoff: This album we mixed it up. We already mastered the flow, we just doing it a whole ‘nother way. We going a whole ‘nother way about it. You feel me? We killing it.
Quavo: We going left field while everybody going right. Then we gonna go left and then we gonna switch it back up and go right and they they wanna go left then we gonna switch it back up and go right. So we gonna keep doing it like that.
Takeoff: They turn right we turn left.
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Offset: We doing our own thing. Migos anything.
Takeoff: We in our own lane.
DX: I saw you travelled overseas for the first time a couple months back. Did that influence the sound of this album at all?
Quavo: “We was overseas for the first time, but that sure ain’t the last time.”
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Takeoff: Yeah, many more. It’s crazy out there. We saw a whole bunch of stuff. The fans, they crazy. They embrace you. You get…adrenaline be crazy when you go out there. I love overseas. We going back over there. We’re gonna do an overseas tour on the 26th.
Offset: March 26 to the 13th of next month (April). We’re going overseas. You know, we’re going to Dubai, Russia, Paris.
Takeoff: Moscow.
Offset: Everywhere man. We’re going overseas for 19 days.
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DX: Do you have a US tour?
Takeoff: Yeah, then when we get back from overseas we got a tour in the US for 30 days. Straight 30 days just tearing it up, smashing.
DX: The first single, “One Time” is dope. I really like it. You shot a video for it right? I saw Blake Anderson, DeSean Jackson, OG Maco. How was the shoot, and what’s the video like?
Offset: The video is hard. It’s a video where you get to pay attention to a lot of the things going on in the video. You got to see it for yourself, but you gotta smoke some one time.
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Quavo: Ain’t nobody did a video like this. It’s gonna go down as one of the hardest videos in history. Ain’t nobody did a video like this. It’s gonna have lots of views. Shoutout to YouTube. They came out and shot it theyselves. Shoutout to my boy D-Jack. He came out and supported. You know OG Mac gonna come out. QC the label. And we just had fun the whole time.
Takeoff: Yeah man, it was turned up. We shot it in LA at a mansion in the hills.
DX: This had something to do with the YouTube music awards, right?
Offset: Yeah, you know they picked us out of all the artists.
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Takeoff: It was a few artists, they picked us along with some other people I think. But it’s an honor of them picking the Migos, you know what I’m saying? That shows how hard we work. So shoutout to YouTube.
DX:YRN Tha Album is coming out June 16. Would you say it’s a summer album? Does it sound like summer?
Takeoff: It’s gonna be a summer album, then it gon’ roll into the winter, then it just gonna keep rolling into the fall. You know what I’m saying? You might wanna push your album back.
Quavo: Push your album back. We dropping on the 16th.
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Takeoff: You don’t wanna drop in June.
DX: You guys have Meek Mill, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne on the album. It seems like you went kind of minimal with the features. Was that a strategic decision?
Takeoff: Offset a heavyweight, Takeoff a heavyweight, Quavo, we heavyweights ourselves. We hold our own weight. We don’t really need nobody on the track. But it’s a few people we really mess with that’s real and keep it real just like us. So yeah we got a couple people on there, like Wayne, Meek, Chris.
DX: Is this your first time working with Chris Brown?
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Takeoff: Nah, we worked with Chris Brown before. We got some more stuff with him. It’s in the woodworks. In the vault. We cool with him.
DX: Do you have any favorite tracks on the album, personally?
Takeoff: “Highway 29.”
Offset: Just wait on it! That’s what you gotta do.
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Takeoff: “Dab Daddy.”
Quavo: “One Time.”
DX: “One Time” and “Highway 29.”
Takeoff: Yo, “Dab Daddy,” man. You don’t know nothing about that though. We gonna put that out there. You don’t know nothing about that song, but we Dab Daddy.
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Quavo: We got a song called “Dab Daddy.” They call me Dab Daddy. I’m the dad. Hoes calling me the Dab Daddy.
Takeoff: Dab not swag. Yo, they call ‘em Dab Daddy. D-A-B. Dab Daddy.
Quavo: Let me tell ‘em something. When I cop the jet they was mad at me–
Takeoff: Skrr…when he caught the coupe, they was mad at him, then the hoes start calling him Dab Daddy. I’m a rich nigga, you could check the stats—passed chemistry, fuck mathematics.
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Quavo: Fuck mathematics, I ain’t pass school.
Takeoff: My money counter do the adding.
Quavo: My money counter do the rules.
Takeoff: I bought a carpet from Aladdin.
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Quavo: I bought a carpet from Aladdin.
Takeoff: So I could finesse and do magic.
Quavo: So I could fly and finesse, nigga.
Takeoff: Running my edge… [Takeoff stops himself]. We ain’t gonna do it.
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DX: Is that Dab Daddy?
Takeoff: Just wait on it!
DX: And “Highway 29,” where’s that? Is that in Atlanta?
Offset: On the North in Atlanta. It’s on the Northside,
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Takeoff: We gonna take it back to the Northside.
DX: You told Fader that there’s a lot of West Coast on the album including DJ Mustard. So what were the West Coast influences on your album?
Offset: We fuck with N.W.A, [Tupac Shakur]. We fuck with Ice Cube.
Takeoff: ‘Pac. Eazy E.
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Quavo: Ice Cube. [Snoop Dogg]. All of ‘em. We just felt like we wanna go back one time and hit em with the West Coast. Mustard got the beats, then once we get ‘em we with that gangsta shit, you know.
Offset: That gangsta shit the new Death Row.
Takeoff: Straight outta Northside.
The “People’s Elbow” Was Intended For YRN Tha Album
DX: Are you guys living out in LA?
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Quavo: Nah, we ain’t living out in LA, but shoutout to LA. We love LA.
DX: They got the Migos Gas, right?
Quavo: Yeah, they got that Migos Gas, and we got good people out there.
Takeoff: Certified everywhere. Ain’t gotta print a resume.
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DX: I heard “People’s Elbow” yesterday. That was dope. Is that gonna be on the album?
Takeoff: Nah, they leaked that actually.
Quavo: It was about to go on the album until they leaked it.
Takeoff: But you know, we got so many hits we ain’t taking no loss with it. We gonna replace it with another one.
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DX: I feel like a lot of shit that’s big in Hip Hop right now starts in Atlanta. You guys, OG Maco, Future. Do you see anybody new or anything new coming out of Atlanta that you think is gonna be big?
Takeoff: Oh yeah, I see YRN Lingo, that boy going in. I see Mango the Fool. Yeah. YRN the label. Domingo, Skippa da Flippa.
Offset: Migo Bands.
Takeoff: Migo Lingo just dropped on live mixtapes. Go get that now, it’s going crazy.
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Offset: You see a lot of YRN the label artists on there.
Takeoff: And they going in.
DX: Who else are you guys listening to in right now in Hip Hop? Inside or outside Atlanta?
Offset: Migos. We don’t really listen to nobody. You gotta focus on you in order to really win.
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Quavo: We just listening to our whole entire album right now. What can we perfect on it and what can we bring to it. So we just riding around to our album.
Takeoff: We ride around to stuff nobody listen to.
Migos Clothing Line & “Versace”
DX: I remember I was watching an interview with you guys with Ebro and Rosenberg. You were talking about how you guys were able to get so big because you each played a role. So can you describe what roles each of you play and what you bring to the group individually?
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Offset: We all bring, look, it’s like a bowl, right? You know you got the pyrex pot, the baking soda, the dope. You whip it all together, and you get that money maker. That’s what it all is, to sum it all up. We all put everything in a bowl and when it comes to it and when we bring it to the table it’s a masterpiece.
Takeoff: It’s like a transformer. Everybody’s a piece. But when you connect it together, it’s one big piece. The masterpiece is crazy. So we all bring our piece together to make the big piece. He got his part, he do his, I play my part.
DX: You got the clothes coming on June 16, as well. What’s next for Migos then?
Takeoff: Tours. Overseas tours. First off the album.
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Quavo: Y’all go get that. The album, I believe It’s gonna go diamond.
Takeoff: It’s going diamond. Second the clothing. Third we’re gonna go overseas and do the tour and we get back we doing the United States tour 30 days. So y’all be on the lookout for that.
Quavo: This album is gonna go diamond.
Takeoff: Nobody went diamond. Migos going diamond.
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Quavo: It only happens in, what? In a decade, right?
DX: What was your first advance for, how much was it, and what did you spend it on?
Quavo: Our first advance was crazy. It came off of “Versace.” That shit bought us a mansion and everything. That shit changed our lives. That shit made us rich instantly.
Takeoff: That’s what got us here today.
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Offset: Our families having houses and cars. We having houses and cars. That’s what we did with it.
Takeoff: God blessed us.
Quavo: You think about how much money we had got. We independent, we got all of it.
DX: Was there a moment where you felt like, “We made it?”
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Quavo: Nah, we don’t feel like that….we don’t feel like that.
