Well it’s kind of a secret honestly, I think I’ll explain it on my album or something why I started putting my picture upside down. - Bei Maejor

Last week, HitHipHop.com got the chance to chop it up with who in our opinion is one of the most important artists in the game today, Bei Maejor. We say that because on top of releasing his own music, the University of Michigan graduate has also wrote & produced hits for some of the biggest artists in the industry like Trey Songz, Wiz Khalifa, Bun B, Monica, etc. Check it out after the jump as we discuss his versatility as an artist, learning from Ne-Yo, his “Racks on Racks” piano remix & more.. Upside down always!

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HitHipHop: Before signing to Jive Records, you received a gold plaque working with Bun B, worked on soundtracks and you were still in college. How did you manage time for studies and production?

Bei Maejor: A lot of my social stuff kind of got cut out. I wasn’t able to just kick it all the time, you know like how college kids do. I was literally in different states and different places when a lot of people are doing parties and stuff like that. A lot of that kind of got taken away and a lot of it was I didn’t really get to study a lot. I just would just try to go to class and pay attention, talk to my teachers and get back in the game, but I never would be able. It was a really hard balance but somehow I made it.

You showed a lot of creativity by doing a piano version of “Racks on Racks”. What made you want to add your “Bei Maejor” flavor to the record?

Actually I was at my house playing on the piano and then somebody mentioned that song, and I started playing it. I started playing the keys to the chords to it, like in the classical style like how I played it on the song. I was like, “Yo, this sounds cool” and I was thinking about just keeping it to do for a show, but as I started singing it they were like “Whoa! That’s crazy like you should record it.” I was like aight cool, the next day or something like that I just went in the studio and recorded it. I just liked how it sounded; I think it’s cool to bring different cultures to different styles of music. To mix it all up because at the end of the day a lot of people like music, you know so for me to do that was just kind of natural because I do listen to “Racks on Racks”, I listen to Beethoven, I listen to r&b so all that just kind of mixed in.

I see a lot of photos of you, where you are upside down. Can you please explain to the people who may not know why that is?

Well it’s kind of a secret honestly, Well it’s kind of a secret honestly, I think I’ll explain it on my album or something why I started putting my picture upside down, but I’ll tell you about when I started doing it. It was just a lot of people were like, “No, no you can’t do that. ‘Cause people need to see you.” It kind of started a movement a little bit and I started seeing a lot of kids and a lot of people who just wanted to do music. They do that too it’s just their way of standing out, this is who I am. I don’t have to do what everybody else does, I can do whatever I want. It kind of just comes to me.

Cool, I might have to turn my photo upside down too! I heard your track I Wish from your “Throwback” mixtape which was a twist on a Carl Thomas joint. Guys regret letting go of a female once they see her with someone else.. What are your thoughts? And is this all due to being territorial?

At the end of day when you love someone, you don’t really want to see them like in the song I say, “I hate the fact that I can’t even hit you up no more. I hate that I’m the one who messed up what we had before.” Then it says, “I hate the fact some other damn n—ga got my wife”, like you don’t want to see nobody else. Like this is my wife, I love her this is who it’s gonna be with, then you see her with somebody else. So, nobody likes that feeling about anything, not even just a woman. It’s just be like man, I really want that bike when you a little kid. You just want this bike, want this bike, want this bike so bad and then the last one somebody else buys it and you see them riding around everyday. You know what I’m saying, that feeling is something that a lot of people can connect to. I feel like it’s good to put those type of things in songs where real people can connect at this level even outside of this, relationships on everything the one that you almost got or felt you should have had, but somebody else got it. So, yeah I feel like that’s a real theme for I would say everyone. I don’t know no one who never cared about nothing that they didn’t get.

That’s a different way to look at it, but good point. You range in a lot of production and writing from Soulja Boy’s “Speakers going Hammer” to Trey Songz ” Black Roses” Like many producers and writers there is an underline note or pattern letting me know who did the record. Did you plan that on purpose for people not to know?

Well, yeah not really. I’m just a fan of music like I’ve did songs with different styles of people, like Wiz Khalifa and Jazmine Sullivan. You know what I’m saying, those are like two huge way different people. Like Bun B. and then different to Chrisette Michele, it’s like just the music, I like it I know I just want to do it. I don’t try to make it feel like, “Everybody needs to know this is me, everybody needs to know this is me” because sometimes that can take away from the quality, if you want to just put yourself over the music.

Speaking of writing and production, I see that you joined Compound Entertainment. What is it like to work with Ne-Yo and the other hit makers there?

I’m not a part of Compound, but I’m really close with those people. I’m not like officially a part of it, but Ne-Yo is amazing very talented, like one of the best writers ever. He’s just a good influence.

What can we expect from Bei Maejor in 2011?

Man I don’t know I thought the world was going end a couple days ago, so I got to restructure my whole vision. (Laughs) I was planning for it to be over. So I don’t know just real music and just things you can hopefully feel something from. You know real songs that you can feel someway, you want to dance or you want to cry, you want to do something. But just music that’s a part of your life.

Props to Shiyana Bellamy for conducting the interview.

Filed under: Interviews