Michael Len Williams II (born March 23, 1989), professionally known as Mike WiLL Made It or Mike WiLL, is an American record producer from Atlanta, Georgia.He is perhaps best known for producing trap beats for several Southern hip hop artists and has also produced the hit singles “Mercy” by GOOD Music, “No Lie” by 2 Chainz, “Bandz a Make Her Dance” by Juicy J, “Pour It Up” by Rihanna, “Love Me” by Lil Wayne, “Body Party” by Ciara and “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus. He has released four mixtapes and plans to release his debut album Est. in 1989 Pt. 3 (The Album) in 2014 under his label EarDrummers and Interscope Records.
Mike WiLL Made It, birth name Michael Williams, was born on March 23, 1989 in Marietta, Georgia, the youngest of three children with two older sisters. Mike WiLL’s mother was in a gospel group, singing for Dottie Peoples, when Mike was young and according to Mike WiLL, his uncle was an accomplished guitar player. Growing up, Mike WiLL was athletic, participating in a number of sports, including basketball, baseball, and football, with dreams of becoming a professional athlete. As a teenager, Mike WiLL first developed his talent for music by re-playing popular instrumentals that he heard on the radio while he and his friends would freestyle to them. In a number of interviews, Mike WiLL has mentioned, in particular, re-playing the instrumental for “Still Fly”, a popular song by the southern rap group Big Tymers, on a Casio brand keyboard, and has also mentioned re-playing the song “Young’n (Holla Back)” by New York rapper Fabolous on production equipment at a local music store.
At age 14, Mike WiLL began to make his own beats on a Korg ES1 beat machine, which his father purchased for him as a Christmas present from local music store Mars Music. As Mike WiLL became more accomplished, he also began to use production equipment including the Korg Triton, the Akai MPC1000, the Yamaha Motif, and the Roland Fantom.
Upon graduating high school, Mike WiLL enrolled at Georgia State to pursue undergraduate studies, but dropped out after several semesters to focus on his career as a music producer.
In various interviews, Mike WiLL Made It has named a number of musical influences on his own production work. In a “Behind the Beats” interview with Complex magazine, he says that he “always admired Dr. Dre’s drums”, and calls Timbaland “the first crazy pop producer…He brought so many artists to the game.” As a southern producer, he says, he “was also looking up to Shawty Redd. He was the first producer to really bring that dark trap energy and sound.” He also refers to DJ Toomp as “my big brother or my mentor”, saying, “I love what he does.” In a different interview, with AOL’s The Boombox, Mike WiLL also cites Pharrell as a producer that he respects
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